Hey, I was/am Busy.

Have not blogged in awhile. Too many projects and no mental energy left to write.

Went back to Chuck and got some more exercises to do. So I am still stretching and doing excercises that involve the hip area. My blance is better and my hip and back are move flexible. He says drammatic improvement can be made in 2 weeks time. So I continue. Will report back to Chuck in 4 weeks - that way I will stay motivated.

Have finished laying out a 25 x 25 foot area for the new concrete pad in the Z shop.
This will include a lift. Ahhhh that will be great. However it took at least a week of work to get the area ready since cars and junk had to be moved.

Donny actually showed up and hauled one car away last week. He was going to come and get the second the same day but never showed up. No suprise there. Anyway that is one down and three to go.

Made 14 new puppy watering stands and have them ready to go. That only took 3 days.
The best part is making all the templates for them. Now construction goes much more efficiently. I would not want to do this more than every 4 or 5 months.

Have a building full of plants due to latest cold snap, I will move them back outside once I finish here. Cold is such a downer. How did I ever stand six winters in Minnesota? Ahhhh but it should hit 70 today. Go Florida.!!!!

Speaking of weather - Mosaicmom is under it. I hope she feels better soon. I need a worklist.

Still Doing the Stretching Thing

These mornings are tough.

Still working on the saggital plane lunges, wallbangers, stretches, etc. It is hard to do all this stuff in the morning, plus my normal fooling around, and still get to work on time. Going to bed an hour earlier may be the next step.

The exercise movements are routine now but some are still difficult. Have not been able to get all the stretches down yet. Butt is sore and there is one pulled muscle in shoulder blade area. Otherwise all is clear. The pain in the hip/groin area that stimulated all this, has not been a problem. Three cheers…………

During the upcoming 3-day weekend, I will hit all aspects especially hard. No excuses.

Sttrrreeeeccccchhhhhh……………..

So Chuck prescribed me a list of “integrated stretches” designed to strengthen and loosen the muscles in my toes, feet, calf, thighs, butt and lower back. Well that can’t be too bad since my cats seem to leisurely stretch all the time. No big deal. Besides, real men grunt a lot and toss big weights around so how hard can stretching be. I think probably only ‘girly men’ stretch. I can just hear me now “Oh mosaicmom I am so tired today and simply must rest from all that stretching I did yesterday.” Oh brother.

Well anyway, some of these excercises have cute little names such as wallbangers (my favorite), sagittal plant lunges, frontal and transverse wall patterns, walking figure 8’s (did those a lot in college), basic functional obliques and gait exercises and several different stretches that affect the hammys, the hips and lower back. No problem. This looks to be easy stuff.

So it took two days to finally get around to starting on this new program of simple stretches. However, after an hour of studing the photos and practicing the moves I was pooped. These things are killers!!!! My butt does not like to be pulled and twisted – it would rather just hang around and be cute. My back feels like spaghetti and my thighs are going to burst at any minute. All of this from just stretching? Maybe something is going on here. I need to give this program a chance.

It is now two days later and I have figured out the moves and can them without the photo guides. My reps are increasing and I actually kind of enjoy this stuff. I work at it in the morning and evening. Stretching has never been a part of my life, but now it is concomitant with a commitment to master something new and perhaps improve my ability to do physical things. Being excited to go stretch – is this me? I am not sure yet ---- but I have to go back and face Chuck in two weeks for a follow-up. Don’t want to disappoint one of my life heroes. Stay tuned…….

My Gait Analysis

I like to think of myself as an active person. Always going and doing something physical. Digging, cutting, lifting, carrying, pounding, grinding, building, destroying, wrenching, sanding, mowing, pushing or pulling. I love it all. It never ends as long as there is daylight. “NO TV when there is daylight” is my motto.

However, as the aches and pains of age increase my productivity has declined. I hate that. Always a stiff, in a muscular sense, my range of motion has decreased as the late 50’s hit. Sore shoulders, stiff back and tight hammys – that’s me. Lately, some chronic pain in the left groin area where the thigh muscles attach has risen to the forefront. It comes for a day or two then goes away for a week, then it is back. Anything brings it on from running the treadmill to getting up from a chair. This has been my saga for the last 6 months.

Mosaicmom got sick and tired of me chirping every time I bent over, so she was kind enough to get me an appointment to go see Chuck Wolf. Chuck is a sports science and human performance expert who works at the national triathlon center near where we live. It is a really great place where many top atheletes train. Fortunately he is happy to work with regular folks too. Chuck, one of our family heroes, really helped mosiamom get her bad knee working last year through stretching excercises he prescribed.

This visit required a 'gait analysis'. This was a process in which Chuck watched me walk at normal speed, walk fast, walk in a crouch with and without shoes. Back and forth, left, right, left, right. He watched from the front and the sides. You get the picture. This took about ten minutes. Then he wrote and wrote and wrote.

The diagnosis: my feet are flat, my ankles do not flex enough, my calfs are tight as steel and my hips and butt don’t move correctly and my shoulders are very dominate. All of this muscular infighting is leading to my pain as my bode struggles to compensate. Eventually things will get worse. GOOD GREIF – how can he tell all of that from just watching me walk? No way. Besides, I have been getting around pretty good for several years.

Then I remembered some golf lessons a few years back. I just knew that the pro couldn’t really see what was happening in my golf swing, it being so fast, so how could he help me? However, he suggested little twiks in my swing and when I took his advice it worked and the ball flew as never before. Just the smallest change made all the difference. Maybe this is the same sort or situation. I had no choice but to here him out.

So what do did Chuck prescribe for me? Will I do it? Will it work? Will I become more productive? Can I be cured? Stay tuned…

sway bar 

Fond Memories. 

testing 

It is almost that time again.