Monday, April 23, 2007

Overlooking the Obvious...

Met with Dr. Cobb again this morning. I love picking this guy's brain. He's full of outstanding training insights. We were looking at this right knee of mine. It cooled off significantly yesterday after performing a lot of applied R-Phase drills/activities/exercises--more on that after I fully digest it. Long story short, we missed the talar joint. I'd done a good job with all my ankle mobs, but it was still stuck and apparently it has been for as long as I'd been experiencing popliteal strains--which has been about 10 years. He did some passive care--adjustments and then I followed that up with an active mobility drill. So although the premise of Z is active work, sometimes there is a place for passive care. But it is almost always followed up by active work. Interesting stuff for sure.

Tomorrow we're going to the platform to give it one more shot (I know, I know--after that last post...). We spoke about training and integrating productive, short workouts with a hectic business schedule. It was similar to a brief e-mail exchange I had with Dan John: light technique work on the lifts broken into parts. I will probably hit one heavy training day per week--probably on the weekend when things are more relaxed and stress levels are down.

Light KB work tonite--very light. Feeling very tired after yesterday's full day of Z and my private session today.

8 Comments:

Blogger Mark Reifkind said...

you know how I feel about this boss;as you said weightlifting competition is a young mans sport.Get out while you are ahead.jmo.

7:05 AM  
Blogger Geoff Neupert said...

Yeah, I know, Rif. And I value your opinion greatly. I'm sure we'll talk about it more this coming weekend. But here's the deal, the body is designed to get better with movement, not worse. This is a Z principle based on the SAID principle: the cleaner and more precise your movement practice, the cleaner and more precise your movement, period. And, my body has gotten MUCH better.

Right now Dr. Cobb and I have cleared up the knee but found a left shoulder issue. The question is, do I want to spend the next 4-6 weeks working with just the bar and doing specific mobility drills for that shoulder in order to progress. I'll have to think about that. So what I'm saying is that although the POSSIBILITY remains that I can train again, I don't know that I'll take it.

11:48 AM  
Blogger Mark Reifkind said...

One thing youa re forgetting geoff, the body is desinged to get better with movement but NOT movement with 3-4 times bodyweight loaded on it on a very regular basis. big difference.
there is NOTHING natural or necessary with olympic or powerlifting training.
plus as you well know there is little margin for errors with heavy lifts and small mistakes create large issues biomechancically,orthopedically and myofascially.
plus as we age and things get more and more brittle this gets even a harder row to hoe.
part of the reason you are feeling better is youhavent been able to load heavy.

I know what you are going through brother and it's no fun.I understand BUT neither is knee,back, hip surgery either.
we'll talk this weekend.

and of course you can train again, just whether youtrain to compete with the barell olympic lifts is the question.

12:09 PM  
Blogger Mark Reifkind said...

One thing youa re forgetting geoff, the body is desinged to get better with movement but NOT movement with 3-4 times bodyweight loaded on it on a very regular basis. big difference.
there is NOTHING natural or necessary with olympic or powerlifting training.
plus as you well know there is little margin for errors with heavy lifts and small mistakes create large issues biomechancically,orthopedically and myofascially.
plus as we age and things get more and more brittle this gets even a harder row to hoe.
part of the reason you are feeling better is youhavent been able to load heavy.

I know what you are going through brother and it's no fun.I understand BUT neither is knee,back, hip surgery either.
we'll talk this weekend.

and of course you can train again, just whether youtrain to compete with the barell olympic lifts is the question.

12:09 PM  
Blogger Christine said...

If you like it, do it. Of course I'm 26... I can say these things ;)

I wish you the best of luck, and one athlete to another... may your body cooperate with you.

10:02 PM  
Blogger Geoff Neupert said...

Thanks, Christine.

11:41 AM  
Blogger Franz Snideman said...

Geoff,

how was the RKC?

12:09 PM  
Blogger Randy Hauer said...

I can't add to your training knowledge, but I do have the edge in the gray hairs dept. Here's the three rules I live or die by as a Master:
1) Less is more: less volume, lower intensity, shorter sessions.
2) Leave more in the tank each workout than you think you should. It doesn't hold as much as it used to and it's almost never topped off.
3) "I get to lift weights today!" if I don't feel that way when I wake up on a training day, it's time to back it down until I do feel that way.

Age has its advantages...you actually will get more results out of less work than younger guys will.I find it helps to be more process oriented rather than results oriented. It's OK to let it all hang out once in a while in training and I do, but I've learned to accept that unlike in my 20s, the recovery time may be weeks down the road, not days.

10:52 AM  

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