Favorite recovery movements, drills?

[Ken Harper]

I'm 55, train girevoy sport (kettlebell lifting) 3-4x/week, and typically alternate GS with BF for recovery/recharge days. I'm working thru the BMEs and kinetic chains in the BF tapes, and usually spend 30-40 minutes per session. With Coach Sonnon's help, I've worked past knee problems and am gingerly increasing ROM with Cossack Squats and related movements.

On "recovery" days that I have more energy, I use CBs, on days I don't, I don't. I also use CBs occaisonally on GS training days.

I do WW in the AM and sometimes in the PM, augmenting w/ some of the recharge drills Pavel shows in his Martial Power tapes.

Just wondered what else other Boomers do for recovery/recharge?

Thx,

Ken

[rbibbs]

Short answer Ken, WW and a lot of it. I grapple twice a week and kickbox once, CST with handweights in between. Up to the point I get tendon sensitivity, then I know it's time to backoff and just move unloaded for a day or so.

It's taken 3 years of crossing the line to find out pretty much where it is and stay just on the functional side of it all the time. I've had to give up weights several times and digress some, but never had to give up grappling. "Injuries" have stayed within the envelope, even half-heelhooks, jacked elbows, separated ribs, and half-a-dozen shoulder overexertions.

One thing has been consistent throughout, the more something needs rehab, the more I move it, the better. Take the load off of it, but move it all you can. More than twice-a-day, any time you feel it.

That's my recipe mate, and I started this from no more than one-step above "frail" in early 2000.

Rick

[Ken Harper]

Rick,

I respect someone who knows how to find the line and learn when/how to "stay on the functional side of it all the time."

The hardest thing for me is to distinguish when I'm really listening to my body and doing the right thing with either reduced effort or no effort (do nothing) or if I'm just copping out. Years ago I became something of a running/jogging junkie to the point where if I didn't run, I had withdrawals because I wasn't getting my endorphin fix. Now I have to focus on "do it better" rather than simply do it longer or heavier, and so on.

And there's real wisdom in your observation:


One thing has been consistent throughout, the more something needs rehab, the more I move it, the better. Take the load off of it, but move it all you can. More than twice-a-day, any time you feel it.


The only thing I'd add to that, perhaps, is to move other joints, muscles, etc. along the kinetic chain -- if possible.

Thx, Rick.

Ken

[rbibbs]

Thanks for opening the string and for your kind words Ken, I hope it's insightful and encouraging to a lot of readers.

This stuff doesn't just happen to 50+, it happens to everyone. We've had plenty of 20yos trying to grapple with one good arm, just like happened to me. And it takes them the same 6 weeks to recover from a rib separation. Lot less difference between the ages than might be expected eh? As long as we start from that presumption, instead of presuming "middle age decline" is a given.

Fight back, geezers!

Rick

[SteveB]

Slow Body-Flow drills, done in a high kinesthetic state (turn the lights out), feelign every half-inch of the motion, breathing into it, can be wonderful. One important technique stolen from Yoga is the rest AFTER you've worked out. Usually performed in "Corpse" or "Rest" pose (flat on your back), this is 5-30 minutes of total surrender. Allow your mind to trace its way over every muscle and joint. Re-connect with your body. The most important thing in training is to start hearing your body's "language." This is a time when it speaks most clearly, but you have to quiet yourself to hear.

Steve

[Ken Harper]

Steve:

Your post made me think of something I do once in a while with resistance training: doing sets with & without "blinders" for the very same reasons you cited.

Your comments about mindfulness and the body's language are right on. I know the days when I train mindfully are the days when I have the best results -- probably because the process is at its best too.

Thx for the suggestions and insights,

Ken