Tuesday, December 18, 2007

TueZday, 12/18 - Z-Day

Just some Z-Health drills this morning. Woke up, immediately noticed traps were a bit sore from yesterday's Snatches. But that's all that got my attention as I tip toed out of bed this morning.

Over the weekend, I watched and read through two additional sections of the Z-Health R-Phase manual - Hips and Elbows. I've definitely been taking my time with this. I've sort of started around my core and am radiating outward in each direction as I continue to add the pieces together.

The most difficult area for me (so far) is the Thoracic. I think maybe its just a tough spot to develop isolated movement, even though its only supposed to be a very limited range of motion. But nonetheless I will keep working it.

I love the way the shoulder scapula movement feels. The neck has definitely improved from when I first started, but still has a ways to go. Particularly with the tilt & lateral slides.

My next biggest challenge is to figure out what the deal is with my right bicep/forearm. It continues to exhibit this "overuse" injury (as my previous physical therapist termed it). I'm thinking it might be the biceps tendon that is strained. First popped up a few years ago, when I started doing a lot of pullups. I think I might have increased the volume too quickly and developed this strain. Over the years now, if I had curled too heavy it would rear its ugly head. Although when I was doing pullups at the gym, the pullup station had angled handles that allowed me to perform higher rep sets without pain. Once I started doing them at home on a straight bar (while also performing Clean & Presses) the pain re-appeared. Even while in physical therapy we couldn't get the pain to go away. It took a long time of non-use to do that. Definitely not optimal.

Always something to work on, something to improve.

3 comments:

Mark Reifkind said...

howie, I found that really working the left ankle and knee circles( ala z) has helped open up the right wrist elbow and shoulder and reduce the biceps tightness I get from somuch flexion with the bells and picking up weights all day at work,

Howie B said...

Rif, I won't even pretent to understand right now how one is compensating for the other, but I'll take your word for it. I guess next Z stop will be knees and ankles!

Aaron Friday said...

On the side-to-side thoracic movements, if you're moving to your left, make sure your right shoulder drops, and vice-versa. The glides and circles are hard to get, but they're awesome.