Bicep

[tommi]

I took friday 15th and the whole weekend off because my right bicep was hurting a lot (not the "nice" kind of pain that appears after working out, it's more of a "this bicep is going to explode" kind of pain)
I still can't extert my arm completely because the bicep keeps staying contract, it's very stiff.
Tomorrow i will start again, if the pain disappears

[sgtrock]

You definitely want to lay off until the pain is gone. Pain is your body's way of telling you to cut that crap out for at least the present time.

Also, HEAT is your friend for muscle pulls and pains. Heatable pads you can microwave (available at Wal-Mart), or Icy Hot, or Tiger Balm all will work great. I tend to like the pads because you can hold it against your bicep with your side which usually also hurts anyway. This will increase the blood flow to your muscle and speed healing. You should also find that as the heat takes effect you should be able to extend your arm and begin stretching it out. Be sure to heat the forearm some as well.

I've begun doing a slight warm up before the workout, and a basic stretch after. I do torso twists and arm loosening moves to warm up, and I stretch my biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, and back afterward. Really cuts down on delayed-onset muscle soreness.

[sgtrock]

Wow, I posted that reply exactly 12 hours after the first post. Neat.

[reinhard]

Ouch. Sorry to hear it.

I don't think shovelglove is different from other exercise routines in terms of the risk of overdoing it. Just take it easy for as long as it takes and then slowly try again (if you're still interested). Stop the moment anything hurts and take the next day off.

I find that very short rep sets are helpful -- like just 7 reps per set. Maybe stick with that until you have a few non-painful months under your belt.

Reinhard

P.S. you shouldn't be shugging on S-days anyway! It's important to take some days off, whether or not you're in pain -- or you certainly will be.

[tommi]

Just take it easy for as long as it takes and then slowly try again (if you're still interested).

DEFINITELY interested, i'm not going to quit, expecially since my girlfriend commented about my biceps

I find that very short rep sets are helpful -- like just 7 reps per set. Maybe stick with that until you have a few non-painful months under your belt.

I believe i have misinterpreted the routine on http://shovelglove.com/ frontpage then, i thought it meant '50 shoveling to the left, 50 shoveling to the right, 20 churning butter to the left, 20 to the right, etc.', i was wrong right?

P.S. you shouldn't be shugging on S-days anyway! It's important to take some days off, whether or not you're in pain -- or you certainly will be.

Friday doesn't count as S-Day, but i understand what you mean -- thanks for your patience and will to explain things, as usual

[tommi]

I've begun doing a slight warm up before the workout, and a basic stretch after. I do torso twists and arm loosening moves to warm up, and I stretch my biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, and back afterward. Really cuts down on delayed-onset muscle soreness.

Thanks a lot for your reply, would you mind teaching me some of your warm up / stretching moves (or point me to websites, i couldn't find much info with search engines)?
They would really help me to improve with SG

[sgtrock]

Thanks a lot for your reply, would you mind teaching me some of your warm up / stretching moves (or point me to websites, i couldn't find much info with search engines)?
They would really help me to improve with SG

Sure! Here's a site with tons of stretches. I only do a few that seem to help me warm up for the movements in SG. My advice is to check out each one and do the ones that feel good to you.

http://www.netfit.co.uk/stretching.htm

The key is not to be rigid in terms of following a particular stretching "plan", though that may be useful in the initial stages. What you are looking to do is gain a better understanding of your own body, how it works, how it moves, what its limits are, etc. By learning that you are better able to predict what you can and can't do, how and how much to warm up, how and how much to cool down, etc. But these of course only come with experience. But the basic concept is to (a) loosen your muscles by stretching them (statically, hold for 10+ seconds, I often do a 30-count each stretch) and (b) warm up your muscles by increasing the blood flow so they are prepared for the movements. Not warming up can lead to injury if you suddenly start snatching heavy objects around with cold muscles, kind of like trying to start a car without any oil.

Here's another good overview that talks about fundamentals: http://www.aikido-reading.co.uk/micro_s ... tretch.htm

The SG movements will be a heavy workout on your upper body, so you should focus on stretches and warm ups that will loosen you up from the waist up. I personally do deep (almost Hindu) squats when doing the churn butter / tuck bales movements, and I also have a lunge move that I added, so I tend to shake out my legs some too.

For the warm up I tend to do some torso twists (just stand feet shoulder width apart and twist left and right, gently but fully, similar to the "bar twists" in the site above) and also explore my full torso range of motion (leaning forward, right, left, rotating, etc), and then move into smaller muscle groups.

From the site above I might do:
- calf stretches briefly
- standing quad stretches briefly
- hamstring stretches (the "easy normal stretch" from that site), I tend to have tight hamstrings so I spend more time here, but I also have an old spine fracture and tight hamstrings cause lower back pain, so I have an extra incentive
- "shoulder strangles" (never heard it called that)
- bicep wall stretches (this also really stretches your chest, feels great)
- tricep stretches (they call it "hand down spine", ok)
- maybe a neck twist or stretch similar to the torso twists

The key is to work the muscles that are being used in the SG movements. These will be primarily your "core" (not just abs but also thighs, hips, chest, and back), shoulders, biceps, triceps, and forearms/wrists.

Oh and I also know a few arm twist stretches from jujutsu training ages ago, I do them without even realizing it sometimes.

But then again mostly I may just do a 10 second rough shake out of my whole body before I begin the workout. Nothing formal, really, and this post is ridiculously long-winded and rambling now and was not intended to be. But these are my observations on injury prevention, based on past experience and new pains from starting SG a few weeks ago.

It should go without saying, I am not a doctor.

Good luck!

[sgtrock]

Another site I had opened in a tab but not looked at before I finished the last post, and the movements may actually be better for SG warm up / stretching (and in fact are closer to what I actually do): http://www.bodyresults.com/s2warmup.asp

[reinhard]

Tommi,

You understood what I wrote correctly, but I guess that's more of a historical record of what I did rather than what I'd recommend doing to start out (and I've actually since gone down in rep count). My recommendation (7 rep sets) is not quite as obviously locate as it should be... it's on the "movements" page, but I'll move it to the home page to avert future suffering.

I personally don't stretch or warm up at all. I've never noticed any problems... and occasionally I read something about how it isn't really necessary which makes me feel validated in my laziness. But if you're feeling sore, by all means give it a try -- I make 0 claim to be an authority on the subject.

Hope you're feeling better and that round 2 is less painful,

Reinhard

[tommi]

it's on the "movements" page, but I'll move it to the home page to avert future suffering.

Yeah i believe it would be better, just in case you know

I personally don't stretch or warm up at all. I've never noticed any problems... and occasionally I read something about how it isn't really necessary which makes me feel validated in my laziness. But if you're feeling sore, by all means give it a try -- I make 0 claim to be an authority on the subject.

Hope you're feeling better and that round 2 is less painful

I have cut reps to half for a few days while pain disappeared (and made sure i warmed up, stretched and applied tiger balm on sore bicep after exercises), today i am encreasing reps to see if i can, now that pain disappeared.

I will try to stretch following sgtrock advices and see if i can notice changes, will keep you all informed