Ok something about me!

MY training is going fine. Three weeks ago I squated 210 x 6 x 3 with a minute rest in between the 3 sets. Two weeks ago I squated 205 x 8 x 3 with a minute rest. Unloaded last week because I played in a Polar bear 4 man Vb tournament yesterday. Had fun, knee was fine, could move good just wasn't really aggressive jumping. We got 3rd out of 6 teams. Stay tuned!

A little jumping to help with your reaction time

An easy exercise to do to help with your reaction time (quickness) is a simple Hop Hop Hop Land exercise. Take a hip width stance. Be relaxed in your ankles, knees and hips. Stay neutral in pelvis/low back. Now jump just high enough so your whole foot leaves the ground 3 times, make sure you land with little or no sound at all. After the third "hop" land softy in a half squat. Repeat 5 to 10 times. You may use an arm swing if you like. This is a good exercise to reintroduce you to jumping if you've had to take time off due to an injury.

Another back friendly skiing exercise

Here is a great exercise to practise your good spinal hygiene. Try single leg Romanian Deadlifts. First stand with your feet together. Next reach for a stable object like the back of a chair or anything about hip to waist high. The way you reach is to take one foot off of the ground while you flex at your hip and reach with the opposite hand. The foot/leg your not standing on swings gently backward staying in a straight line with the hand your reaching with. Try one set and 8 reps at first and you can work up to 3 or 4 set of 20 without any added weight. You should feel this in the hip(glute) of the leg your standing on. Good luck!

Movements (exercises) to help your skiing

Hopefully you have started stretching or Foam Rolling and now it's time to choose some movements that will help your skiing without bothering your back. The first movement I would try would be a low step up. Start with a step between "3 to "6 inches high. Either have your hands behind your head (hardest) on your hips or free to use for balance. Next facing the step, place one foot on the step with the foot pointing straight ahead. Putting a little more weight on the heel, try to drive the foot through the step as you lift the other foot off of the ground placing this foot next to the one on the step. To step back down reverse this movement trying not to fall down but rather lowering yourself down slowly. Try to work up to 4 sets of 20 reps with no weight to start and keep your rest time as little as possible. Stay tuned for more training tips!

Now a word from our sponsor!

Attention skiers NOW is the time to start training for the upcoming ski season! Those of you with back issues remember the first thing you lose when you quit training is flexibility. For a healthy low back that means hip flexibility and low back stability. Say tuned for more insights.

It's been too long part 2 or some numbers

I'm unloading this week but last week my back squat was 190lbs x 10)3, Deadlift off of 3" blocks 165 x 10)3, none of which was that hard.

It's been too long...

Well all is well with the back and the knee is getting better. Played indoors Saturday night and Sunday at the beach (San Onofre). Last week of September or first week of October I started a basic Hypertrophy phase that I will cycle until about the second week in January. What I hope to gain is primary tissue integrity. I'm still doing my AT for my back and knee before I lift. Please let me know if I can answer any questions you may have about low back rehab or training. Talk to you soon!

Phase II

On Tuesday and Thursday of last week I did some light squat snatches and squat cleans. They felt great! Also I'm up to a 20" box for box jumps. Everyday I see a little more of my knee cap, so I'm happy.

Back has been fine but.......

Sometime in early May or late April when everything was going great I did three exercises I had not done together (run, jump rope, and box jump[on and off]) and my knee blew up pretty good. This set me back about two months or so. My squats and the height of the box for jumps AND step downs had been increasing almost daily but the swelling took that all away. Now the day before my birthday things are again looking up. With Dr. Barney and Dr. Ken performing A.R.T. on my knee the past 4 to 5 weeks and me concentrating on perfect form in my workouts things are feeling much better.

Slight setback

I trained last week the day after playing volleyball(Sunday vb, Monday lift). Had a good workout. On Wednesday I squat cleaned, it was some work but ok. Either Wednesday nite or some time Thursday I had some back spasms. Haven't had those in a while. Friday did a lite workout mostly in the sagittal plane. But when I played vb on Sunday some more spasms. Took the week off and saw Dr B. Working on flexibility and core, feeling better, Looking forward to next week.

How's it going!

Yeah it's spring! I love spring for one reason is that summer follows. I'm training and still doing some rehab on my own. 20 to 40 reps each leg of eccentric step downs divided over 3-5 sets of 8-10 reps. My back squat is as of this post 175x10)3. Not much but no pain and I'm going to be patient. I'm power snatching 40kg for sets of 3-5 reps and squat cleans of 50kg for 3-5 reps(this is my front squat workout killing two birds with one stone. OH squats for 30kg 5-8 reps and some snatch balances with the same weight. My knee has some tenderness but not at the patella or quad tendon. I'm also able to jump rope and i'm doing some box jumps, not real high but each couple of weeks a little higher.

Update

It's friday and I will workout today. To catch up on Sept. 30th I had orthoscopic surgery to cut through some of the scar tissue that was inhibiting my ROM. I was immediately able to flex my knee to 140 degrees. Since then I've had the usual set backs (petella tendonitis and lots of swelling). But after having it drained twice my PT and myself feel it's time to go on my own. Wish me Gods blessing and good luck. Thank you.