Anti-Valsalva

The last two days have been unusually warm and sunny, almost balmy, especially for February in the northeast. While that means it's very pleasant to sit out at the dog park, the slippery wet ice atop packed snow is treacherous. I side-step a lot to change elevations as the dogs run through everything. Occasionally, I'll see a leg slip out but no one's done an actual icy faceplant yet. When I don't get enough sleep, my workouts are phenomenal but then my body rebels and I fall ill. I don't want to get sick. Not even a tiny bit sick, so I stayed home yesterday and tried to nap without actually going to bed. Needless to say, my sciatica flared up at the inactivity. Today, I go to the gym.

The twinge on the left has disappeared and the sciatica really only bothers me when I wake up. Once I'm up and about, everything feels normal, at least until I need to bend awkwardly or sit on an uneven surface. After cardio and core, I wander back to the free weight area and see that the Smith machine is available. Normally, by the afternoon there are too many teenagers and middle-aged men occupying the space. 

Push-ups felt pretty good today so I'm hopeful that the weeks that have passed without Inclined Presses haven't been too detrimental. (It's a bit soul-crushing to discover how quickly your body can lose its conditioning. Muscle memory is a blessing!) My arms are looking flabby and soft and those extra 10 pandemic pounds aren't helping one bit. 

Of course, the one thing that keeps me from pushing as hard as I used to is the fear of losing more vision to my glaucoma. So, I'm "stuck" maxing out at a weight I used to warm up with. But at least it's not nothing. The problem with weight-lifting is that tendency to hold your breath as you push heavy, aka The Valsalva Maneuver, which increases chest pressure and can also affect blood pressure and eye pressure as well. You'll often hear spotting partners yell "Breathe!" if someone is pushing hard. A good yell also releases the pressure. But I don't do any of that. 

Instead, I find myself inhaling as I press. An anti-Valsalva manuever. It's not the norm, which is to blow out as you press. I have problems inhaling deep enough so that air reaches my chest. None of this shallow mouth breathing where the air seems to pocket in my throat. I'm not sure what effect this has on my blood or eye pressure though. So, I probably shouldn't do it regularly. Just like I don't incline press on a regular basis. But because the bench was available, I also did a few sets of Rip Skulls. I had stopped weeks ago because the motion was aggravating my sciatica, but today it was okay. I have no explanations. 

25 February 2021
Balmy Thursday

Precor elliptical
35 min
Program 1
HR n/a
Cal 318
Distance 2.86

Crunches x 30 x 4
Piriformis Stretch
Plank 60s
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Bent Knee Glute Kickbacks 25 x 2
Plank 60s
Pushups 50
Mat stretch et al

Smith Inclined Press
Bar (30 lbs) x 20 reps
+20 lbs x 15
+30 x 13
+40 x 12
+50 x 10(? lost count) 12, 12

Rip Skulls
30 lbs x 12
35 x 12, 10