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I overworked my trapezius ('trap') muscles yesterday doing some table pullups. Today, I have had discomfort to the point of pain, plus stiffness in my upper back and neck. The sketch below shows the trapezius muscle (in blue) with the most common trigger points. The trapezius covers most of the upper back, and attaches to the back of the neck, down the spine and to the shoulderblades. Trigger points are areas of tension which can be very tender to press on, plus refer pain to other areas. 
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Recently when I was struggling with my mental health, I decided to go for a walk to a pretty rugged reserve near home. It was an overcast evening. I saw a very small hedgehog walking along the path. I have never seen a hedgehog that small before in the entire five decades of my life. This was my clearest photo:  I quickly walked back home to get my camera. The little hedgehog had walked quite some distance but was still by the path but hiding in some grass. I walked away then very quietly walked closer and waited. It came out of the grass and I filmed some snippets plus took photos from over a metre away. It even walked toward me, less than a foot (around 30cm) away from the camera. It was such a lovely experience to have a little hedgehog friend. Apparently a hedgehog of that size (approx than 3 inches or 8cm long) is around 2 months old and called a hoglet. Hedgehogs were introduced to New Zealand (by the English, I think). This photo gives more an idea of scale. Was less than a third of the size of an adult hedgehog. There was still enough light to take some photos and video.  The video clip compliation has all video I took, in sequence. It seems to be quite popular. Seems it's uncommon to see a juvenille hedgehog in the wild. I was pretty chuffed that after 3 weeks of progressive practice with various exercises, I was able to do what I call a 'half-pied' handstand at age 50 years. Meaning I got lift off with a kickup but I was unable to get hips high enough stacked over shoulders (I have big hips and butt). Plus my form wasn't great. Still, I managed to get 86kg into the air, for approximately 1 second, with hands on the ground. Woo-hoo!
I definitely felt my glute muscles the next day, plus a little stiffness in archilles tendon, so I am wary of injury. Self-massage helps with recovery. I need to improve my strength and flexibility further. I am female, middle-aged and carrying some extra weight as side effect from my medications. I incorporate some bodyweight exercises to help with strength and muscle tone. I have never been able to do a pull-up, even when thin, but I can now do knee pressups and hold a plank for over 30 seconds. I already had moderate strength from doing various exercises.
I decided to set a goal of doing a handstand in reasonably good form at age 50. I wanted to change up my home exercises a bit, so ordered a set of resistance bands. Was around NZ $20 for a set of 5 bands with different levels of resistance that can be used separately or in combination, handles, ankle straps, a door anchor and a carry bag. The resistance bands have clips to attach to the handles. I looked online for some workouts to try. I'll put some I tried here (partly so I can find them easily again for next time until I know the exercises). One useful tip I learned was to put the door anchor by a hinge of a door, so it's extra secure. I tried these exercises with the lightest of the 5 bands so start with (even if it felt easy).
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XantheTwo of my interests are continually improving my fitness and my creative pursuits (including writing, photography, art). I especially enjoy taking photos of birds (with my amateur camera). ArchivesCategories |
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