Not been around at all this week. Have physio booked tomorrow though. Hopefully, it will be £90 well spent!
I do go through periods of extreme frustration of gains I’m missing out on but as the weeks pass of not training I am feeling more and more comfortable with it. I still have my programming mind running constantly though. With what I’ve said before about there being positives to take away when I finally get through this injury; the rut of worrying about the weight on the bar so much, grinding through every workout making progress the only priority with not a worry about how I felt day to day or how much I was or wasn’t enjoying it can end. I’m 34 now and the competitiveness I grew with myself over the years was never anything I’d planned for. Getting bigger and stronger was the only goal and I left behind certain things that should be just as important. With my muscles currently unused and depleted, I actually feel a little more agile and I think I’m going to focus a bit more on all-round health when I get back to it.
None of that is to say that bigger and stronger is not still a goal, I just need to stop seeking that at any cost whilst avoiding other gaps in my life or overall health.
Physio went well, she said I’ve been doing all the right things. With how I was explaining things and describing the different bones, ligaments, and why I’ve been doing certain rehab exercises she said “I could be medically trained!” which was quite funny. I said it just shows how much it’s been affecting me and how much reading I’ve been doing because of it. I also made the point I am extremely grateful to talk to someone with a lot of experience because it’s been driving me mad. I’m not someone who typically gets on well with people in a medical type setting because I’ve had such bad experiences with doctors in the past. We got along like a house on fire though, lots of joking and I feel I got a lot out of it.
She didn’t really do anything magical, but there were a lot of movements be it a range of motion or bone/joint shuffling (like moving my ulnar or pisiform about) that I was scared of doing. Many times she grabbed my wrist to do something and I thought the pain was going to be excruciating and it wasn’t. Of course, she isn’t emotionally or physically attached to my body so she can do those things without the mental block I give myself. It’s a lot of relief to have her put so much pressure on areas and not feel anything terrible happening. She told me to get back in the gym but build up slow (which was already established, but now I have a professional actually “clear” me and get rid of the fear I could be making things worse).
I’ve had letters through to make an appointment for both an ultrasound and an MRI. I guess I should still take them but I do feel I’m on a road to recovery now. I wanted to talk about another issue at the top of my leg, I’ve got a big cyst or something, hard as a rock possibly from an old injury and affects me a lot when kicking a ball but we ran out of time.
Got in the gym today, not really tracking as such as I don’t want to get into a beat the logbook mode whilst I’m building back up.
I did bench, one-arm db press, lat raises, machine chest press and triceps pushdowns. Went okay, more stable than when I was in last time, although I did do a rep on the machine press where I loosened my wrist a bit which hurt, but nothing extreme. It’s a bit achy now but that’s to be expected I’m sure.
Back in the gym again today for some legs and back. I held off a lot even though I wanted to push more. Apparently after some time off I should keep the intensity right down so I was leaving at least around 5-7 reps in the tank on everything.
There’s a little bodyfat% thing in there I’ve never used before but did for a laugh. It’s one of those you stand on and grip with your hands. It tells me I’m 83kg and 18% bodyfat. It’s probably SUPER inaccurate but I don’t feel too bad about that. Regaining all my muscle back quickly with glycogen etc might have me closer to 16/17% on there as I am flat as a pancake right now.
Been in a couple of times since I last posted. Still not really tracking as I wanna go slowly and just build back up.
130kg for 5 on a conventional deadlift felt heavy today. The folly of being detrained!
Already feel like muscle is coming back. All the other exercises I did felt good, a few different rows, front squats and leg press. I did finish off with ezbar curls on autopilot and just stuck a few 10kgs either side completely forgetting about my wrist and feeling it out. It’s felt irritated ever since but that’s the nature of rehab right? I know I should have started lighter but I carried on through. Pain was only at around a 3 during the set so hopefully it’s just normal.
Did some more bench today. Worked up to 70kg ish and busted 9 or 10 reps out. Wrist was feeling stronger, will try 80kg next time. Funnily though machine press was causing some irritation so I went down to just 40kg and did 30ish reps. Managed to do 20kg on one-arm DB presses which I’m happy with. Slowly but surely gaining strength and confidence back since injury. It’s still frustrating but I seem to be going in the right direction.
Not going in this weekend. I got gifted a ticket to the Rugby Cup Final so off to Twickenham tomorrow!
Nice, i’ll be watching it on TV with my lad. I’ve got 2 racks of ribs i’ll slow cook all day to soak up the beer after the game! Enjoy the rugby and the £7 beers!
I’m not a rugby guy apart from the natural interest in the 6 nations. I can’t even name a single player that plays for either club. A guy at the gym had no one to go with and is driving so it’d be silly to turn down the experience. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.
Managed to do seated OHP 50kg x 6 and then DB Benched the 28kgs x 12.
I didn’t want to push for any extra reps, but this is fast progress. At the 6-7week point of my injury, even the 10kg dumbells in a non-neutral position were feeling super dangerous.
Unrelated but I ordered some vegan protein powder vanilla sweetened with stevia. I use vegan protein because I seem to digest it better than whey, but it tastes awful. I stick with unflavoured because my digestion is the bane of my existence. I got used to it and was okay with it, and I’m not sure how my body will be with stevia, or if I should be adding sweetness when I haven’t even got a sweet tooth these days. It was absolutely delicious so I hope my body doesn’t reject it. So far so good 30mins later.
Wrist felt fine on all exercises except end of range on the cable rows. I’m lucky in that I can still get some good vertical pulling in to mitigate that. I want to get back to the chest-supported rows as soon as possible but currently think it wouldn’t be smart.
You’d think I’ve had enough time to figure out my programming but I’m still going back and forth on my hinge movements. SLDLs feel amazing for the activation I want to get even if I’m still a little unsure of my form when it comes to keeping my back positioned right. Then part of me thinks “Do I really need to be doing these, so many hypertrophy programs only do one DL variation a week”, another part thinks “You may as well just be doing deadlifts”, and yet another part thinks "Do good mornings, get a great stimulus out of less weight.
Absolutely nothing planned this weekend so doing even more theory crafting on programming, reading more books, listening to more podcasts, etc. I don’t need to know 90% of this stuff but I find that learning is the most effective thing for my motivation.
My wrist is in a bit of pain today - I really shouldn’t have done those cable rows. Rehab is never linear though right? I guess the positive is that I barely even thought about my wrist during the majority of the session which can only be a good thing. If I’m not thinking about it, it’s not causing me discomfort. I was even lifting plates with little caution whereas before just even putting a plate onto a bar required precision to avoid irritation. I do have an MRI booked for the end of the month (yay)… but before yesterday I was thinking I didn’t need it. Nothing wrong with precaution, although despite the irritation I caused I’m optimistic that by the time the MRI comes around my wrist will be 80-90% better.