Quote:
Originally Posted by lorajc
so how long did you not lift? How did you start back ? You say slowly....so I'm just wondering. Lifting is my FAVE form of exercise!!
|
I would say a good three months without upper body strength work, including yoga or judo. It was very difficult, especially since I was still teaching yoga - I had to have one of my students demonstrate things like planks because I could barely do those. Previous, I could bang out 30 toe pushups; when in full spasm I could not even do 2 or 3 knee pushups. It was as if the muscles simply disengaged and stopped working.
Anyway, I started with negative knee pushups (let downs?), then negative pushups with hands on counter (Loretta pointed out to me that straight line body was more useful for the core). For me the key was building up tolerance - ie, find out what I could do before tension/spasm began and I soon learned what degree of tension signaled an oncoming spasm.
Then I'd try a couple of of light chest presses with a barbell. And so on.
By mid January, I guess, I felt confident enough to try one set of each fundamental exercise - press, row, deadlift, etc. Then right onto NROLW.
Again, the key was to balance non-doing with doing, and learning to respect the tension signals. And lots and lots of patience. I cannot emphasize that part enough. It's a lesson I have to keep learning over and over again.