Road to American Ninja Warrior - Day 36
Day 36
My weird neck injury caused me to sit out days 34 and 35... which is never my favourite, but my neck was way out of whack. As mentioned on Day 33, I somehow jarred it on the Salmon Ladder transfer... on a particular obstacle I've only done it once before on. I completed the move clearly, but definitely didn't feel right afterwards, and was super cautious with it while training over the next hour.
Monday I woke up is so much pain. I didn't sleep, the slightest movement or breathe caused shooting pain all through my neck. Not cool neck!
Source
Tuesday wasn't much better. I could tilt my head now, but still hadn't slept and was scared of everything... especially sneezes.
On Wednesday I did get some sleep, but getting out of bed was super crazy hard, and I was starting to get really worried that I had done something seriously wrong, like a slipped disk or someone had replaced my spine with needles. At lunchtime, I gently lowered myself into the Jacuzzi and just lied there for 20 minutes with the jets directly on my neck... and once I finished, my mobility was completely back to normal and I felt great.
Source
It got worse throughout the day, so I ended up having two Jacuzzis and a hot shower. I felt great after each one.
Today is Thursday, and my neck has been good. It's definitely still there, so I've occasionally role played as Captain Heat pack scarf. I'm no longer worried that there is a nest of fire ants in my neck. I must have jarred it and I guess the pain was the muscles protecting it?
I very cautiously did my tendonitis strengthening exercises, and I feel okay now. I'm nowhere near 100%, but it's definitely manageable... so that's exciting.
Just another reminder to never take non-injury times for granted.
Today's exercises
Warm up
5 minutes jump rope
10 minutes cross trainer
Scapula Mobility
15 slow shoulder shrugs from a dead hang
15 slow shoulder shrugs from a tricep dip machine
Tendonitis Strengthening
Cautiously did 5 sets of 6 slow pull ups
Nervously did 5 sets of 6 slow push ups
Slowly did 5 sets of 6 slow tricep dips
Stretching & mobility
20 minutes, very tentatively.
Injuries & sore spots
NNNNNEEEECCCCKKKKKK!
Also my shoulders are really tight from playing bodyguard. I've been using a wooden stick to try and massage them myself. #farmlyfe
Goals for January
- 20 minutes of stretching every day (inspired by @polebird)
- At least 2 classes of acroyoga (inspired by @karensuestudios)
- Hit the top of the 14' 6" wall with both hands (December's was 14")
- One armed pull up
- One handed pushup (challenged by @dolladu)
- 8 foot peg board (challenged by @skiesandsports)
- 15 minutes of meditation and visualization every day (challenged by @just2random)
Upcoming Events
- Ninja competition (UNAA) in Portland - 4th Feb
- American Ninja Warrior Experience in Phoenix - 10th Feb
- American Ninja Warrior Experience in San Diego - 3rd March
Images provided by Google Image Search of 'Australian Ninja Warrior'.
steemaroo divider and ninja upgoats drawn by the incredible @ryivhnn
Ugh, neck issues are tough. I have been meaning to try the hanging shrugs (saw it on a Gymnastic Bodies blog post). I like to include some mobility stuff in among the powerlifting.
That's a great idea. There is so much strain on the joints and tendons and muscles with powerlifting it's definitely a good idea to work some mobility and stretching in there. The hanging shrugs honestly don't take very long, the move is so slight and subtle.
Oh man.. There's no worse feeling than having a neck / back / general torso injury -- and having that terrifying experience of feeling a sneeze build up, and knowing that it's going to hurt. And then the injury just kinda starts creeping to other places because you've been carrying yourself funny and stressing other parts of your body. It's a tough life.
Hahahaa, it so is. It'd be so much easier if our dreams and passions were 'sitting, lying down, finding a good beanbag', but instead we have to be awesome and amazing and so damn active. I'm definitely feeling better now and I think after a massive sleep I'll be on fire!
Yeah, shoulders are so super tight exactly because I've been tensing and carrying myself weird... been trying to self-massage with a broomstick jammed in a cupboard. Surprisingly effective.
Ew I hate neck injuries. I dont know what it is, but the couple times I hurt my neck, even if the pain was survivable my body would constantly send panic signals to my brain.
Good job keeping an adjusted routine. I would have ground to a stop in that scenerio.
Yeah, I'm in exactly that spot... maybe the body senses that the neck/spine is super important and is overly protective? It wouldn't let me do anything without pain.
Unfortunately I don't have the spare days to grind to a halt... but it does make you wonder how many incredible athletes have had an injury and then never gotten back into it... must be millions!
Wow. Neck STILL giving you problems huh. That's almost scary. Maybe see a doc or chiropractor?
BTW, your January goals look hella challenging. One arm push/pull ups!? I can't even do regular ones haha. Goodluck and heal soon!
Thanks Reez!
I was honestly starting to get really, really nervous yesterday morning... but it looks like it's somehow sorted itself out. Which isn't to say I'm not going to be super careful of it the next few weeks, and work on my scapula mobility to try and prevent this from happening again, but it was amazing to get out and get moving again today... the rest of my body was getting super jumpy.
Ha! I just noticed one of your goals was something we'd talked about in the chatroom :-D
I'd be interested to hear if it's making a difference to your focus whilst on the course, but that visualization will certainly help too.
And remember your body heals while you sleep, so that should be on your goals list too :-)
@aussieninja & @just2random I love the meditation goal, I don't meditate much but headspace is so important!
You could also try making a really good playlist if you don't already have one. Music always helps me get to where I need to be. I'm sure you'll do great 😃
Ohhh dude! I busted my neck one time doing incline chest presses. My neck was super fucked I could barely drive home. My eye busted blood vessels or something and I had a massive red spot in my eye for a while. I had to sleep sitting for a week and the first or second night I actually spewed multiple times, maybe because of the pain, I can't really remember. Damn that was really a learning lesson about going too heavy above correct form.
Anyway I hope you're doing alright. Seems like you're going to need to save your SBD for a wheelchair when you're older 😆Upvoted for my contribution to your old man wheels. I'm only at 70% for mucking around with SmartSteem and getting down to like 50% accidentally but just means you can't get sweet mag wheels for your chair.
Good on you for taking the time off dude, when I was younger a coach said something that I've heard many times since but is some of the best advice for any athletes. He said that it's not difficult getting really keen athletes to train, what's difficult is getting them to rest. All about overload and recovery after all, I think every so often the body just says 'Whoa, just give me a little break!'
I haven't managed to get booked in with the docs yet and my thumb has got much worse this week, picking up my laptop single handed is too painful for it so the peg board/climbing is well out for me at the moment!
Hoping to get back to running/biking this weekend though. I'll use your log as motivation since I have done zero exercise logging myself!!