Saturday, April 26, 2008

Shoulders & Arms


"12" arms don't drop nobody." - a saying used by some of my steroid/bouncer friends in college.

I began this program with a shoulder problem that's been around ever since the Hans 50,000 challenge which featured, in part, doing 10,000 push-ups. When I began that contest I could fire off push-ups as if they were nothing. When it ended I was injured and push-ups hurt my left shoulder pretty bad. Dumb? Well, yeah... but whatever. What's life without some silliness?

Since that time push-ups have been tough, even though I've fairly thoroughly rehabed my shoulder a couple of times. During my fit test I did a pathetic 30 push-ups. I once could do 100. During my first yoga session every vinyasa hurt like crazy. Now, thanks to S&A I'm feeling better. I've done 30 push-ups during one set of a workout.

S&A is not a rehab workout. Not even close. It's a ridiculous assault on some smaller muscles groups, given all those sets, that would make most physical therapists wince. So I was a little surprised that after the first time I did it my shoulder felt better and hurt less during yoga. The second session followed a chest and back workout that had my shoulder feeling tentative by the end. I had a feeling it might help with this and it did. Since that workout my shoulder pain has nearly ceased.

Rebabbing shoulders is always tricky and most athletes, especially as they age, have some shoulder issues. Rehab exercises tend to be high volume with very light weight. While essential to improve stabilizer muscle strength they are only part of the solution. In order to fully rehab your shoulders you need to get back to pushing heavy weights too, otherwise your large muscles become out of balance and big full-body movements like push-ups and pull-ups force excessive strain on the area. Since most PTs don't recommened heavy exercise I had to find this out by trial and error. This round is proving my theory correct. I'm guessing that my shoulders will be back close to full strength for the first time in years. We'll see, but basing things on my ability to do push-ups sans pain it certainly seems to be working.

I love Tony's intro where he talks about wearing tank tops as if they were invented for guys to show off their biceps. Perhaps this is true but it's also funny as hell. It's certainly true of Hollywood. We've always referred to curls as actor exercises because actors love to show off their arms when they've been in the gym. A no one I can think of moreso than The Shat. The good captain loved wearing tight-fitting clothing when he was in shape. So much so that in one press release my brother and I were reading the main comment for an episode with that Bill had been spending a lot of time in the gym and requested a scene where he take his shirt off. No wonder he got all those women. I'm fairl certain that as soon as he took off his shirt the producers allowed him to improvise his lines as well.

"You're too beautiful to ignore. Too much women."

8 comments:

Reedster said...

Well after talking about how I thought Kenpo X was a worthwhile exercise, I am skipping it today. I did a little over 2 hours on the roadbike today and my legs feel pretty toasted. I want to ride tomorrow as well and I think that if I do the Kenpo X I run a good chance of not getting my ride in tomorrow.

So, today's exercise was solely on the bike and sweating in front of the TV is going to have to wait until Monday.

~R

Anonymous said...

good choice reed, i did the same and want to do the same tomorrow.

how are you feeling on the bike? i'm still flat, but given the combo of working out again and getting back into some semblence riding routine, this seems to be expected. enjoy the "rest" week.

marc

Reedster said...

Oh, I was flat alright. But I expect that at the end of the week. There's a couple of days of legs in a row, so they are already hammered. So when I get on the bike they just don't have any snap. I felt alright, but I had bigger ambitions for my ride that I had to shelve quickly when I got out on the road.

Have a good ride tomorrow. And enjoy your rest week.

~R

Anonymous said...

monday after "rest" day (included stout ss offroad ride and 3 hour dog hike with several thousand ft of gain) hurts my but! legs and back killed on saturday! anyway, i feel pain while suzanne's sipping mai tais in kapalua. have a good week all.

marc

Anonymous said...

one last thing...

saturday morning getting ready to get to the airport, me getting out of shower:

suzanne: "oh my god, we've got to get you to the vet!"

marc: "w-what? why????"

suzanne: "those pythons are SICK!"

end scene.

i love my wife.

marc

Reedster said...

Okay, I did about a 22 mile ride on the SS yesterday. I was alright for about the first 4 miles and then it went South from there. I got a little dehydrated at one point and probably didn't have enough food. I was pretty happy to be back at my car.

Today I started the recovery week with Yoga X. I did the best I have ever done on that, which isn't surprising considering I haven't been doing a bunch of hard workouts the days previous.

But now my legs are in serious pain. I was just telling my wife that after 3+ weeks of this I am just becoming used to being in pain. So, I guess, bring the pain.

~R

Reedster said...

Just finished some Core Synergistics. Love the campy canned applause at the end. Steve, was that your idea?

Now I think I'll have a martini.

~R

Steve Edwards said...

Actually, it's real applause. The crew would applaud at the end of each shoot. Not my idea. As I said during the shoot, "if I directed these they'd be a lot different." Of course, instead of people getting fit to them they'd be buried in the cult rack at a few eclectic video stores but I digress.