Help With Injury + Seeking Weight-free Exercise Routine.

[Doc Holliday]

Hi guys.

 

I'm 21, 6ft, 180 pounds. I run every day, usually about 40 minutes to an hour. I do yoga daily, practice Ninjitsu, and rock climb fairly regularly. I'm pretty strong, but I don't lift weights, as I find it limits my flexibility, which I value more. I'm vegan, with my diet consisting of about 40% fruit, 40% vegetables (mostly raw), and 20% "Other", usually whole grain brown rice, some nuts, some seeds, etc.

 

 

Anyway, with that out of the way, I've managed to hurt myself while exercising. I've been trying to start a push up routine to build up my arms and pectoral muscles. I started about 2 weeks ago. Daily, I could feel my shoulders getting "tight". I tried backing off for a few days, and the soreness improved, so I went back to it. I'm up to about 30 push ups, twice a day. Nothing too strenuous.

 

Today, I was in the middle of my yoga routine in an extended version of plow (You lay on your back and bring your knees to touch the ground behind your head.) It's a great back/shoulder stretch. I've been doing if for years. Today though, in whatever muscle is located on the lower inside corner of my left shoulder blade "popped"

 

My god, I never knew that that muscle is responsible for so much. Whenever I turn or reach for anything or move at all muscle hurts like hell. I'm sure it'll be worse tomorrow.

 

My questions are:

 

1) What did I do wrong? I don't think I overworked it, and I even took a break.

 

2) Is there a special stretch to combat this type of injury?

 

3) Is there a "wrong way" to do a push up? I thought my method was pretty standard. (Elbow straight back, hands on ground, toes curled under)

 

 

My other unrelated question is: Does anyone know of a good link to an online site featuring weight-free exercises?

 

Thanks for your help.

[Guest]

When I was younger and playing tennis and hockey I would wake up with the same problem. It stayed with me for many days and I could never figure out what I did to make that happen. Anyway the only way for me to get rid of it was to warm it with a pad and stretch it out as much as I could stand(which as you know isn't very much). It happened a few times in high school after heavy back days in the gym but I never remembered actually feeling different from when I was training it the day before...I always just woke up with it(thank goodness I haven't felt that for 5-6 yrs...sorry bud)...just heat and stretch then ice when you know you aren't gonna be doing anything for a couple hours...if you ice and find out later that you need to do something you'll pay for it...as for stretching I'd sit indian style and rotate my body to each side for 30 seconds then switch my leg position. I'd also just roll on my back in fetal position as a kind of massage for it.

[willpeavy]

I think pushups (or one arm pushups if advanced), dips, one leg squats, and pullups are the best bodyweight exercises.