Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Chains of love...

It seemed like a good idea after sectionals to lay low for a little bit and let my body start to heal up. Originally, my plan was to take about 3-4 days and then get back to the box and start doing some cardio work and starting running and doing things like that. Um... about that plan... yeah. Not so much.

Once the pain and the problems really settled in last week, I decided that taking the full week off was a much better plan. It was hard, and it was frustrating, but I did it, and I think it was definitely the right way to go. I finally decided on Monday that it was time to return to the box, and I returned just in time. It was a strength day which sort of set my mind at ease.

The pain and physical aspects of what happened last week are all but gone, however, I will publically admit that the rest of my healing process will now be all mental. FDR (I think) once said that "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." I beg to differ. I fear getting rhabdo again, and I fear putting heavy weights over my head because I am afraid that I'm going to hurt myself.

There I said it. Yeah. Big tough girl who likes heavy weights just admitted that she is scared. I suppose this could be related to something like falling off a horse. I'm sure it's hard to get back on because you remember how much it hurts if you fall. Same idea. It's not that I honestly think that I will get hurt everytime I do something. No, I know better. But it's just the fact of knowing that it MIGHT happen that makes me just cringe.

So Monday, while I was ready to get back to the box, I was sort of shying away from the back squats Jerry had programmed. I just wanted to go run. Can't hurt your arms if you run RIGHT? But Jerry told me, in a polite way, to get my ass on the bar and to stop if something hurt. Now, to add to the BS X 3 that we were doing, Jerry added a new element: chains. The idea behind attaching the chains is to force you to drive out of the hole at the bottom. If you can imagine a chain hanging from a barbell, imagine what would happen as you squat: it hits the floor and really doesn't affect you all that much. But, when you come up, the chains don't gather in a nice pool on the floor, they are now hanging from your barbell and being worked on by gravity. Nothing like an extra 43 lbs of chain hanging on your bar. Geez.

Because of my mental game, I was having a hard time focusing and thinking heavy, so I worked slow. I made sure to work on taking a big breah before each rep and not holding my breath, which I sometimes have a tendency to do. Eventually though, even working up slow, I was able to put up 175X3. I think I could have continued to go even further, but you know, it was my first day back and I really didn't want to push it. After hitting all those squats, I was pretty pleased, but the mental game still had a pretty good grip on me. Over the next few weeks, I need to continue to work on my mental game, and get over this hump that seems to be blocking my way. Now, it's seriously all mental.

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