[emwa]

emwa on February 25, 2021 at 9:31 am · in reply to: Techniques for Injury Prevention? #51243

I can offer my experience, though I have no idea how relevant it might be to others. I had a bad ankle injury almost 20 years ago that has given me persistent problems up that leg, including knee and IT band issues. I always do my IT band PT (basically glute medius exercises) at the end of my strength training days and I do think that staves off IT band issues, at least for <3k foot hikes. TBD on the longer ones–fingers crossed. Anyway sounds like you can never have enough butt strength for back health too so I figure it’s well worth the time.

I also always make sure to do plenty of core exercises. I have friends with back issues and I do NOT want those. The sad thing is for one of my friends, it was just a small skiing injury he had as a teen that didn’t really bother him for years but as his discs aged and compressed like all of ours do, it became debilitating. Now at 43 he can’t do any of his favorite activities. It’s really sad. So, I’ve started to focus on my at-work posture and am trying to eat as healthy and “non inflammatory” as possible since apparently this can affect your spinal discs over time.

Finally, I just invested in The Roll Model book and set of balls and I think I’m an instant convert. I’ve used foam rollers for a long time especially as I was rehabbing from my various surgeries, but they are nothing like these balls. I think I’ve already seen an improvement in my range of motion at the ankle, which is key, and because the balls are soft you can really relax into the massage instead of grimacing through it. The whole package was $78 and seeing as I pay $150 per visit for an out of network Chiro/ bodyworker, I think it was well worth the money.

[emwa]

emwa on August 5, 2020 at 4:12 pm · in reply to: ADS and weekend hikes/ rides #44107

Thanks everyone for the replies and links, and thanks Max for knowing my pain! Maybe what I need most at this point is an ADS support group where we can all slowly shuffle uphill together, talking about the cool things our friends are doing without us.

I guess that was the vibe I was getting from the books–that use of the anaerobic system down-regulates the aerobic system–but I was hoping that with something like a 50-50 split I could still see some improvement, even if it’s slow. If it needs to be a different ratio, then I can work within those constraints (say, a 3 hour z3 hike every other week to 6 hours of z1/z2 training in 2 weeks), but if it needs to be 95%+ time spent in z1/z2 to see any benefit at all, I might just need to make nice with my ADS, at least through the end of summer. COVID has left the rest of my social life so lame that outdoor sports are pretty much all that’s left.:)

[emwa]

emwa on August 5, 2020 at 8:33 am · in reply to: ADS and weekend hikes/ rides #44096

Thank Garret. I used the AeT drift test. Honestly I’m not terribly surprised. The issue that eventually drove me to these resources in the first place is why, even though I am ostensibly “fit,” I am always so out of breath on hikes when my friends are merrily chatting along.

Any cardio I’ve done in my life has been HIIT, and I’ve spent most of my exercise life lifting weights. I just came to mountain/ endurance sports recently.

I understand that it would be better to not do large amounts of z3 on the weekends, but my question is whether it is possible to improve aerobic condition at all if I am doing several hours of z3 on weekends, or if that z3 time somehow “undoes” the z1/2 effort.