Dirtbag Fetus' First Workout

 I have been doing some reading on birth, since that is what teachers do. Something coming up? Read a book about it! Super Awesome Wife has been thrusting Penny Simkin's The Birth Partner at me for a little while (SAW Note- SEVEN months! Seven! Five weeks away and just now you're reading it. Grrr.) and I've been doing my homework. Turns out there are exercises pregnant women can do to help labor! Hey, this is a thing that I can help with in a direct way! I am the Dirtbag of Dirtbag Fitness. I got the exercise thing down. Woohoo!

 She wants to labor as much as possible in the squatting position, which makes a ton of sense to me. I understand how gravity works (SCIENCE!) and I understand from which end the baby will emerge. Pushing down seems a lot easier than lying on your back and pushing out and slightly up. Yes, up. Take a look at the direction the Magic Baby Door (for the actual joke go to about 13:20, but watch the whole thing if you have an hour) is pointing. That, sir, is up. But squatting is not easy. That's some killer quad work right there. It needs practice.
Instead of going to the gym to swim and rehab today after school I came home, changed into workout shorts, and worked out with her. I did my four sets of single leg squats and during my rest time I sat on the foot stool we have with my legs wide and she lowered herself into a supported squatting position for a minute at a time. She said she felt stable and wasn't putting too much pressure on her legs. Which is good, she needs to be relaxed.
 Next I did three one minute planks, and between each plank she did three sets of ten squats with me holding her hands and helping spot her as needed. She started out going nice and low but by the end they were shorter and not so deep. Still good efforts, still making her stronger and preparing those muscles.

From The Birth Partner (Hey, there are two of us, who was going to take the picture?)

The last thing the two of us did was a set of ten Cat-Cow poses. On hands and knees, backs flat, we inhale and slowly rotate our hips beneath us as far as we can, arching our backs, and hold for a slow five count, then back to level exhaling through the move. Ten of those. At the end of that she was feeling done with baby workouts and I needed to shower and change to get to the theater to watch V for Vendetta because Remember remember the fifth of November.

From The Birth Partner

 I look forward to helping her workout and prepare for labor as much as I possibly can.

Looking For Motivation

Swim
1 x 200- warm-up
5 x 100- 1, 2, 3, swim
5 x 50- 25 fly/25 free
1 x 100- cool down

Single leg squats
4 x 10

Stability ball curls
3 x 12

Plank
2 x 1:00

Your friendly neighborhood Dirtbag needs an event to think about. I'm so wanting to do something stupid I even looked at registering for the Honolulu Marathon in December. $140! So that ain't happening. There is the biathlon series coming up starting in December, and individual registrations for those are $25 or all three for $60. So that is probably where I'm going to put some money next.
 I also need my knees to cooperate. After yesterday's workout there for for sure soreness around the left knee. I'm not sure yet if it's the muscles responding to the squats and curls or is there is still an injury being worked out. But it is tight. I think I need to keep foam rollering it too. I've got single leg squat goals. I want to be able to do pistols, unsupported squats, so that's what I'm working towards. It's all about strengthening around the knee and stabilizing the hips. Eventually I stop supporting my foot back behind me and start kicking it out in front and sitting onto a bench.

Not me. Yet.

Also, I realize how rubbish the last few general posts have been, reflecting how I've been feeling about the workouts. And like the workouts, I fell out of the habit of doing this so now I'm in the process of getting it back.

Let the Rehabs Begin! (Finally)

Swim
1 x 200- warm-up
5 x 100- increasing intensity by 25

Single Leg Squats
4 x 10/per leg

Stability Ball Curls
3 x 10

Planks
2 x 1:00

Rode the bike up the hill to the gym and got a short swim in. 700 yards is barely a warm-up as far as I'm concerned but I was more interested in getting some of the rehab workouts in. I don't see many intense training days in my near future. I'm going to try and use this off season to get strong and stable so that when the next season comes around I can be fast and injury free.
I started the rehab workouts with single leg supported squats. I put one foot up on a box jump box (?) and then tried to execute slow, stable squats, keeping my knee tracking straight forward without too much side-to-side wiggle. This was harder than it should be. Especially the right leg, which had all kinds of wobble wobble. My hips also liked to drop to one side. Ah, all the little running issues explained in one short exercise. I'm going to need to do a lot of these.

Get him a body bag!

 The next piece of the puzzle is strengthening the hamstring and tendons behind the knee, again to strengthen and support. Laid on my back, feet up on a stability ball, raise my hips to the sky, and roll that ball to my butt, touch, and back out again, all nice and slow and smooth. It hurts my ego some to say that I felt both of these exercises. I'm a young, strong, tough Dirtbag. Couple of squats and curls shouldn't be a thing. But they were. This might be a long, slow road, but the end of it has Health and Strength and Speed waiting, so it's worth it.
And, because a strong core will mean better swimming, biking, running, and overall health, I brought in the planks.
Now all I have to do is keep this up on a regular basis. Like always, the hardest part of working out it making it a habit, especially when you have to break the couch habit to do it.