Equipment Crew- Part III

[OSUDimond]

Was wondering if any of you equipment junkies has ever had prolotherapy performed? I have a rib at T7 that will not stop dislocating and I stumbled onto this procedure when researching it. This injury used to only effect my lifting, but now it is happening so frequent that it is affecting my equipment business and my normal life.

Prolotherapy is also known as "proliferation therapy," "regenerative injection therapy," or "proliferative injection therapy". It involves injecting an otherwise non-pharmacological and non-active irritant solution into the body, generally in the region of tendons or ligaments for the purpose of strengthening weakened connective tissue and alleviating musculoskeletal pain.[1]
It is thought to do so by re-initiating the inflammatory process that deposits new additional fibers to repair a perceived injury. Once strengthened, the weak areas would no longer send pain signals.[2] Three randomized controlled trials have shown that prolotherapy is not an effective monotherapy for chronic low-back pain.

[Wildtim]

LOL, too many blokes running around in green tights for my liking.

[ProtienandIron]

...exactly. I live just a few hours from here, as you can see, its no place to bring up kids.

[Stasher1]

...exactly. I live just a few hours from here, as you can see, its no place to bring up kids.

No doubt. Between those guys ^^^ and these guys:




It's suprising that there are any "normal" folks left there at all.

[yankeemarko1]

I had the day off from work today so I decided to go hiking. I went to Piestewa Peak, formerly known as Squaw Peak. It's right in the middle of town and I never hike there. I do most of my hiking on the weekend and it's just way too crowded. I'm not sure if it or Camelback Mountain are officially the hiker freeway of the valley but they are both way too busy for me on the weekend. You'd see less people at the mall. So, I took a shot that it being a weekday, that it wouldn't be too bad. My hunch paid off. It was really quiet. No problem parking and the trail was mostly empty. I hiked the Freedom Trail, which does the entire circumference of the peak and near the end joins the Summit Trail about half way up. You can hike to the top or just head down. I skipped the summit today.

The total hike was 5.76 miles with an elevation change of about 700 feet. It took 3 hours 19 minutes. Here's some pics.

This the the Peak from the trailhead.



Nice view only about 1/4 mile in.



The rest are just nice shots as I worked my way around.











Arizona. The greatest place to live in the US. Period.

[yankeemarko1]

Here's 3 more. Apparently you can only have a certain number of images per post.

[KBKB]

I had the day off from work today so I decided to go hiking. I went to Piestewa Peak, formerly known as Squaw Peak. It's right in the middle of town and I never hike there. I do most of my hiking on the weekend and it's just way too crowded. I'm not sure if it or Camelback Mountain are officially the hiker freeway of the valley but they are both way too busy for me on the weekend. You'd see less people at the mall. So, I took a shot that it being a weekday, that it wouldn't be too bad. My hunch paid off. It was really quiet. No problem parking and the trail was mostly empty. I hiked the Freedom Trail, which does the entire circumference of the peak and near the end joins the Summit Trail about half way up. You can hike to the top or just head down. I skipped the summit today.

The total hike was 5.76 miles with an elevation change of about 700 feet. It took 3 hours 19 minutes. Here's some pics.

Cool photos. I had forgotten what that area was like. I'm not even sure that the Freedom Trail was there when I last hiked it - which I think was in the late eighties.

I hiked out near Saguaro Lake yesterday. My son and I hiked the Goldfield Ovens Loop. It's about eight miles long, but at least three quarters of it is a slog through sand. I don't mind hiking in washes, but these washes had been churned up by equestrian traffic. I got a few interesting photos along the way, but I probably won't be doing that hike again anytime soon. There are some other hikes in the area that I want to check out though.

There actually is an oven on the hike; it's a big hole built into the side of a small hill with a chimney coming out of the top of the hill. I have no idea who built it, what it was used for, or why it was so far away from running water. (The link to the hike description offers some theories about its purpose though.) It was located in the bank of one of the large washes that we hiked.



We did have some brief sections of firm trail along the way, but I think it sees a lot of horse traffic because the trail surface was sometimes a foot or even more below the surface of desert floor. I've seen this happen in other areas frequented by horses too. Below is a photo showing one of these ruts.



A boat on Saguaro Lake:



Another view of Saguaro Lake with Four Peaks in the distance:



Horse Thief Wash:



Cliffs reflecting in the Salt River:

[yankeemarko1]

I hate walking in those sandy washes too. Your feet slide all over the place and I always seem to get small rocks in my shoes. No fun.

That oven/kiln is pretty crazy!! Too bad you didn't bring some weenies.

[KBKB]

I hate walking in those sandy washes too. Your feet slide all over the place and I always seem to get small rocks in my shoes. No fun.

I got the rocks-in-the-shoes problem figured out. I've been wearing gaiters from Dirty Girl Gaiters. (Yes, really.)

Here's a photo of from several months ago. The gaiters do keep sand and rocks out of my shoes, but they don't offer any protection from cholla. I sometimes tell people that I wear them to scare snakes away, but they don't actually help with that either. They do, however, help to keep those wheat-like grass seeds out of your socks. I've ripped up a lot of socks in the past trying to get them out. They get stuck inside the shoes too. I haven't had any problem with them since I started wearing gaiters.

[Cleveland33]

I saw this the other day on a trip to Valley Forge National Park. None of these are my pictures, but it should tell you something when you can google search a specific tree.

This is a 285 year old sycamore tree, known as the Pawlings Sycamore




some of the branches are so large they are on the ground.

This house is not the one in the picture, but it is on the same estate:



as well as this "barn":

[SDSammy]

Just letting people know (those that have Dick's Sporting Goods near them) that DSG seems to be putting their Protocol/Proviction items on clearance.

Saw their push/pull sleds for $69.99. I've had mine for about a year and a half and no complaints. Only wear is on the bottom of the skis (paint scrapped off) and the decals on the (two) plate holders have peeled off.

Also saw their (red and grey) Plyo Box set priced $100 less than their black and grey set that appears to be exactly the same just with a different brand name.

[trimble006]

I know hamstring problems are pretty common, so I was wondering if anyone has found a way too stop them from cramping up or being on edge of cramping all the time?

I basically took the whole summer off legs because my hamstrings would cramp while I was running/skating full speed and I'd extend and hear a massive pop before rendering my leg useless for another two weeks. The both probably went 4 times each in the 4 months I was home playing hockey and baseball. It would even happen on a hot and humid day when I'm very hydrated and in the 7th inning of a game, so it's not the fact that I'm playing with them cold and unstretched.

I took half of September and October off lifting as I moved out west and I got a gym membership starting November 1st as I couldn't bring my home gym stuff from Ontario to Alberta with me.So today I was pushing 450 on leg press at the gym(beside a dude pressing 360 on the bench. fuarrrkk!) and then slid over to the leg curl machine and struggled with 90 lbs. My hamstrings were just on the verge of cramping the entire time and I could hardly lift my leg up after to get off the machine.

My hamstrings don't feel like cramping when I deadlift, so like most people with hamstring problems it seems to only occur when our knees are bent. I'm likely going to cut the leg curls from my routine and find other hamstring exercises, but I'd love to be able to run/skate again without fear of my legs popping at any moment.

So has anyone fixed their hamstring problems? Any suggestions to help? Any exercise suggestions to replace leg curls?

Much appreciated...

[KBKB]

So has anyone fixed their hamstring problems? Any suggestions to help?

Have you tried foam rolling and/or trigger point therapy?

[trimble006]

Have you tried foam rolling and/or trigger point therapy?

I always ended up foam rolling after they had popped and I was a few days into recovery. Would rolling before attempting leg curls help do you think? Sometimes I'll just be on the couch and my girlfriend will move and barely touch my hamstring and it sends that shiver of almost cramping through my body. So foam rolling when there's no problem already worries me a little. They're just so sensitive it seems...

I'll check into trigger point therapy tomorrow. Thanks KB

[jackbravo]

start with sitting on a tennis ball at the hamstring origins and roll around. move up to lacrosse ball.

[fishpat86]

Well it turns out that the gumtree deal I found that was too good to be true is not true. Googled the phone number and it came up with a load of people who had been scammed by that number.

Explains why they didn't want to meet me in a public place!

[Hishiad]

I always ended up foam rolling after they had popped and I was a few days into recovery. Would rolling before attempting leg curls help do you think? Sometimes I'll just be on the couch and my girlfriend will move and barely touch my hamstring and it sends that shiver of almost cramping through my body. So foam rolling when there's no problem already worries me a little. They're just so sensitive it seems...

I'll check into trigger point therapy tomorrow. Thanks KB

Buy "the stick" it is a handheld roller. Always roll as your method to warmup and loosen up muscles. Roll afterwards as your cooldown and to help with soreness.

[yankeemarko1]

Buy "the stick" it is a handheld roller. Always roll as your method to warmup and loosen up muscles. Roll afterwards as your cooldown and to help with soreness.

When I was going to physical therapy after my knee surgery, they used this on me and also had me use it on my quad. I didn't put weight on my leg for 10 weeks and it got small and weak and I had knots in the leg. The therapist told me about the trigger point stuff that KBKB talks about and how these knots in my quad could cause pain in my knee area. They worked them out by hand and with that stick. Pretty cool device.

[matrix563]

Buy "the stick" it is a handheld roller. Always roll as your method to warmup and loosen up muscles. Roll afterwards as your cooldown and to help with soreness.

are you talking about the back revolution stick?

[KBKB]

I always ended up foam rolling after they had popped and I was a few days into recovery. Would rolling before attempting leg curls help do you think? Sometimes I'll just be on the couch and my girlfriend will move and barely touch my hamstring and it sends that shiver of almost cramping through my body. So foam rolling when there's no problem already worries me a little. They're just so sensitive it seems...

I'll check into trigger point therapy tomorrow. Thanks KB

Take a look at The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook. There are several other books available on the subject, but I find this one to be the most useful.

I think foam rolling, or some other type of massage / therapy, will be useful both before and after exercise. I frequently work on my own problem areas both before and after my training sessions. If you knead a muscle and find that it hurts or cramps when you do this, then you need to keep working on that area, a bit at a time, over an extended period, until whatever pain or knots you have in that area are gone. You won't be able to make them all go away in one session.

[KBKB]

are you talking about the back revolution stick?

See:

https://www.thestick.com/

I don't own one of these. I made a rolling pin out of PVC pipe, metal tubing, and some bearings. See:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...#post742601193

[matrix563]

heh looks the same
http://www.backrevolution.com/produc...cts-stick.html
https://www.thestick.com/cgi-bin/com...on&key=HW-2300

[KBKB]

... how these knots in my quad could cause pain in my knee area.

I had some bad knee pain a month or so ago. It was difficult to walk up and down stairs. I had also been experiencing minor pain, after hiking, in my knees for quite a while prior to that. I already knew that trigger points in the vastus medialis could cause knee pain because I had successfully treated some other knee pain that I had experienced earlier. But, when I checked the vastus medialis, it felt pretty good. I consulted TTPTWB and learned that trigger points in the rectus femoris can also be responsible for knee pain. I probed the indicated area and found it to be very painful. The weird thing about trigger points is that you often feel the pain in some entirely different location, in this case, the knee. My knee began to feel better after just one session. I kept working on that area several times each day - my knee felt good again within just a few days.

[4MEandThem]

I saw this the other day on a trip to Valley Forge National Park. None of these are my pictures, but it should tell you something when you can google search a specific tree.

This is a 285 year old sycamore tree, known as the Pawlings Sycamore




some of the branches are so large they are on the ground.

This house is not the one in the picture, but it is on the same estate:



as well as this "barn":

I would love to go there at night at take some long exposure/weird lighting pics. Looks like it could be pretty creepy.

[jshpark]

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...er=lw9MynSeamY

25 lb cap grip plates for $.3 a lb @ walmart

[KBKB]

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...er=lw9MynSeamY

25 lb cap grip plates for $.3 a lb @ walmart

Weird. They must have a surfeit of 25lb plates. They're priced exactly the same as the 5lb plates.

[jshpark]

Weird. They must have a surfeit of 25lb plates. They're priced exactly the same as the 5lb plates.

Yea, could easily be a price mistake or something but not a bad deal. I don't even really need them but might keep some around for my grip/pull up loading pins

[Wildtim]

See:

https://www.thestick.com/

I don't own one of these. I made a rolling pin out of PVC pipe, metal tubing, and some bearings. See:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...#post742601193

I have the Tiger tail and prefer it to the Stick:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/po...-massager.html

[KBKB]

I got these photos from my balcony earlier this evening...

This one is, obviously, the moon. I have a 50-500mm zoom lens that I extended out all the way to 500mm for this shot.



This one, below, is of Four Peaks. It was almost a 20 minute exposure. I tone mapped it using the Mantiuk '06 Contrast Equalization algorithm. (The out-of-camera image looked very different.)

[trimble006]

Thanks for the responses guys! I used a tennis ball tonight and it was a bit touchy, but overall felt pretty decent. I'll look into the tigertail and the stick as well as the DIY. Thanks again for the links and suggestions.

Have to admit I laughed a bit at the advertisement for the stick as the guy using it to "warm up" is in dockers and a polo. Especially with the US Olympic team badge along with it. For the companies sake, they could have gotten an athlete of some kind to lend a bit of credibility maybe?

KBKB those are amazing pictures! They almost don't look real. lol. Have you thought of printing some up on canvas and selling them on ebay or amazon? From a few threads on the misc lately, it seems like a ton of people are purchasing things like that for their homes...