Apologies for the hiatus! I'm not dead yet, but the captin might be.
Over the past two and a half months I've completed my Physical Therapy prescription and kept on the routine in my own time. I'll go into further detail regarding a breakdown of the exercises and everything that I have learned at another time, so for now I'll provide an overview of accomplishments and an outline of my current routine.
Accomplishments:
1) My knees are much stronger, in fact they are hardly sore at all!
2) My shoulder literally popped itself back into shape. After months of being tight and motion-hampered, I now have full range of motion in my right shoulder and have been slowly building strength.
3) My back is no longer bothered by day-to-day activities.
4) I have returned to swimming and hiking without significant impairment.
Sounds like a pretty successful run, huh? I'm very happy that things have turned out as well as they have, but I'm still not back to "normal". There is still work to be done, and unfortunately I don't heal as quickly as I used to. Apparently the springiness of youth is over :(
Challenges:
1) There is still a long way to go before I can return to normal weight lifting. My knees may be in decent shape but my shoulder and upper body are now in pretty weak physical condition. I have been mainly training lower body and core strength, so there will need to be slow and steady effort put into strengthening my arms and upper torso.
2) My lower back is still sensitive to twisting movements and heavy lifting & pushing. There will still be a bit of work to do here, too. My current routine is working well, so patience and gradual additions to the workout are all that can be done for now.
CURRENT ROUTINE:
Daily Mat Exercises:
Single Leg-to-Chest Stretches (each side) 2 x 10 reps
Both Legs-to-Chest Stretches 2 x 10 reps
Exercise Ball Leg Twists (each side) 2 x 10 reps
Wall-Hamstring Stretch (each leg)
Bug on its Back (?) 2 x 10 reps
Kneeling Balance Thing (?) 2 x 10 reps
Bridges 2 x 10 reps
Twice-Weekly Weight Exercises:
(These are all using dumbells)
Weighted Punches (horse stance) 10 x 5 lbs
Weighted Punches (forward stance, each leg) 10 x 5 lbs
Planted Lunge Reaches (?) (outer, each leg) 10 x 5 lbs
Planted Lunge Reaches (?) (inner, each leg) 10 x 5 lbs
Golf Squats (?) (each shoulder, alternating) 10 x 5 lbs
Hamstring Stretches (each leg) 10 x 5 lbs
4-point Lunge-and-Reaches 5 x 5 lbs
5-point Balance Extensions (complete all reps on one side at a time) 5 x 5 lbs
3-point Squat-and-Reaches 5 x 5 lbs
Track Lunges (outer)
Track Lunges (inner)
Track Weighted Punches
Backward Marches
I am looking to add a number of dumbell exercises, push-ups, and pull ups as soon as I am fit enough to do them without injury. I also swim one to two times per week, increasing laps based on the rule of 3 -- if it hasn't hurt me the last 3 times, it's safe to move up gently.
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