I Went to a Chiropractor!

So, a couple of weeks ago my husband and I went to Ranger Joes to look for a specific type of belt. On the way there my husband told me that there was a chiropractor there. Now, because the only chiropractors I had ever seen were online, and what they said did not make sense, I was skeptical. However, the price was beyond reasonable so we decided to give it a try (by we I mean my husband convinced me to).

When the Doctor brought me back and asked what was bothering me, I explained about the issues that I've been having with my back. I also explained that it didn't really start until after I started lifting. I also explained the mobilization I've been doing that offers temporary relief. He began explaining how the muscles tend to clench around injured joints to protect them, and that what they do helps those joints to heal. So, it sounds pretty reasonable.

I will admit that the way he popped my neck terrified me, but it felt awesome afterwards. My back felt absolutely fantastic. He cracked things that I had never been able to get before myself. Needless to say, I'm a fan now.

They also offered a message thing that I can't remember the name of. Basically, they put some things on your back that cause a little electric shock, and then put an ice pack on them. That was extremely relaxing, and I think it helped the muscles on my lower back a great deal.

We've gone back a second time and the results were the same, but with the added benefit of them fixing a minor injury one of my dogs had caused my knee. Apparently, it just really needed to be popped, but I couldn't do it. It's interesting to see how much popping a joint can help a painful area.

I am training, but I have switched to doing front squats instead of back squats because they don't hurt my back as much. I think once I can get a sports message that I'll be able to do back squats again. I am torn on deadlifts. They do hurt my back, but not as much as squatting. So I may just try to keep the weight on them fairly light. I'll share my numbers on Friday, or Saturday since I'm trying to find my 10 rep maxes right now. I'm going for higher volume to try to help rid myself of some of the unnecessary weight I'm carrying around.

Anyway, that's about it for tonight. Thank you for reading, I hope that you enjoyed it. I'll start posting at least once a week.

Not Feeling Great About Training

For a while now I have not really been able to get into my training. I've been doing it, but it has been hard for me to motivate myself. I've been doing it because I've felt obligated to, and because I know I need to do it to try to be healthier and stronger. It's hard to say any of this because I have loved training for so long. Of course, I'm certain that everyone gets like that from time to time. It doesn't matter what you are doing, occasionally it's going to be hard to get motivated to do it.

I will not let this stop me, though, I will keep chiseling away at it. I enjoy the strong man style of training, I enjoy pushing a car down the street. It's amusing to see the number of people that stop to help me while I'm all but running with the car. So, there are still things that make me happy about it.

What is it that doesn't, though? Well, to be perfectly honest, I think it's because of the back pain I've had. It's been caused by a few different sources. My IT bands caused some of the lower back pain, as well as a couple of places in my glutes and the back itself. I've constantly been working on that, and there was a week where I didn't have the pain and I was perfectly happy to do the training.

I'll just have to keep working on it until I can keep the pain away more often then it's present. I mean, I am putting a lot of strain on my muscles because of what I'm doing. So, I'm going to have to make sure that I take care of them as well. Eventually, I'll get a sports message and hopefully that will push me further along then what I can do for myself, or what my husband can do.

Well, I didn't really have much else to talk about. I am not posting my numbers this week, but I will next week. I have not been doing as well as I would have liked, but things will get better. I just have to get back into the routine.

Thank you all for reading, though. I appreciate it.

Making an Update

Alright, so I've been bad and haven't updated in...a long time. I am sorry about that. I should be more consistent. I have a few general things I wanted to talk about in this post. I will start making blog posts more regularly, most likely going for once a week. I may do more then that if I have something interesting to talk about.

Anyway, the first thing I want to talk about is my lifting. I have had a lot of difficulty keeping myself focused on exactly what I want to do. That's changed recently, though. I know what I want and what I need to do to get it more or less. I want to be strong, but I do also want to have a better body composition. So I am cleaning my diet up and focusing on that. We are doing strong man training again, though it will be a little bit different from what we did previously.

Something else I wanted to post here is that I am starting up a youtube and twitch channel. It will be under a different name then I use for this blog, but I'll share the links to the side. I was intending to share the video here, but I can't seem to get it to link from youtube. So, we'll worry about that later. Many of you know that I am a gamer, but I am also a role player. The channels will focus a little on both. They will talk about how different features in an up and coming MMO may effect the role playing environment. So, I hope you enjoy it.

I think that is about it, though. Thank you all for reading. I appreciate it, and I will start making more posts in the future. This is something I've neglected, but I will not continue to do so.

Thank you.

Rediscovering Nature

So, a few months back my husband and I decided to go for a walk in the wooded area surrounding our neighborhood. This is an area that is clearly intended for residential development, but we aren't quite sure what's halted the construction.

Walking into those wooded areas, and exploring every part of it that we have been able to, has awakened something in me that I had forgotten was there. It is so easy to get complacent and fall into a routine that leaves you sitting at a computer more often then not. So, that's what sort of happened with me. I started to forget how much I liked going out into wooded areas, and how much I had always wanted to explore them.

We have found a lot of really interesting things back there. The pond, lake, or whatever you want to call it, that's shown above. It's peaceful there. There aren't a lot of people that go out there during the day, so it's easy to sit by the water and enjoy the after noon. Later in the day, though, and on weekends it's a bit more difficult. There are more kids out there, and more people riding around on ATVs. People that have no respect for the land.

Being able to walk through paths like this, and paths that are less covered with leaf litter, has shown me how observant I can be. I have been able to spot tracks from deer, raccoons, dogs/coyotes, may have spotted a couple of hog tracks, but I'm not sure on that. Even some vulture tracks, which also showed me that my feet are only a little bigger then that birds. We've seen signs of hogs digging for mushrooms, and rubbing most of the bark off of trees. It's been interesting to come across everything we've seen out there.

There's been a couple of disturbing instances, though, where we have seen dead hogs. So far the total count for the hogs are 3 adults and one adolescent. Until we saw the bodies we hadn't been sure that there were hogs in the area. What's so disturbing about it, though, is that the animals were shot only a few hundred feet behind a few houses. There was also a deer near the first hog we found.

Now, we have heard what sounded like shots being fired. We've even found old evidence of it near the lake, but nothing so fresh. I worries me to think that someone would do something like that so close to a residential area. I don't really care that they killed the hog. They didn't leave everything there, they took what they could so the meat didn't go to waste. It's just where they did it. So far, though, we have only heard the shooting. We've yet to run across anyone carrying a rifle out there, though we have run across a couple of deer stands.

Anyway, I know I started sort of rambling there. There is a reason for me sharing this. Every since I first stepped into the woods, since that more adventurous part of me has been reawakened, I've found it impossible to concentrate on my lifting. I mean, I know I was waffling a bit before, but I've pretty much lost all focus since. I know I want to be strong, but more then that I want to learns everything I can about woodcraft. I actually want to learn how to hunt, and path find, and...all of it.

I think that's enough rambling for now. I appreciate you all reading this.

Hurt My Shoulder

So, I've done something to my shoulder. I don't know what, but it finally seems to be easing up. Last week, though, I ended up not really being able to do any lifts because of it. Even laying on my right side, or rolling over in bed, sends a stabbing pain lancing through the shoulder blade.

There isn't any bruising or swelling that I can see, but a friend of mine things I may have sprained it. He said that something similar has happened to him and that's what his doctor said it was. I don't know if this is the case, I certainly hope not. I was able to bench tonight, though I didn't complete all the sets. The benching, for the most part, didn't bother the shoulder. The reason I couldn't finish the sets is because I was probably benching more then I should have been.

Still, I'm not going to let it stop me. I'm going to do what training I can. If something hurts the shoulder, like over head presses of the like, then I'll substitute something else until it's completely healed. We'll just have to see where the week leads me.

Anyway. I don't really have much to add to this post. I wont be posting my numbers yet. I'm still debating on if I'll do it once a week, bi-monthly, or just once a month. I'll likely go on and post this weeks after all the training sessions are over, though.

Thank you all for reading. As always, I appreciate it.

Finally Settling on Short and Long Term Goals

I know that over the past few months I've been very bad at updating my blog. I haven't kept track of my lifts through this forum as I should have. As you may know, I've had trouble settling on a program. Some of that is because I'm dissatisfied with my weight and/or body composition. I don't necessarily mind the weight so much as the current composition at my body.

So, over the next few months, I'm going to be focusing on cleaning my diet up and just maintaining my strength. I may only be able to make small jumps here or there, but overall I just want to maintain my strength level where it is. I will keep personal track of that, but I am not likely to post it since it would be redundant unless I actually make progress.

In all of my waffling between training programs I've lost quiet a bit of strength, but I'll gain that back easily enough. Even with the change in diet I think I'll be back to where I was in a month or so. After that we'll just have to see how my composition as come along to see what I do from there.

I will continue to work on learning the Olympic lifts. I'm concentrating on the Snatch a bit more then the Clean and Jerk since it's so much more complex. I currently can't do a complete Snatch with an empty bar. I'll also likely post my numbers at least once a month so that any progress that is made can be kept track of that way.

Anyway, I know that was a bit rambling, but thank you for reading. It is appreciated.

Difficulty Deciding What To Do

I know that it has been some time since I have posted. I also know that I have not really talked a lot about what I'm doing for my training. There is reason for this. I have not really been able to settle on a style of training. I enjoy Power Lifting, Weightlifting, and Strong Woman stuff, my favorite being the Weightlifting. Even knowing that I have had trouble choosing what I actually want to do for training.

With that being said, I am going to go back to doing Strong Woman. I've tried for the past two weeks, but along with not being able to settle on my training I have also allowed my mobilization to slip. The first week I tried I couldn't get past squats because of back pain. I worked past that, though. These week I was able to do part of the event day with a sandbag carry, but after two and a half rounds I had to stop because of how badly my back hurt.

I'll be taking time to mobilize my back again before I try to restart. I'm going to take a full week and concentrate on the areas that I know are causing the problems because they always have. This isn't really any different then the first time I started. I was able to get further before I started having problems. I think we have a good plan, though.

After I mobilize my back we are also going to have a lower weight sandbag for me. In my inability to decide on my training method I did lose some of my strength. That's not helping anything, but I'll gain it back quickly enough once I get into the swing of things again. I'll also start posting regularly on the blog again because I think that helped me to stay focused.

Thank you all.