Good to be back

Today's workout was shoulder intensive, but I tried not to push it and it feels good so far.

Started up with Turkish Get-ups, got up to 45 lbs with the good right shoulder, only went up to 25lbs with the left one.

Did 6 rounds of
5 Chinups
10 KB raises (56lbs)
15 Push presses (25 lb dumbbell)
20 Air squats

in 20 mins (I think)

It was a little scary to get back in to shoulder exercises, but I have to get back into the game sometime, and I was really trying to listen to what my shoulder was telling me.

Gravy gone bad

So this morning was my first day back in crossfit. I was really looking forward to what Andrea had in store for me. It might have been shoulder friendly, but it was an ass-kicker:

3 Rounds of
30 Squat Cleans
30 Pull-ups
800m runs

So I started off with squat cleans, they were only 45 lbs so as to not test my shoulder too much, and after doing 20 she looked at me and asked, "Oh, your not doing it for time with the class?"

Apparently the workout wasn't just for me, but for the whole class too. So I decided to start over, and waited until everyone was ready. After another 30 squat cleans, I went over to the pull-up bar. Andrea told me to scale it back to 20 pull-ups to make sure my shoulder was ok, and I had no problem scaling it back.

Now I thought the 800m run would be the easiest part, since I've been on the treadmill a couple of times this week. I was sorely mistaken, that 800m was way longer than I thought it would be.

After 2 rounds in 32 minutes, I started doing squat cleans again, and Andrea told me that 2 rounds was fine for me. I responded with something like, "What's my time? Ok, everything now is just gravy." Well, after doing 20 more squat cleans, I decided that I had had enough of this "gravy". The gravy had gone bad, and I suddenly had a little taste of bile in my mouth.

I decided 2 rounds was enough.

I get back home at 8:30, and I feel like I've already conquered the day. maybe I should start working out in the morning? Alright, time to shower and head over to work.

I'm back baby!

I am so effen' stoked right now! Just stopped by the gym to talk about getting back, and Andrea said she'd figure out a workout specially for me and I can come back on Friday!!! Because of the whole flying to Chicago thing, I'll have to attend the 9 or 7:30 class, but I'm back baby! It just feels good to return to the group. Not working out has made me feel like a traitor to the cause, and I'm just now realizing this. Sooooo excited. :)

This morning's session at the therapists was very intense, mostly because I made it so. In one exercise the therapist told me to slow down, so I took three seconds up, hold, then three seconds down. On the twentieth (last) rep I was starting to work up a sweat.

Today I was introduced to four new exercises with the power band. They're where I bring my arm up or down and across my body, like I'm chopping wood or pulling a sword out of its hilt. My shoulder made a very subtle pop or click when on one exercise. It didn't hurt, I just felt it... move suddenly. Apparently this is bad, so I only did like 2 reps. Because I have a torn muscle in my shoulder, that clicking sound is the sound of an impingement, and I need my shoulder to glide smoothly and easily. That's a real bummer that I have to now look out for that and pain. Right now my shoulder is in pain, so I feel like I've taken one step forward, two steps back. This is so frustrating, trying to figure out how much I have healed. I know I need to be patient with this thing, but I really, really want to start crossfit again on the seventh of July. A couple days ago I felt like I was too lazy, now I fee like I'm pushing too hard. In order to find the center, I think I'll just start doing lots more squats, situps, and runs, maybe pushups if I don't feel anything wrong.

Starting off the morning right

Off to go to an 8:00 therapy session, this should be fun. I just can't find the energy for physical activity early in the morning, unless I have a good breakfast. While I'm eating my Zone-approved Oatmeal dish, I don't think I could ever get this stuff down before 7:30. But maybe I can attend Jerry's 9:00 classes. Guess we'll have to see how this plays out. But first, I have to get my shoulder back into shape, and that means I have to leave pretty much right now.

Reality has set in...

My God I am out of shape. I got back into the gym and did three sets of 15 air squats, and I was sore the day of, the day after, the day after that, and the day after that. I can not believe how out of shape I am, so I'm really getting out of my "let myself heal" mentality to a "let myself kick some ass" mentality. I think I've allowed myself to slide so much because I don't really look any worse off than when I was working out (I like to think that's because I am doing a pretty damn good job of sticking to the zone diet) My shoulder is getting stronger everyday, but I still walk away from physical therapy with a little soreness in my shoulder. I think my body is now ready to get back into crossfit, I just have to be careful not to put my shoulder in pain, but if I do everything correctly, and I let pain be my guide, I should do fine.

I can't wait to get back to crossfit.

Well, I just read some of Adriene's blog, and it's inspiring to read about another crossfitter with a shoulder problem. Well, I shouldn't say "another crossfitter" since the six classes I've attended doesn't warrant that title. Regardless, I've decided that I am going to really start working out again, and simply "listen" to my shoulder for any pain or signs that I should stop, then I'll simply stop.

Get in the Zone

While I can't do crossfit, I've been focusing learning on the zone diet. While I'm still unfamiliar with how many blocks go into what, I'm now using dishes from this crossfit journal. Before, whenever I went to the grocery store I was never sure what to buy, partially because I'm just not used to making food for myself (I am from Dallas, after all). Now that I have meals and the ingredients, I make a list and know exactly what I need to get. It was difficult figuring out how much I needed to buy for 6-7 days, but I made an excel sheet and now I know exactly what I need every time I go. Coming up with this list was my greatest challenge, so I thought I'd share it so it may help others as well.

It's for six days worth of food and is for someone like myself, a 5 block meal/ 2 block snack person, but you can change out the amounts to fit your block schedule. I've also included my converter for things like cheese and deli meat. Just fill in the blanks of what the package contains (e.g. 17 slices of cheese for 12 ounces) and then how much you need (2 Oz ), it will then figure out how many slices of cheese make up 2 oz. This is for people without scales, like myself.

The list actually has more variety than what I eat, but I don't think everyone can eat the same thing day in and day out like I can.

So this is what I eat every day:

Oatmeal
Sandwich
Apple, cheese, nuts
Chili or smoothie
Pineapple, cottage cheese, and nuts.

I think when I get back into crossfit I'll have the smoothie after the workout and the chili on the rest days. It's also very heavy in dairy since every meal has milk, but I haven't noticed any problems so for now I'll use it until I can find something else I like.

The Logistics of Physical Therapy

I'd say the most difficult thing about recovering from my injury is how it interferes with work. Right now I have it scheduled for 4:00, but it takes about an hour to get there so I need to leave at 3. That's about 2-2.5 hours earlier than I'm used to, and since therapy is two times a week that's 4-5 hours I have to make up somewhere else in the week since I'm paid by the hour and I don't want to use up my sick leave. Last week I worked on Saturday to make up for lost time, but that was really unpleasant; felt like I never got a break. Now that I'm going to be gone for three weekends straight due to weddings, I'm hoping to start therapy in the morning. That should really help with my scheduling problem. Getting in at 9-9:30 should work ok. I just can't wait until I'm back to full strength and working out like I used to.

The hopefully short road to recovery

Well, it was on my fifth day of crossfit where I injured myself. We were working on strict press, specifically doing max reps on 80% of our max weight. I was on rep 15, and my shoulders were starting to feel the fatigue. "I know," I thought, "I'll widen my grip, that'll help," and as soon as the idea came to me I did exactly that, I widened my grip. Now, crossfit is my first experience with Olympic lifts, so I will chalk this up to a rookie mistake, but I adjusted the weight the instant the idea came to me, which was when my elbows were locked and directly over my head.

As you can imagine, when I did this pain shot through my left shoulder. It didn't make me drop the weight or anything, but I definitely felt pain. However, the pain subsided almost instantly, and so I did about five more reps and proceeded to do the WOD. that night when I went to bed my shoulder was a little sore, but when I woke up the next morning it was really, really painful.

Long story short, I went to the doc, who did an ultrasound and said I have a partial thickness tear of my supraspinatus, one of the muscles that are called rotator cuff muscles. This floored me, I had read that these injuries can take up to six months to recover from, so I was relieved when I learned I should only be out for 3 weeks. Thankfully, it's a slight injury.

I'm two weeks into therapy now and the pain is less and less by the day. It's been frustrating not being able to work out like I want to, but there's nothing I can do about it now but continue my therapy and get better, healthier, and eventually back into what I fondly refer to as the "blue room of death." So my current mantra is "I will recover, I will get back to my old strength, and then I will get even stronger."

Let's just hope that it won't take too long.....