Friday February 2nd Recovery Routine
Tuesday and Wednesday this week kinda wiped out my upper body so I opted for a recovery routine this morning. Tuesday Meagan of TRU footing had me do 6 rounds of 20 seconds on 10 seconds off push ups then on Wednesday Brian of Practically Fit PDX had me do 3 sets of “Man Makers” – dumbbell pushups to single arm rows. So the muscles in my arms and chest are kinda sore.
Foam Rolling for recovery
Grab your trusty foam roller to roll out your upper back, shoulders, hamstrings, calves, and quads. The upper back technique I use is very similar to the one described in this video around the 2:45 mark.
And here’s the quads, hamstrings, and calves. I previously took foam rolling classes with a PT by the name of Jay Salzman where he had us slowly rotate that particular muscle group over the foam roller to try and catch sore spots you wouldn’t notice otherwise if you were just going straight up and down with the roller.
Now grab a lacrosse ball to work out tight pecs. This was by far the tightest muscle from the push ups.
Stretching for recovery
I repeated stretches from my Monday the 29th workout, particularly the hand on head neck stretch, inner hamstring stretch, and arms with towel stretch.
I also worked in a glute bridge to hamstring slide. The floor I was on was slick enough I got away with putting my feet on top of my socks (I was barefoot) but this should be done using sliding discs.
I followed up with the walking portion of the Wai Kru for Northwest Fighting Arts. It has single leg balance, flexibility, and mobility built into it, particularly around areas that I’m tight / not mobile in.
Strength Routine
30 seconds on 10 seconds off for 8 rounds per exercise:
Single leg glute bridges. I crossed 1 leg over the opposite knee and then bridged.
Clamshells – Alternate sides, so you’ll do 4 on each side.
30 seconds on 10 seconds off for a total of 8 rounds (2 rounds of each exercise)
Plank
Side plank with top leg raise (for glute activation)
Other side plank
Dead bugs with opposite elbow/ opposite knee pushing a yoga block. You then take the free arm and leg to full extension then back in. Do 1 side the first round then the other side the second round. In the video below it’s opposite knee / opposite hand but that’s close enough for now – a future version of 11 minute abs will include the yoga block variation of the dead bugs.
