Performax Women's Compression Full Length Tight - Sports Compression Clothing

Performax Women's Compression Full Length Tight - Sports Compression Clothing

I have just purchased these off EziSports. Here they are. Totally divine.The material is fantastic. The seams are flatlocked so there wont be any rubbing anywhere whatsoever. I absolutely love the reflective pattern on the calves and the added detail of reflection around the zipper. I got myself a Size 10 even though I am borderline Size 12 due to my height. But I figured the added tightness would help compression wise. I can see I will enjoy these immensely.

Physiotherapy Day 2 - New Drama

I have just come back from the physiotherapist and am a bit battered and bruised yet again. I mentioned to her about this feeling I get every now and then in my left leg and which had happened again on Wednesday (I think that was the day) when I went for my 7km run with Susan. My foot and lower leg kind of go a bit numb and I almost feel as though I sort of lose control - like foot drop. But it doesn't happen all the time - so I was not that concerned. Anyway when I mentioned it to her she kind of looked at me quite seriously and started pressing around the outer lateral aspect of my knee and down the outer shin and I felt like my leg was on fire. With that came the words "I think you have a Peroneal Nerve Impingement". With those words I thought I was going to lose full use of my leg and my eyes started to well up with tears.

Thank goodness she quickly reassured me inbetween continuing to rub the area. So why were my eyes still filling up with tears, oh thats right - the rubbing hurt like CRAZY. The cold sweats broke out again and all I could do was breathe through the pain - much like I did when I was giving birth. I find the pain hard to describe - it's like burning, red raw, pulled muscle kind of feeling when she is rubbing the area. Not nice, but after it is all said and done I feel good.

Anyway, I have another stretch to add to the combo - "Peroneal Neural Stretch" which should help dislodge it and allow it to move freely. I will give my daughter the task to take some photos of the stretches as I am doing them to show you what I have to do. Mainly they are leg stretches but she has added two more core stability ones as well. Should make for some entertainment as they involve using the Swiss Ball.

Saying for today "What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger".

Yesterdays swim session

Forgot to post my session yesterday as I was in awe of Sharon's efforts. Here it is:

• 500m Freestyle warm up
• 5 x 200m Fr/s for 100m Bk/s for 100m
• 10 x 50m kick with flippers 15 sec break
• 5 x 100m Fr/s catchup with paddles - alternating every 25m
• 300m Br/s cool down

If anyone has some other ideas to spice up my swim sessions please let me know. Look forward to seeing some variety.

A smile I will never forget.

How awesome is it when you see someone reach their potential. How awesome is it to see someone smile because they feel so proud of themselves.What a blessing it is to share in a moment when that person goes into an activity with a certain expectation and comes out having totally annihalating it to oblivion. Well today was that day. This post is dedicated to my friend Sharon.

Sharon is one of those people you just know from the very first time you meet them that they are going to be in your life for a very long time. She has a heart of gold and genuine interest in you as a person - people like her are very rare.

I am so glad we went swimming together today. Last week I had written up a very brief training session for her. It was brief to the point of only being 300m. The last time we went swimming together was at the beginning of the year so I didn't want to make the session too long. So it consisted of sets of 25m Freestyle and kick with a 30 sec break. WELL, Sharon did the first 25m and said at the 15 sec rest point can I keep going - I said "Of course". And that was it - Sharon was on a roll. The 300m came and went without even a slight look of tiredness physically. She just kept knocking them out one after the other and before I knew it she had reached the 1km mark. The woman is a legend.

As I continued with my planned session of 2.8km Sharon just kept going. She chopped and changed from kicking, to Freestyle, to breastroke back to Freestyle. And as I finished my last lap Sharon was floating around and feeling as proud as punch. She had just done 1.5km. If I could have bottled the pride that was oozing out of her and tried to sell it - we would have made millions - actually it was priceless. That feeling is what makes training all the more worth it, it's what keeps you focused during the harder times. I remember that feeling of your very first major accomplishment - nothing, absolutely nothing can knock you off your perch. What a buzz.

So Sharon this is for you:

Cant wait to do it again next week. Remember no less than 1500m - you can do it.

Another day of firsts.

Yesterday I decided to go and do my usual bridge to bridge run with Susan with no huge expectation of what it would hold. Firstly neither Susan or myself set our watches to time this and it was probably a really good idea that we didn't as I totally piked out on this run. Not because I wanted to but because things ached. If it wasn't my butt cheek from a bruise the physio had left it was my knee, if not my knee it was my shin. So, it was back to the run/walk method yesterday for the 7km stretch. If there is one thing I am learning through this journey it is to listen to your body when it is speaking to you. If it's hurting it is pretty much telling you to either analyse whether it is a pain from pushing yourself beyond your limits, or is this a pain that if your push on you could be doing more damage. I figured the latter was possibly closer to the truth.

So upon returning home I did all my physio stretching and strengthening and proceeded to fill up the bath tub with cold water. Off I went to have a shower and then I quickly dried off, dressed the top half and plonked myself into my first ever modified version of an ice bath. This is what happened:
I could not catch my breath, all I did was whimper, squeal and hold the top half of my body so tense that I started to ache in the shoulders. Ok, it was time to relax and enjoy the process - it was afterall doing me good "I think". I only lasted 5 minutes - better than nothing at all. Today will be a different story I will try to last the expected 15 minutes. Depends how blue my lower extremities go. However, in saying that it was absolutely freezing I felt totally invigorated on getting out. Everything from my waist down felt alive and refreshed and I could no longer feel the aches - maybe they were just numb, whatever - it felt good.

The rest of my afternoon was quite normal, I cooked dinner and made Chicken Cacciattore for the family. I was not going to eat dinner at home tonight - my other bestest buddie Kimberley invited me out to Teppenyaki as a belated birthday present. I have never been to Teppenyaki before and I loved it. The whole experience was awesome and best of all I got to spend it with my best friend of 16yrs.

Everything I had heard about Teppenyaki was right, the food, the games the chefs play with you and how enjoyable it it was. I am a total pro at catching the food they flick at you except for the one the call the machine gun. I had omelette flicked at me at lightning speed and all I could do was close my eyes and hope that some went in my plate - guess what? None did, it went all in my lap. Kimberley wore a bowl full of fried rice - I couldn't stop laughing. We looked as though we had regressed to infancy as just under our chairs was a mess of fried rice and omelette. What a great night. Definately have to take my children there soon, they will get a total buzz out of it.

The following photos are just a few of the yummy food, I would have to say the highlight was the yummy chicken. ENJOY:

Sweat Fest with the Breakfast Club.

After speaking to the physiotherapist yesterday and there being no mention of my physical activities having to stop, I decided to make today a trainer session ride. The weather was suited to riding inside as it was drizzling on and off and the thought of getting wet was not on my list of favourites. So, once again I set up the chair beside the bike with all my goodies - phones, yes phones (mobile & house), remotes, GU chomps, watch and x2 drink bottles, and off I went. I was determined this time around to sit through the whole movie and what better movie to watch then "The Breakfast Club". I just love Judd Nelson and his bad boy persona, and watching him in this movie brought back so many fond memories of how many times I had watched this movie because of him when I was a young girl.

At about the half way point things began to hurt. Not my legs, but my poor old bottom. I had to shift positions constantly just to get comfortable and all because I didn't wear my proper bike shorts. But, my Tri Suit doesn't have that much padding so I just have to "suck it up" and quit complaining. As one of my friends likes to say "Suck it up Princess". So I did and the remainder of the movie went by quite quickly. I kept a constant tempo with my pedalling and averaged about 25kph. I can't help wonder how much easier this pedalling thing will be when I have my Cannondale. Having cleats and the full use of the entire pedal revolution should make it so much more productive.

So, I thought I would take a post workout photo of my shirt and how much I sweat as proof of my crazy "cycling fest". Lucky my pants are black as they were sopping wet too BLAH. I managed to ride 39km in 1hr 31 mins. This is a first for two reasons :

• Most I have cycled to date in one sitting.
• I sat through a whole movie cycling.

I am so very excited and nothing apart from my tush hurt. After finishing I was a good girl and did what the physio told me to do and rub a tennis ball up and down my left ITB for 5 minutes. Ouch is all I can say, considering the area I had to rub is bruised. It is however less bruised than yesterday thanks to my wonderful cream "Alleviate".

I had a great day today and have already done my strengthening and stretching exercises x2. Two more to go for today.

Physiotherapy Day 1.

Turns out my knee complaint is merely the symptom of a much bigger picture. What an eye opener today. I always knew I had to work on my core strength to keep my back healthy, what I didn't realise is that with all the strengthening I do do, I am still very weak in my core and the impact this is having on the rest of my body is starting to become evident.

Upon arriving to meet the physiotherapist she asked to see my films from the ultrasound and then proceeded to ask me to lay down on my back on the table. She started to manipulate, rotate, extend, flex my ankles, knees and hips whilst asking me questions about what my concerns were that brought me to her today, past history, activities etc etc. After doing that she tested my ROM (Range of Motion), flexibility and found that I have extremely flexible knees which hyper extend backwards - not a problem in itself. However every major muscle group in my left leg and to some extent in my right leg is about as a tight as can be. Problem area No 1 Because my core and back muscles are still weak my lower limb muscles have tightened and become contracted almost in a compensatory fashion.
Problem area No 2 I literally have buns of steel. My gluteus maximus is so rock hard and knotted that I have actual pressure spots in several different regions along my left gluteus that made me see stars when she tried to manipulate and massage the area. This has a direct impact on my lower back and the tighter it gets the more my back flares up - my sciatic nerve has been flaring up as well.

Problem area No 3 My quadricep muscles couldn't get any tighter if they tried. Even with all the stretching I am doing they still are tight and this is having a direct impact on my Iliotibial band which is Problem area No 4. As a result of all of this tightness my left patella is being pulled outwards slightly which does not allow for proper tracking of the knee cap causing undue friction - hence the knee pain Problem area No 5.

Then to add some extra oomph to the mix my Gastrocnemius and Popliteus are tight as well Problem area No 6.

Let me tell you, everywhere she rubbed and stretched I broke out in a cold sweat. The pain at times was too much to bear and I had to ask her to stop a few times, if not more. I always knew I was not that flexible but this made me realise how inflexible I had truly become. Quite scary I haven't torn any major muscle due to the inflexibility.

So, where to from here? I am happy that there is nothing seriously wrong with my knee joint. The pain is merely a reflection of poor core stability and tight muscles. So I have a list of basic exercises and stretches that I have to do 4 times a day till I see her again on Friday. I also have to use a tennis ball to rub up and down my ITB after every cycling expedition to stop it from contracting further. On Friday she wants me to take my runners in and she is going to see my posture and running technique whilst I am on the treadmill. I hope she doesn't laugh too hard.

So all in all, although I am bruised from the deep tissue rub I have an extremely positive outlook and know that this can be managed. I am very happy to say the least.