Rebuilding Eric

I'm not going to lie. I feel like a failure. One moment of mental weakness has put me in this state of pain. A split second has forced me to not enter the Atlantic States Open on 2/20. My back pain has been horrendous. I'd like to thank the chemists at CVS who put out their All-Day Pain Killers for making work tolerable (and all I do at work is sit in a chair).

On Monday, after breaking myself at the meet I tried Snatching. Couldn't get 135# off the floor as some of you may remember from my last post. On Thursday, I went back. This time determined to be able to do something. I started with a lot of Dynamic Mobility and stretching. Hang Snatches felt fine, not good, but fine. I then started with 65# from the floor. My back was tight. I got through 5 singles, then moved up to 95# for the same, then 135# then 165#. All the time, my back seemed to be loosening up. 185# was tight but still feeling like I was just out of practice. Then 200# happened. Couldn't even get the bar past my knees. Uh-oh. A sharp shooting pain went from my back and permeated throughout the rest of my body. I immediately dropped the bar and shuffled to the PVC pipe to roll out. This provided some temporary relief. I stripped the bar and decided to try and Front Squat, just the bar. Couldn't make it into a half-squat without a shooting pain going through my body that would probably stun an elephant, but probably not Dave Tate.

At that moment I decided to not enter the meet later this month and just focus on recovery. I took Friday off and today, at the gym I started a little project called "Rebuilding Eric." You'll notice that I've even titled this post, Rebuilding Eric. So it seems to fit. I'm going to take training slow. I'm in no rush to get back to meet-ready weights. In fact, I'm prepared to miss the SHU Open on May 1 if I have to just to get back to feeling good. I'm looking into what my insurance will cover for chiro and massage therapy appointments (yay real job!) but in the meantime I'd like to give my 3 readers a glimpse into what I'm going to do for training to feel better, starting with today's "workout."

Squat - 185#x3x10 - my legs were like, "dude, quit warming up and put some real weight on and my back told me, "hey, bro, take it easy, we don't really like the way you push out your stomach and flex."

Pwr Sn + Sn off blocks above knee - 95#x1+1x5 - felt pretty solid.

Chins- 3x5 - strict, easy

1k Row - easy pace, just to keep my body loose. 3:46

Since I'm home for most of the day (I have to work for about 15 minutes at 2) I'll be foam rolling and using tennis balls (I don't have lacrosse balls) to stay loose.