Monday, July 22, 2013

Good but different: Adapting to neutral



It's been a strange few days since I got the brace. Good and not so bad. Lots of physical changes occurred very quickly after I put the brace on and their is some quick adaptation happening. Virtually overnight, the resting and working positions of my left foot, ankle, knee and hip are VERY different.
The support I get in stance and gait patterns is VERY different. Good yes but very different and certainly parts are saying 'hi'.
Like my left ankle for instance which is now not everting and supinating like it used to be and the medial part is working way harder than it has in years. No pain but a very different loading pattern.


And my CNS is getting overloaded in a strange way as well and even though I feel very strong I'm tired. Which makes sense but has to be dealt with. All this from just a brace! What will happen when the knee is replaced? Muscles and patterns that haven't worked well for years are turning on now and it's upsetting the apple cart!

As I said, good, but different.
Plus the brace doesn't fit my ,ahem, 'uniquely' shaped left leg perfectly so I have to play with it to get it to work optimally.Not bad but I did something wrong last night and knocked my fibula out of place for more than a few hours. Lovely :)

But I feel strong and THAT'S good!

KB press
16 kg x 5/5
20 kg x 3/3
24 kg x 1/1
28 kg x 2/2 x 7 sets !

Each set felt better than the last, more grooved and faster  but it was a slog, that's for sure. Just going on will and momentum.

KB Snatch


missed my  24 kg snatch workout last week as I didn't want to push it that much after the knee locked up so I had to do it today, and was open to NOT doing it if warmups didn't feel good. But they felt great so it was a go

snatch
16 kg x 5/5
20 kg x 5/5
24 kg x 5/5 x 5
50 reps

after spending all this time watching Tracy do her incredible snatch numbers I thought it might be fun to try to at least minimize my ROM in my snatch technique. Still squared up hardstyle but try to shorten the stroke as much as possible and still keep enough power and speed on the bell.

This worked very well; basically a stiff legged affair you see in the video but I can already feel that my back doesn't like it. Too much of a hinging just off that , with little or no shock absorbtion from the legs hips and glutes.
Just like Hardstyle in general; more ROM but safer with more power. More work for me but oh well:)

Belt squats
36 kg x 20 x 3 sets

very interested to see how the knee felt here. Wow. SO stable and easy. Plus I could actually lock out at the top and FEEL the quad keep working!normally I do a 3/4 lockout to keep tension on the quads and because the knee did not like locking out on it with weight. So much different but stronger and better.

datsit. I'm tired.
Sisu though. Sisu.



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