Autonomous SmartDesk 2 Review

I purchased the Autonomous SmartDesk 2.  I got the ergonomic cutout top, and the heavier duty (and longer travel) motors.  Assembly was fairly straightforward, there were a couple minor machining tolerances issues, but nothing that required extra hammering or drilling to get around.  I did run into a problem when I misplaced the manual and the manual available online didn't actually match my desk, so the electronic functions seemed to be broken, but it all worked fine when I got a hold of the correct set of directions. 

I've used it professionally for awhile now.  It's noticeable to my co-workers when the motors run, but I get more comments about lording my station over everyone than about making noise.  After initial set-up I've not had any problems with the electronics at all.  It's sturdy enough that I have no problems putting some weight on the desk when I need extra support or need to reach behind my monitor. 

I use the standing function more some days than others, depending on my health that day.  In combination with my bench I have a large array of sitting, standing, and kneeling positions to rotate between depending on my current needs, although the only two settings I've put into the memory are normal sitting and normal standing.

I do wish I'd made the bench after getting the desk, I could benefit from sitting a bit lower, which the desk would allow.  The bench was made for proper arm height relative to my prior desk.

The attachment of the control panel to the desk may have suffered in it's recent move, but electrically everything still works, once I set it up again I might unscrew the panel and see if it needs a bit of glue or wood putty somewhere.

Status Report, January 2018

Long time, no update.

I'm very slowly gaining strength.  I can now balance on one leg for 30 seconds without holding onto the wall.

I tried an online yoga class that runs for this month, but the sessions were too long for my current fitness level, and trying too many new exercises in one day was bound to frequently find exercises that tweak my hip.  I am trying to use this class showing up in my feed as a trigger to do other exercises.

I did find this "pelvic reset" exercise that seems useful.  The first time I did it there was a significant klunk and improvement.  It's not a reliable fix, but it is strength building and doesn't tweak anything, so I'm including it regularly.



If I rotate that soccer ball a little bit so that my bad leg is lower than the good leg, I can find a weak muscle that doesn't tweak anything to work on.  The push/pull part can hurt pretty badly when pushing down on the bad leg, but it doesn't seem to have negative lingering after effects, so we can categorize it as the kind of pain that is chasing out weakness.

The same trainer had some good insights on exercise for the hypermobile:


(TL;DW: motor control and massage is good, range of motion and stretching is bad.)

An important discovery is that I can work on adduction as long as I don't move internal of the neutral position.  The isometric work with the soccer ball between the knees is one example.  I can also fasten a stretch band to the leg of the bed, side step away, and work on moving the leg from external to neutral position.  When I've had a bit of consistent sucess with my current routine, I may try something similar with internal rotation, rotating from an external to neutral position.

My daily checklist which I've been sloppy about following for awhile now, includes ankle rotations, one leg balancing, and calf raises.  Working hard on my ankles gives more general stability to my system, so the hip doesn't have to work as hard.  The hip does do some work in balancing during these exercises, but isn't the main focus.  Working primarily on the ankles means I'm not likely to tweak the hip with PT.  The newer stuff referenced above addresses the hip more directly.

On the ergonomics front, I'm about to start a new job.  I'm a little nervous about going back to full time, but I think I'll be fine if I get my desk and my bench in on day one.  I have done plenty of long days on part time work, and even the occasional 40 hour week.

Hip Improvements

Been awhile since I updated on the hip.

I finally got the red tape cleared and saw a specialist.  I had x-rays and an MRI, and no real diagnosis.  My x-rays look perfect, except a blur at the top of my hip socket where it hurt which "is probably a bad x-ray".  There was a tendinosis finding on the MRI, but I believe that was secondary to the bad PT I was getting while waiting to see the doc.  There was a secondary observation of an anomaly with the cartilage in the top of the hip socket (where my pain was), but that the imaging was of the wrong type to make any conclusions.  The doc said tendinosis is kinda like bursitis (uh, no reference I can find agrees) and wrote tendinitis on my PT referral (also not the same thing).  He completely ignored the observation that wasn't in the "findings" summary.

I took my PT referral to a new PT, and boy did I get lucky.  If you're in my area, I highly recomend Kelly Monsma, DPT of Gananda-Walworth Physical Therapy.  She did a very careful evaluation of my issues, she thinks independently, she is willing to keep learning, she seems to have a grasp of why my hyper flexibility is a problem and what to do about it.  She is willing to re-evaluate and change direction when things are not working for me.

During my evaluation, the PT pulled on my leg.  It felt pretty good, so when I got home I had my husband pull on my leg.  He pulled a little harder.  There was a pop, and the next day I was walking almost normally.  I'm still in PT to rebuild strength and address the secondary issues of my loose joints.  I have to have my leg re-pulled about once a week, or every couple days if I'm wearing barn boots.  When it needs pulling, I feel kinda compressed, like the feeling of putting on a frame pack laden near your max carry weight...

The best news is that I'm back to working as much as I want to, and sitting at my desk at home as much as I want to.  No more moping on the couch watching TV.  (Ok, at least not as a habit.)

So I'm making progress on hip stability, but it's pretty clear now that my ankles are the most limiting factor in balance right now.  My right side ankle control muscles got all cramped up and caused problems with my plantar fascia.  I'm currently weaning myself off of crutches in the morning and sports tape backing up my plantar fascia during the day.  I do mostly ok once I'm warmed up and moving.

There are lots of different methods of taping feet for PF support, this one works for me:

I tried an ankle brace that just didn't fit me well.  I can't find a night brace sized for my 18" calf.  (although some are sized by shoe size and others by calf size?)  If this goes on longer I may apply my corset making and shoe making skills to custom fit ankle bracing...

Barn boots provide some ankle stability but prevent stretching further, so they're a sometimes shoe.

I've also *gasp* bought another pair of Asic Gels, my old friends that turned on me...  I was in so much pain the day I bought them, and the sales guy too busy to help, I only tried 3 pairs and didn't give other brands a fair chance to win my love.  I also stuck over the counter PF inserts inside them.  They provide a lot of support and the heel rise means I can function before being fully stretched out, but again, this is a sometimes shoe when I need rest more than stretching.  I'm still barefooting and wearing moccasins at least half time to keep things as limber as possible.

Another thing that's been useful is a big fat foam roller.  Before putting my full weight on my feet when I get up in the morning, I sit on the edge of the bed and work the foam roller under my feet, stretching the calves by elevating the toes.  I still sometimes am in too much of a hurry to get up and just grab crutches, but it's a major improvement in my crutches-free days rate.  At work I have a lacrosse ball under my desk.  I don't work my feet intensely with it, but I do prop up the ball/pad of my foot to keep things stretched out as much as possible.  I'm considering getting rollers for my desks as well...

Two steps forward, one step back, hopefully I'll at least keep on making net progress...

Autonomous SmartDesk 2

So, when you're uncomfortable sitting, but tire easily standing, and you have a desk job, what are you to do?  Well, I'm going to give a motorized sit-to-stand desk a try.  There's a one month lead time on my order, so a review will be a bit in coming.

Forearm angle, slouching, and vertical keyboards

First of all today, let's look at some of the stability problems with sitting, take especial note around 6:30 of the arm position comments.

Now the self-experimentation phase.  Sit in lotus, half-lotus, or indian position.  Sit up straight, with your arms turned upwards as in meditation.  Relax the spine without moving your arms.  I feel a bit of tension, like part of the body is hanging off another part, but I don't slouch much.  Now sit up straight and turn palms downwards and relax.  That tension doesn't occur, and I slouch forwards more significantly.  For me there is definately something to this hand posture affecting my shoulder and spine posture.

But for those of us that are stuck at a desk typing all day, is there anything to be done?

I've enacted phase I of the better desk sitting plan, my lotus bench:

The bench is a beast because we started with scrap barn wood, mostly 2x12s for materials, and assembled in rather a hurry.  I had a romantic notion that I was going to finish it in one evening and be back at work raring to go the next day.  In reality, exhaustion set in, and I stopped before making stupid design decisions in the interest of time.  It ended up taking a week, and my hubby finished it for me as I was too out of it by then to participate much, but he set it up while I was sleeping Thursday night and I've been using it since Friday (almost three days).  I do still need a big horizontal break at midday, but it is a vast improvement over chair sitting, and I think I can do longer shifts at work if I can stand the drive to/from.  (I've been working an average of 2 hours a day last week.)

I'm now considering phase II, which would better position my arms for a relaxed and upright spine: a vertical keyboard.

There are a few commercial options for a vertical keyboard:

The Freestyle2 keyboard with Ascent accessory:

I trust the Kinesis brand because I had very good results from their "Advantage" keyboard when I was having wrist mobility issues.  I think they have a pretty clear understanding of ergonomics.  The Ascent allows for multiple keyboard angles, and multiple distances between the boards, for lots of flexibility.  The price though is tough.  $119 for the keyboard,  (with longer cord) $219 for the ascent accessory.  But I suppose $338 is not horrendous compared to the competition, and I'd gladly pay the $299 to replace my ancient Advantage if having similar issues again.

The SafeType:

The SafeType has a Cornell study backing the claims on an early prototype, showing improved wrist posture and possible reduction in injury risk, but they only compared vs a traditional keyboard, and did no long term study, so the study is of limited use in picking an ergonomic keyboard.  The rear-view mirrors look like a useful feature, but the angle and distance are fixed, allowing no customization for different shoulder widths and such.  Refurbished price $189, new is $289.75 (on sale from $305)

Yogitype:

The Yogitype has less hand separation than the other options, but has an adjustable angle, integrated adjustable forearm support, and a unique solution to the "I can't see the keys" problem.  On the backside of the board are unlabeled keys, on the front side of the board is a light-up key legend that shows you where the keys are and which you just pressed.  The marketing is heavily aimed at people who have never learned to touch type before, which implies that it has a pretty steep learning curve for those of us that can touch type on a traditional keyboard, but this is true of most radically different ergonomic keyboards.  It took a considerable adaptation period to adjust to my Advantage board, where I took an online touch type course to re-learn the key positions.  There is a note on their website that the arrangement of keys may not be optimal for programming as it is for word processing, which could be problematic for me.  USD price, $325.81, which makes it the most pricey of the three options.  It comes from europe so shipping may be an issue, and you might want Google Translate installed before proceeding to the "select options" page which is not in English.  

I've not committed to a purchase this time, still mulling it over.

Hip roller coster

So, after my recent post about the Gokhale Method, I added an exercise to my PT routine to try rotating my hips so my tailbone pointed backwards while sitting down.  It felt kinda uncomfortable in my bad hip, but good on my back.

7/19.  While in the process of sitting down in my chair at work, something gave in my hip.  There was a brief intense pain, and a lasting dull pain.  Mobility in that hip went through the roof.  I was suddenly able to be much more active than before.  The hip rotation in my exercise became the most comfortable resting position rather than an effort.  All my regular pain points moved.  My leg was straight.

I considered that I’d need to restart my PT at the beginning before I developed new compensation patterns, but was too busy getting useful things done to get serious about it right away.  Did a little bit of my most routine PT.  Noticed especially problems with my asian squat, other exercises brought up new tense areas, but still doable.

I mowed, I cleaned the house, I did laundry, and I didn't have to stop because I was tired.  It was glorious.

7/22 After a day of sitting, and a quick demo to a friend of where my new squat problem area was, started to have moderate hip pain.

7/23 Had already decided to take a day of rest as the new pain areas were getting overloaded with the sudden change, didn’t want to compensate back into the old gait.  After sitting for extended lunch with company, started having intense hip pain.  Stretching, ibuprofen, and a nap helped, but sitting still uncomfortable, and standing tiring.  Following Mobility Wod videos for emergency PT, spending a lot of time horizontal.

Planning to call a professional PT on Monday.  Scoped one out with certifications I like, connected to a gym with more certifications I like, and in-network for my insurance.

Modern furniture leads to modern posture?

I recently stumbled across the Gokhale Method.

“Most pain can be attributed to how we hold ourselves and how we move. Since we aren't born with a user’s manual, we rely on our culture to guide us.
About a century ago, our culture took a wrong turn.”
- http://gokhalemethod.com/gokhale-method

She seems to have some good points about there being evidence that people of modern western culture have a different posture than our ancestors or modern third world cultures.  I wonder though, if it is not so much our culture as our furniture.

Sit on the hardest surface you can find. Start sitting with your spine in an s curve, your shoulders relaxed and slightly forward.  Feel the discomfort of the surface, feel most of your weight on two little hip bone points.  Now shift to Gokhale’s recommended posture, roll your hips so your tail bone is sticking out behind you, and pull your shoulders straight and your spine tall.  Feel the discomfort of the surface under you.  Feel how the pressure has been relieved by being distributed over the leg instead of over one little point.

Modern furniture is made for modern posture, and reinforces modern posture.

Yet another reason to consider replacing my "ergonomic" office chair with a wooden bench, but I don't think I'll be buying the stretchsit cushion or balancing her special pillow on my head (if I want that kind of exercise, our ancestors taught young ladies to balance books up there.)

Free Feldenkrais Recordings

Feldenkrais can be a very useful tool for relieving body tension and correcting bad movement patterns.  Some of my frequently used physical therapy exercies come from Feldenkrais.  The usual method promoted for Feldenkrais is to read the lesson, then have someone read you the lesson.  If you don't have the luxury of a personal reader, a recording may be beneficial.  I've not tried these out yet, but they should be free recordings you can download.

How to use feldenkrais lessons:

• If the lesson is part of a series, start at the beginning of the series, don't jump straight to your problem area.
• Practice each lesson until it clicks before adding the next lesson to your rotation of exercises.
• Take it slow and easy, this is not a marathon session.  One lesson today, and lesson one again tomorrow, then maybe lesson two if you've got one down pat...
• Only move as far as you are comfortable.  Do not over stress your body without the consultation of a medical or exercise professional.  These exercises are designed to correct movement patterns, not stretch your tendons, don't overdo it.
• If the practitioner offering the lesson counters my advice, listen to them, not me.

The lessons:

http://openatm.org/recordings.html

http://utahfeldenkrais.org/blog/2010/06/free-feldenkrais-lessons-free-for-any-purpose-person-or-organization/

http://feldenkrais.podbean.com/

Earthing: Gets you to the right place with the wrong reason

Now and then when one is researching minimalist shoe products, you come across the concept of earthing.

Earthing is bunk.

I do highly recommend proper grounding for all electrical appliances.  Low powered appliances are grounded through the neutral line, high powered appliances have an additional grounding plug.  A simple outlet tester should tell you if your house wiring is behaving correctly.  Stray voltage is no joke.

Another possible source of stray voltage is static.  This is almost impossible to avoid in indoor heated environments.  Even the best "earthing" shoes will do nothing because most indoor flooring is an insulative material.  The stray voltage you pick up with static is way less than stray voltage you can get from bad wiring and isn't a huge concern unless you're playing with a Van de Graaff generator.

From Wikipedia

Even if you were worried about proper "grounding" the earth isn't all that conductive, proper electrical grounding requires rods be sunk into the ground.  Electrical fences generally use three six foot rods for proper grounding.  Home systems are grounded with one eight foot rod.  Just touching the earth is not likely to do the trick.

That isn't to say that you won't experience an improvement in health if you try earthing.  Barefoot and minimalist shoes may help some people with gait issues through reducing constriction of the foot and leveraging the nerves in the foot that are muted through cushioned shoes to improve gait with biofeedback.  Sleeping on a hard surface with no pillow may have postural benefits for relieving back tension and even sinus issues.  Spending time outside increases your exercise level, sun exposure and Vitamin D production.  Soil also contains beneficial bacteria that you can alternatively pick up through gardening.  If earthing got you there and it's helped you, good for you, but it's probably not the actual earth contact doing the trick.

So if earthing helps you, but you're miserable in winter, get some good wool socks (insulative) and thin leather moccasins (water resistant), build yourself a platform bed with minimalist padding, take some Vitamin D supplements, get some exercise, bring in some plants potted in local soil, and enjoy being warm in winter.

(Amusingly this hits just about all of my non-diet blog labels.  Even endocrine, since Vitamin D is as much a hormone as a vitamin.  Earthing does touch on a lot of real benefits even though the reasoning is all wrong.)

New coach, new schedule

Some of my best writing comes after I delete the first draft, but it is frustrating when that happens involuntarily while trying to go back and fix a minor typo...

The Health, it is pointed out that HEALTH is a very individual matter and should be taken care of by the individual him/herself; anyone else, including medicine man or woman, can only give a second opinion.
John K. H. Kong. The Art of Tai Chi: John Kong Tai Chi 100 Forms (p. xii). Kindle Edition. 

My health is my own responsibility, but yet it is helpful to have second opinions from time to time.  I've had some questions about the things that my doc has been recommending, and a friend of a friend is helping me look into it.

Changes I'm making:

• Actually take the recommended amount of Vitamin D.  I have three sources now (including Vitamin D Council)  telling me it's good, my prior adverse experience may be entirely coincidental.  
• Add Magnesium back in.  I'd been taking a combined Zn, Mg, Ca supplement and dropped it when the doc added a standalone Zn.
• Reduce B6 levels to avoid long term nerve damage.  I knew the amount the doc prescribed was a toxic dose, but I'd previously read that I had about three years to revise that down, so was giving the doc time on that one.
• Increase Omega 3 supplementation to 1-2 grams per day.
• Adding strength exercises.  The "ZMA" supplement replacing my prior zinc and B complex vitamins is designed to support recovery from exercise.
• Keep up the dairy consumption, ignore doc's advice on that since I can't seem to get enough fat in my diet without it.
• Making a strong effort at fixing my time management problems.

In the spirit of my prior post "Writing Your Way To Health" I'm going to try to write down a schedule to follow to help fix my time management issues.

This would apply to Winter, M-R, short term.

7 AM - Alarm, Stretches, Bathroom, Sleep

7:30 AM - Alarm, Bathroom, Barn Clothes, Walk Dogs

7:45 AM - Feed Dogs, AM Barn Chores (Outgoing checklist: water, basket, treats.  Incoming checklist: bowls, eggs, water.)

8 AM - Shower, Moisturize, Work Clothes

8:30 AM - AM Breakfast, Supplements, Teeth, Neti

8:45 AM - Carpool (Checklist: Keys, Wallet, Cell Phone, Badge, Bag, Lunch, Breakfast Pills)

9:30 AM - Work

1:30 PM - Lunch, Supplements, (Walk or Tai Chi)

6 PM - Carpool

6:45 PM - Home, do something active (gardening, extra barn chores, house chores)

7:30 PM - Supper, Supplements, Creative or Educational activity

9 PM - PM Barn Chores, Strength Exercise.

10 PM - Teeth, Neti, PJs, Wart Remover, Moisturize, Book

10:30 PM - Sleep

Alexander Technique Squatting and Sitting

I don't think I've posted this before, but Youtube just now reminded me of it. I found this very helpful when learning the squat.

Not so kneeling chair

Well, at least it was easy to assemble, but I don't really feel like I'm kneeling.  I picked this one out because it was "adjustable".  In the lowest position the seat is almost flat and almost no weight transfers to the knees.  In the highest position the knee rest is at just as steep an angle as the seat, meaning you're semi-wedged in place, not really resting at all but having to actively and awkwardly lean to stay in position.  I'm playing with the middle settings, but have not found one I'm really happy with.  It does make for a more obtuse angle between spine and upper leg, but not much more than just tipping your seat in a standard ergonomic chair would do.

Shearing Day

First of all, if you're a shepherd who does his/her own shearing, I recommend the book Shearing Day, although I'm going to disagree in a bit on the diet recommendations within it.  The tips on how to prepare the shears and how to hold the sheep were very helpful.

The biggest health related note about shearing, is that this is an endurance exercise.  Champion shearers can finish a sheep in a couple minutes, and they maintain that pace for eight hours.  A sheep can weigh up to 300 lbs, and although most of the time the majority of their weight is on the floor, you have to move that weight around in a precise manner through six positions to keep the sheep calm enough to remain passive while you get to every inch of it's body.  (And that's after you've managed to catch a sheep and move it to the shearing floor.)  That is a lot of work.

I'm no Champion shearer.  I'm not even sure I've really understood position 1 yet, and I couldn't tell you how to transition to position 2.  Last night we spent some time in position 1, got some belly wool clipped and hoof trimming done.  By this time I was exhausted and called it a night.  But the sheep was also exhausted, and decided not to try very hard to get up.  I took advantage of her passive nature and sat down beside her to clean off her head and shoulder in a completely inefficient pattern.  Eventually I decided I was really really done, and rolled the sheep onto her feet to help her up.

Afterward, I was sore.  There is lots of bending over from the waist going on during shearing, and the legs knew it.  I was severely handicapped at bending over, climbing stairs, or even rising from a chair.  I could walk or stand fairly comfortably.  I went to bed and fell asleep with my glasses on and book out while the lovely heated mattress pad soothed my tired body.

In the fibromyalgia days, overdoing it to the point of muscle exhaustion would have been followed by a night of cramps, a half day of walking with crutches while I stretched out those cramps, and a week or two of recovery through drugged sleep.  Now?  I'm a little sore, but I'm recovered enough to consider doing it again tonight.

Here's a couple of my girls before and after shearing:

A bit about diet.  Yes, I was starving when I came in.  I had exceeded my aerobic capacity while shearing.  The diet recommendations in the book reflect standard recommendations for other endurance sports, eating a high complex carbohydrate diet every two hours, with lots of water to lubricate that carbohydrate digestion.  I see no reason why I can't train my body otherwise, like a ketogenic endurance runner would.  I think on future shearing sessions I'm going to bring my heart rate monitor and see if I can set a slower pace that my metabolism can better keep up with.  If I can't keep my heart rate down, then perhaps I should shorten the sessions.

Blisters - The other gait instructor...

Twelve years ago I tripped over a shoe.  It hurt pretty badly, I called up my friends and told them the dinner planned that night would depend on a couple of them coming over to help me cook so I could get off my feet some.  I didn't have health insurance at the time, and the treatment for broken toes isn't much different from the treatment of sprained toes, so I just self-treated it, immobilizing it as much as I could and staying off of it.

It never healed quite right.  I've called it my weather toe, as it acts up when a storm is coming.  As I've gone more minimal that toe has not gained as much mobility as my other side and has not straightened as much.  It has bothered me less when the weather acts up, but even my more roomy moccasins sometimes are sometimes uncomfortable when the weather is changing.

On the same foot I had a thick callous on the pad below the fourth toe.  (Right where your weight would fall if trying to walk with the big toe elevated off the ground.)  As I went minimal, most of my callouses went away except this one, and one in the middle outside of the damaged big toe.  (Once again, if trying to elevate the big toe but failing, the pressure would land in this spot rather than in the center of the big toe.)  For a while I blamed a wart I eventually found under the callous, but that's been gone for months now and there's been no reduction in callous.

So yesterday I was fed up with the callous and pared it back a bit.  Today I took a half hour walk with co-workers.  Guess where I feel a friction hot spot?  The body is not stupid, it forms callus in response to friction to protect itself.  If I kept going like this I'd likely develop a blister.

The good side of blisters is that if you keep going at a slow pace, they are wonderful teachers.  They immediately tell you when you are repeating the bad behavior and to please stop it.  I was able to get considerable relief from my hot spot by consciously engaging that bad toe.  It's been 12 years, you've had plenty of time to heal toe, time for physical therapy for you!

Pain Killers - Haying

We all know them and love them, those little pills that make the pain go away and let us go back to our normal lives.  I'll leave discussions of the side effects and long term damage to the more informed, but how about the primary, advertised effect?  What is pain, why do we have it?  It is a signal from your body that something is wrong.  If we take pain killers in order to ignore this signal from our body, then we at the least are not fixing what is wrong, and at worse are injuring ourselves.

Now the experts claim that pain killers promote healing, which I might believe is true given equal actions of the patient on pain meds and off of them, but pain medication affects behavior, and behavior affects healing.

For years I was on daily pain medication.  I took them like vitamins morning and night.  But they never made the source of the pain go away, so I kept needing them, and I kept shrugging off minor injuries until I'd aggravated them for a couple weeks and escalated the severity.  Only when I addressed the source of the pain did I get true relief.  It took some experimentation and ignoring the advice of my doctor, but I got to the bottom of it and got off the pain meds (and off doctor visits).

Given that experience of ignoring pain on a daily basis until I'd hurt myself, I'm very careful now about how I use pain medication.  If I'm in pain, I give myself permission to take it easy and rest, if it's so bad that I have to take pain medication, I command myself to rest until the meds wear off, since my body's communication to my brain about my limits is muted while under the influence.

Last Sunday must have been a blue moon because I took pain meds.  Saturday was our first hay day.  On hay day, a fellow comes and harvests our hay.  He keeps a share for his labor and fuel, and gives us a share.  The hay wagons are his, and have to be emptied as soon as possible so he can use them on the next field he's doing today.  A small square hay bale weighs about 40-45 lbs, and a hay wagon holds about 100 of them.  That's 4000+ lbs of hay that has to be moved by hand.  We have a hay conveyor, but there's 20 feet from the hay wagon to the bottom of the conveyor, then the bale has to be lifted four feet in the air to get slammed firmly down on the conveyor spikes, then up top they have to be pulled off the conveyor before they cause a jam or get sucked onto the underside of the machine, and stacked up in the mow.  We had a good deal of help, but it was still a lot of work for each person.  I probably personally handled about half the bales, so 50 reps of lifting 40 lbs, and some of those had to be carried a short distance, not just lifted.

Needless to say, I was a sore puppy.  I made it through Saturday night, but Sunday morning the DOMS set in and I caved enough to go for the pill bottle.  I then rested completely.  Not even computer time, just napping and reading.  Monday morning I was still feeling like my arms were massively overworked.  Tuesday the arms were better, but I noticed the leg that had been doing the pushing during the turn-and-slam-hay-on-conveyor move was still not real happy about full extension.  Wednesday I did some back stretches when getting up, but was mostly fine.  Thursday I noted I was back to waking up before my alarm clock and felt fine.  I really don't think I would have recovered so quickly if I'd taken more than the one dose of pain killers.  I know in the past that a setback like that would have required a week of painkillers until I could get to the next weekend and take the maximum dose of muscle relaxant (always makes me sleep in so I don't do it on work days)  in order to get a good rest and  finally heal up.

I did experience foot cramping when I tried to do something else after haying.  But my hip and my calf that always used to trouble me were silent.  I hope to eventually strengthen my feet so they don't cramp any more, but I'll take a few hours of foot cramping over weeks of perpetual hip pain any day...

How Asics Lost Me As A Customer

If you read my very first post about Minimalist Shoes, you already know that before this experiment I bought Asics every six months.  I'm still trying to find concrete info on the matter, but it seems that when I started seeing changes in the wear pattern on my shoes, and the reaction of my hip, may line up with when Asics "reinvented" their women's shoes.  They completely changed the cushioning, fit, and rumor says they increased the heel rise as well.  Wearing the old shoes wasn't helping me recover from my health issues, but wearing the new shoes made my health worse and kicked me into minimalisim with full force.

And no, finding other "supportive" shoes was not really an option.  I'd tried to find alternatives to Asics previously, and found only one other supportive shoe that (kind of) fits my foot, a cheap shoe that wore out every 4 months instead of 6.

I'm a little bit mad that Asics put me through a year of intense pain with these changes, but coming out the other side I'm grateful that I got my eyes opened to what supportive shoes were doing to my health, and allowed me to make the changes I needed to become a more active and healthy person.

The long haul

To expand on my previous post about Morton's Foot, further discussion has re-emphasized this point: "Lee said it took him five years to fix his own Morton's Foot."

Five years...

Hopefully I'll see other improvements in the mean time, after all growth and change in the human body is incremental.  I need to keep this in mind though when I'm discouraged, that things may still be changing slowly and I need to be patient.

Strong Ankles Save The Day

Today I stepped in a hole.  It was a narrow hole, but deep enough that the majority of my foot fell into it.  My heel snagged on solid ground, and the point of my foot went deep into the hole.  My foot contacted bottom, and I stepped forward again.  Not too big of a deal, I was just a bit surprised and the landowner was spooked that I might have hurt myself.  I'm not even sore.  I think a year ago if I had landed a foot in that hole I might have twisted an ankle.  I was even wearing the same clunky shoes I last twisted an ankle in, only my muscle conditioning has changed.

Now, instead of sitting on the couch with an ice pack, I'm rushing through chores waiting for my company to arrive.  Speaking of which, break time is over, it is time to get back up...

May Update - Appreciating New Strength

There is no better way to appreciate new strength than to be forced to rely on it.

We were on our way to the gym to do a little running and swimming, when the truck broke down on the highway.  As I was on the phone with Triple A, I realized that my stomach might not be able to wait until a friend came to get me; I needed a bathroom ASAP.  So I handed the phone off to hubby and started walking to a fast food resturant I knew was about 3/4 mile away.  I did accept a ride to speed things up, but I declined her offer for a ride back, as it would be easier for my husband to find me if I was on the side of the road where he expected me to be. 

I started walking back, and my hip predictably started bothering me, as I was wearing shoes more friendly to keeping my feet dry in the wet than keeping my body in alignment.  It was warm enough that when I reached the nice flat shoulder of the highway I took off my shoes and walked sockfoot.  As I was walking sockfoot down the highway, with no husband in sight, no wallet, no phone, I contemplated that if I had to walk the five miles home I could.  I was filled with gratitude for my new strength, and happily moved up to a run for a few paces a minute.

I walked the 3/4 mile back to find hubby planning to ride to the garage in the truck, and had arranged a ride for me back at the resturant.  So I got my phone from him and turned around and went back.  My friends met me half way, and drove us up to the garage to pick up hubby, and then off to us treating them to dinner at an old haunt. 

On the way to the garage, we passed the Lilac Festival, where in a prior year I had struggled to get from parking to the festival, and then just found a place to sit and rest and recover, missing most of what I had gone to see.  I have come so far.

Thankfully, in the truck were my proper running shoes, so I put them on, leaving my others in my friend's car.  No point in staying in stay-dry shoes when your feet are already wet!

Our old haunt had moved from it's prior location into the middle of the entertainment district downtown.  One friend was a bit put off by the idea of the long walk from available parking to the resturant, but even after my little jaunt I was jogging ahead and doing much better than my former mode of just barely keeping up. 

Despite a bit of trouble, I had a wonderful evening.  I'm so greatful for my new strength and the likelyhood that it will continue to grow over time.  My feet unleashed from ill-fitting and restrictive shoes are learning just what they were designed to do and adding to my strength instead of draining it away.

Psalm 139:14
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.

P.S.  In case you're wondering, the mechanic called.  The truck is not too badly off and I should have her back today.  Praise God!

Learning how to stand up

Like any normal child, I learned how to stand up as a toddler, or at least I thought I had.  At some point I had learned how to stand in a very unhealthy manner, making my whole lower body hurt when standing long periods.  When going minimally shod, I decided I needed to re-learn how to stand and walk.

Now I don't just stand there, but feel and acknowledge the parts of my feet holding me up.  I consciously rest my weight evenly on all parts of my foot.  I have to lean forward a bit or bend my knees to make it work.  My foot spreads a little more to carry the weight over a greater surface.  When doing it right, I can feel the individual bones of the foot each resting on the ground.

I am using my new method of standing up like a good posture.  Whenever I catch myself slouching my spine or my feet I straighten up and stand right.  My feet still hurt after standing a long time, but it is muscle fatigue, not stress injury, and passes in a day.