Wow, it's been 8 months, where the heck has the time gone? I've been very busy this year but my workouts have not stopped. I wanted to blog today after skipping so long without a blog because I've learned so much in the last few months of working out.
First, I want to talk about age related stuff. Oh ya it's just great getting older, lots more aches and pains. Anyhow, about those aches. I've been dealing with some joint pain and injury. This has meant that I needed to tweak my workouts. No, it does not mean that I had to stop, just work around the problem.
Working around an injury or weakness teaches you a great deal. It has taught me how to focus when lifting and even though I already knew that form was important; it is now even more of a focus for me.
I wish that everyone knew how important form and full range motion lifting is. I watched a guy at the gym today and shuddered at his workout. He was lifting weights that he could barely lift. The range he had to stay in was the joint damage range. There was no full range muscle usage which meant that he was setting himself up for a serious injury. First because he isn't building any muscle by only moving within a 2" radius and second because he is solely relying on his joints to do the work. No muscle = joint injury. Whether you lift or not, you need muscle to protect your joints.
When I lift around an injury or weakness; I am very consciously avoiding the area and building the muscle around it. I currently have an ankle injury, a split tendon to be specific. I could have sat out of working out for a longtime for this one. But that idea was not even an option. So, I've had to do a lot of things very differently which has in fact been very educational.
How do you do your legs without your ankle? Hmmmmmmm. I'm wearing a full boot so that is protection there; and I am not doing any ankle bending movements. I am not relying on my ankle for any help, which is very important. It gets to sit out for a while. I am doing straight legged movements and using my boot leg. My focus is on everything around the injury, using each muscle that I can while avoiding the injured area. It has required focus and a big learning curve.
No more blindly pumping iron, everything is done with methodical precision. Working out as you get older is harder, I'm not going to lie. But not working out makes the day to day so much more difficult.
My son gave me a piece of advise almost two years ago that changed the way I worked out from that moment. I have called upon that advise with my current injury. I was attempting to do full pull-ups, very difficult for any woman. I could feel the strain in my poor elbows as I struggled, when he said to me "Mom, engage your lats (latissimus dorsi)." Those four words changed it all. Stop putting so much strain on the joints and use all the muscles to lift. It made a huge difference.
Now when I am doing my leg curls, assisted pull-up leg squats or seated leg press; my quads and hamstrings are doing the heavy lifting. This results in them getting stronger to protect my joints even more.
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