Want a Spotter, Not a Stalker

Day 64:

Scheduled: Lift, Phase 1, Workout B

Actual: Lift, phase 1, workout B…almost

Bosu ball pikes: 3

Pushups: 14, 19, 14, 14, 19

Spotters: 0

Creepers: 2

Back muscles pulled: 1…or all of them. I don’t know.

Lifting belt: Ordered from Amazon

So, today was a normal lift day. I went in, tried a few wobble-pikes first thing before I got tired and managed 3, then finished out a couple sets of normal ones. I then went and started my regular lift workout. I’ll say it. I hate deadlifts. This is not what tweaked my back, but I hate them. They’re awkward, it’s hard to grip the bar solid, and I ALWAYS manage to scrape up my shins and bump my kneecaps with the bar. I have a bruised right knee and 2 red shins right now. I mean, I know my back is the weakest part of my body and I definitely feel the difference strengthening it is making. I appreciate what they do and I also know these things are a standby workout in pretty much any program for a reason, but man. I kind of wish there was a better way to do it.

Definitely not a good hurt

But no, deadlifts were not my downfall today. It was the shoulder presses. My legs and back were tired from all the previous working out they’d had. I picked up the 25lb dumbbells and proceeded to do my sets. They were hard, but I was making it. On the last set, I was struggling. When shoulder presses get hard, I have a tendency to arch my back a little. I know this is bad and I should get the abs in gear and all that, but it’s a bad habit. This means my back is doing some weird things and the weights I’m trying to push up over my head start falling back behind my head. This is where it’s helpful to have a spotter that can keep your arms straight and weights off of your head. I managed to twist slightly while flail-pushing the weight up and “TWANG!” there went the muscle. There was cursing and I dropped a weight. Not on my foot, but it was dropped.

I have iced it, heated it and stretched it. It hurts, but I think I managed to avoid anything too bad. Definitely no riding today, though. Hoping I can still make my run tomorrow. I may have to switch the easy run and the tempo run, but if I stay off it today and keep the heating pad on it, I think it’ll be OK.

This brings me to my call for help. Anyone in the Brevard area want to be my lifting buddy twice a week? I’ll consider switching gyms if necessary. I’m getting to the point where I’m lifting enough I should really have a spotter and somehow asking the creepers at the gym that randomly compliment me on my squat form is less appealing than hurting myself. Gonna order a back brace belt and some lifting gloves since the couple times I’ve used those they did help, but I don’t want to have to back off on lifting just because there’s nobody to go with me and spot.

At the moment, I’m gonna go make some sweet potato burritos (TRY THEM FR RLZ. Just use black beans instead of kidney and don’t add the water), medicate and put a pillow under my back for the remainder of the evening.

Hard to believe we’re already in week 10 of training. Halfway there and it feels like the real work is just starting. It’s about to start getting interesting.