Monday, August 31, 2009

Thank God I work for the government...

...because my job comes with great insurance. Since starting Xfit I have:
Seen a D.O.: 16 times
Seen an Orthopod/physical therapist: 6 + 5 + 14 + 9 + 1 = 35 times
Seen a Chiropractor: 4 + 4 = 8 times with 9 more needed
Seen Prolotherapist: once, with a lot more on the way
Had an MRI of the hip, with one more on the way, and
about 10 X-rays of the hip

My copay for a dr's visit or a test like an MRI is $30, except for the DO's where I have to pay 25%, the above mentioned tests/visits have cost me about $2070, and 62 hours of therapy and doctor visits. Again, I should point out that my hip and ankle issues were not caused by Crossfit. Rather, they were pre-existing issues that only came to light due to the intense activity level that crossfit requires.

...I find the idea of finally getting to and fixing the root of my pains very exciting. The tear in the rotator cuff resulted in a change in my mechanics, which resulted in the tendonitis. The impingement in my hip resulted in a change in my mechanics that resulted in the hip bursitis. Now that I've addressed the secondary effects of my injuries, I've discovered and can now fix the underlying problems. This will result in real recovery, and the idea of no longer having these issues is exciting.

In addressing my shoulder, I think I might start attending the Alexandria Master swimming class, and do crossfit only 4 times as week, doing a m/w/f/s schedule. I used to be a billy badass in swimming when I was young and before I burned out; perhaps getting back in the water will be good for me.

I'm also very excited about Dr. Wagner fixing my hip, if his treatments require a scaling back of weightlifting, swimming should be good as well.

The should is pain free, and has been for over two weeks now. It really is an amazing feeling, and I can't wait to get back to doing workouts with the shoulder.

Update

Sorry for the lack of postings, I've been on vacay at a internet-less lake cottage in Michigan and spent a night on Mackinac Island. Had a couple of workouts like:

Canoe to an island and back for time; and
Bike and hike Mackinac Island.

Shoulder feels great, no pain whatsoever, but the hip still hurts occasionally at weird times.

Just got internet, so this is all I can post for now. Later I will post about the zone diet.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Another lift I CAN do, and a med update

Well, I've been focusing more on work lately so I had two rest days, but when I saw that we were working overhead squats i had to pop in:

OHS, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

I got up to 150, which is only a 5 pound increase over what I did last time, but I'll take a PR any day, even if it is a little improvement. The hardest part was definitely keeping my balance, I had a very hard time keeping a steady active shoulder.

I'm very excited that OHS does not hurt my shoulder. Seems that simply keeping active shoulder doesn't hurt the tendonits. Speaking of injuries, today I saw Dr. Wagner about my hip and shoulder. It had to be an abbreviated discussion because I was 20 minutes late, but he said that in order for any treatment for my hip to start, he needs an MRI with contrast to see what's really going on. Since the Labrum is cartilage, thus its density is very similar to the surrounding tissue. This is relevant since the MRI works by illustrating the contrast of materials with different densities, so a material with similar density to the "background" density will be invisible. Contrast is basically any liquid (since most liquids are of a different density than flesh), they inject it into the hip joint. This will highlight the labrum, and if there's a tear the liquid will leak, and the leak will be apparent as well. I guess my first orthopod is used to dealing with old people and their old injuries, and has never dealt with a torn labrum.

Dr. Wagner's ability to help with the shoulder had to be put on hold, but right now I am feeling much, much better in my shoulder and elbow. I've been seeing a chiro for trigger point massage three days a week, and I do self massage all the freakin' time. I even stopped wearing my watch, which weighs .6#s, so as to not irritate my shoulder. I was rolling around on the ground with a softball digging into my scapula (have a real nasty knot there) and I felt the knot "pop". It was awesome. I'm taking the next week off, I should really start to feel good after that.

I never really noticed that my shoulder was giving me SO much trouble, but when I look through my blog I find complaints about shoulder pain over, over, over, over, and over again. This makes me appreciate having a blog, as opposed to a simple workout log.

I will get a second MRI in like two weeks and then I'll see Dr. Wagner on the 18th, then more questions will be answered. I really, really want to be fully recovered by the time the mid-Atlantic hopper rolls around, but I might have to back out if I still can't do anything with my shoulders. ...My health insurance company must lose a LOT of money on me; thank got the government has great insurance.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

deadlift max

Well, today's wod was one I could do RX'd, and was very happy about it.

Deadlift:
1,1,1,1,1

325 was my goal, and I hit 315 on my third rep, but Chriss pointed out that I was leaning over the bar and engaging my back/traps. My arms were bent so I was pulling the weight up instead of standing the weight up. He suggested I think about it like I was sitting back, and so I tried 325 the next time and nailed it. It was fairly easy, so I upped it to 345 and tried again. The weight was heavy enough that I encountered something I'd never encountered before: I struggled to keep my grip on the bar and ended up dropping it. This was due to the fact that I used overhand grip with both hands. Chriss recommended I use mixed grip, or Western grip. I waited a bit and tried it again. The bar was much, much easier to handle, and I stood up rather easily. After I locked out, I could completely relax and turned (my head) to Chriss and commented on how light the weight was.

...On another note, Chris Gruber attempted 450 (I think) and his struggle was the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Hopefully both my lift and Gruber's attempt are posted on Facebook (Chriss taped both)

The wonders of Crossfit: changability

Not sure if that's a real word, but on Monday we had Onion Skin v. 2.0:

5 rounds
2:30 to do max
push press in a row (115#)
and 2:30 to do max
pull ups in a row

With my shoulder I couldn't do either of these exercises, but I talked to Andrea and she came up with a wod just for me.

5 rounds
2:30 to do max
front squat in a row (115#)
and 2:30 to do max
ring rows in a row

Ring rows don't aggravate Andrea's shoulder, and she has the same injury I have (torn supraspinatus) , so we figured I should try it out.

Front squats until you can't do anymore suck, really is a mental game and I tried to push myself as much as I could. I think I ended up with something like 57 reps for the whole workout. I was still weary with the ring rows, so I stopped after doing 10 of them each time (actually fatigued out at 7 on one round for a total of 47).

I was concerned that this wod was going to be worthless, but instead it was a great workout, gotta have faith in the crossfit!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Back Squats 3 rep max

Today was finding our 3 rep max, and I was super happy about this because it was finally a workout I could do Rx'd.

I got up to 250, but I had to stop because of.... my shoulder. Did not see it coming, but keeping the rack for back squats hurts my shoulder. The pain was a pretty big distraction, I think I can do more, especially since my 5 rep max is 250.

I guess the next time we do back squats I'll have to sub in front squats.

Thursday's circuit

I was happy with today's WOD, in that I thought I could only slightly modified.

5 rft
9 toes to bar
12 push press
15 pushups
run 400m

I subbed ring pulls (I don't know what they're called) for push ups. They're the exact opposite of push ups, where I form a plank with my heels on the ground and pull myself up to the rings.

I again was dead, dead last at a time of 31:43. I look back and I think about why I take so long, and I simply took lots of little brakes. Even with the first set of ring pulls, I had to break them up into sets of 5 or 3 reps. My first round took a little over four minutes, so I was on pace for a 20 min wod, but my strength just gave out. ...Again, I wonder if my slow time is due to a lack of mental focus/fortitude. I simply don't know, it's easy to tell I'm becoming much stronger, but it's a lot harder to tell if I'm improving in met-con since we almost never do the same WOD twice. Regardless, the feeling that I'm not improving galvanizes my resolve to work on my focus so I may push through what I think my limits are to find out what my real limits are.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Unplanned rest day

Well by the time I woke up and was out the door, I would've shown up at CFOT at like 7:50, so I had to turn around. Don't like the fact that I have to miss today's workout, with the four-day trip to chicago I've only xfitted 3 times in the past 7 days.

When I was struggling to get out of bed, I had a dream that I had checked CFOT's facebook status and posted in the comments was "yeah, if you have tendonitis in the shoulder you should skip this WOD".

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Deadlift pull up couplet and dealing with pain

Today would've been a great day to work the chest and shoulders, the WOD Rx'd was:

7 rounds
3 heavy deadlifts (I did 255#s)
5 weighted ring dips
7 L-sit pull ups

I asked Chriss for a sub for the dips, and he said I should just take them out and do the WOD as a couplet. I didn't ask for a sub on the dips because I wasn't sure if pull-ups would agitate my shoulder. Today I asked Dr. Bills if they would, and he responded that I should try it out and if it hurts add that to the list of exercises I can't do.

Unfortunately, on the last round I noticed that all too familiar pain in my shoulder, so I just ended it. I think my time was 25:23, which is pretty sad since I never had to do the dips. I could only bang out the pull ups at around 2 at a time. I don't think I ever found a comfortable width with which to grip the bar. I also noticed on the first inch or so in starting the pull up my left shoulder wanted to move in a rather stange way, different than the right shoulder.

I also had really poor form with the DL. I don't know if my starting position was off or what, but I was using my back a lot. I didn't hurt myself, but I'm disappointed that I couldn't find proper technique.

...whenever I talk about my various injuries I fear that I come across as whiney or complaining, so I try not to talk about it. However, when it becomes a focal point (which, unfortunatly, is often) I then discuss it. I feel like this sometimes gives a somewhat scattered view on my health. So here is my situation and plan:

Right Tennis Elbow: Seeing Dr. Bills who is applying triggerpoint massage and says it should be completely treated in 10-12 treatments. So far I'm on my fourth treatment and it is showing signs of improvement.

Left shoulder Tendonitis: This stems from the partial thickness tear I experienced last year. Dr. Bills is also treating this along with the elbow, also with trigger point massage. I'm also trying to supplement these massages with self-massage. I need a tennis ball, and I'll start doing stuff like this guy:


I'm also looking at getting platelet rich plasma (PRP) treatments, and will meet with that Dr on the 21st. So far the massage therapy is feeling very effective. I've been dealing with pain in my shoulder so constant I stopped noticing it long ago. Now I notice it, and after the treatment I'm in no pain for quite a while.

Left Hip Torn Labrum and impingement: waiting to talk to the PRP guy about treating my hip. I'm also thinking about getting physical therapy on this hip as well, but I don't know how effective it will be, and I really don't want to start paying $60 a week in PT bills again.

Tomorrow I will see the DO and discuss with him these various injuries and see what he can do. ...I think I've graduated from seeing him on a scheduled basis, and might only need to see him every so often if I start feeling some pain in the hip.

I really, really hope that I can find a cure for all of this pain I experience. Not a day goes by that my hip and shoulder ache or throb, and imagining living without pain just sounds like an idea that is so tempting I don't trust it. I catch myself getting excited at the idea that PRP could be the cure for all my ills, but I have to remind myself that there is a chance that it might not work, that I might have to deal with this pain a little while longer.

When I was talking to Kristin about this, she commented, "Perhaps you should stop Crossfit, it is very intense and I don't like seeing you in pain like this." There have been times lately where crossfitting isn't as appealing as it used to be, and these feelings almost all stem from my injuries. However, I don't think Crossfit really caused them, rather they were there before hand, and crossfitting has brought these problems to light.

I think some people might have just given up; some people would have decided that the pain, dealing with the pain, and treating the pain is just not worth it. But I feel that if I can get to a place where the tendonitis goes away, and the impingement in my hip is fixed, I should be poised to really become a crossfitter. I could become some one who can do hand stand push ups, who can bang out 10 muscle ups, who can do more than 25 push ups. I've seen some tremendous gains in my leg strength, and if I could figure out a way to get that with my upper body, I'd be set. I feel like this goal is worthy of whatever it takes. This is why I'm willing to see all kinds of doctors, and spend all kinds of money on medical bills (even though I do have very good insurance).

I have been very faithful to the zone, I don't drink, and I do an ok job at getting a eight hours asleep. Yet, I've alsways felt that I should be in a better place then where I'm currently at. I think part of this is from my shoulder tendonitis. Because of this condition, burbees, pushups, dips, and muscle ups are all things that I can't really improve upon. First, I have to treat this condition and then I can move on and become the athelete I crave to be.

So in the meantime, I've come to terms with the fact that right now I pretty much can't do any upper body work, and might have to wait a very long time until I can. But there will be a time when I can push my upper body, and it will be ever so sweet.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Cleans three rep max

Thursday was my favorite exercise, so I'm glad I made Wednesday my rest day.

Cleans: 3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3

Because of he number of sets, this was more of a skill day. I quickly ramped up to 185 (think like third set) but after the set my shoulder was killing me. I had heard that cleans aggravated tendinitis in the shoulder, but I hadn't remembered any particular time where cleans hurt. After doing a little research, there was at least one time in December where cleans hurt my shoulder.

Sadly, now I have to add cleans onto the list of exercises I can't do right now. Right now that list includes:

cleans
Pushups
dips
muscle ups
perhaps pull ups?

It's a little tough knowing I can't do these for now, but if it's the only way to get better than I'm all for it.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Rest Day

Don't think I've ever really experienced this before, but I was feeling so beat up today that I wasn't really looking forward to CFOT. That was a huge sign for me to just kick up my Vibrams and take five. ...Going to hit it hard tomorrow (and especially Friday!!!!!!!!)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

5 rep Front squat, PR

So today we did back squat, and today felt really good. I thought my form was way better, my knees were tracking, I was doing a great job with my breath/core tension. So on the fourth round I stepped it up to 250. The first four were tough, but the last one really required me to dig deep. Near completion, the tension in my head was so great I started seeing a black spot in the bottom left corner of my vision. Chriss saw me right after wards, and commented that my eyes were bloodshot from the tension. I decided to call it quits there, because the whole vision going frightened me. I'm really happy about this because it's a 15# improvement over last month, 35 pound more than two months ago, and 65 pounds over three months ago.

Dr. Bills was also there to offer his services. I had him look at my elbow and shoulders, and he said I have tennis elbow in my right arm, which with treatment, I can get back to 100% in like a month. The shoulders, however, are a different story. I have chronic tendonitis in both shoulders, which is not good. That's the type of tendonitis that really never goes away, but hopefully I can minimize it. I'm going to do some research and see just how bad this stuff can be. ...To be honest this new info doesn't really bother me. I've had to deal with so many injuries, I'm just glad to know what it is and to form a game plan.

Group Workout

On Monday we had a group workout. Even after 20 minutes of talking about the scoring and trying to form a game plan I still had no idea what do to, so I just rowed.

5 rounds

for 5 minutes do any of:
box jumps
row
push press
snatch
pull ups
Then 1 minute rest.

for the first round all I did is row. Can't remember my total score, but it was 231 calories rowing.

Sadly, my team got third so I could not celebrate with my robot dance.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

The mother of rest days

So I was planning on going out last night, and instead I fell asleep at around 6pm, and woke up at 6am. Then, I fell asleep on the couch at around 12 and woke up at 6. So I've slept for 18 hours in the past 24 hours, looks like I was pretty worn out.

Just sent out an email asking to participate in the Mid-Atlantic Hopper Challenge. I'm really, really nervous about this, like I can see myself being last in the met-con, or the wod is muscle ups or handstand push ups. In any case, training for this, and participating, should be exciting.

Saturday improv workout

Well, I woke up at about 9:45 today, threw on some clothes, and then stepped outside, only to find that my car was missing. Knowing that one of my roomates, Quinton, has threatened to park my car some distance away, I wander around a bit looking for it while texting him. He texted back that he had borrowed my car (the last one in the driveway) to get to the store. This would've been fine if he had left keys for me to use his car, but that wasn't the case. I told him to come back right away, but he didn't get back to the house until 10:35, way too late to attend the saturday class.

Looks like I'll never be able to make a saturday class.

Anyway, I looked up what the wod was for today, and then I went to the PTO gym to attempt to do it on my own. I tried out the chin up bar, but it was teflon coated super slippery. I decided to sub out the pullups with dips, so this is what my WOD looked like:

800m run, 30 power cleans (90#). 30 dips
800m run, 20, 20
800m run, 10, 10

Time was somewhere around 40 minutes, although it was hard to tell with the gym clocks.

Turns out my workout was a LOT easier than the official CFOT workout, which was this:

"Easier than Badger"
800m run, 30 power cleans (135#). 30 pull ups, 30 burbees
800m run, 20, 20, 20
800m run, 10, 10 10

Totally forgot about the burbees, and I guessed completely wrong on the weight for the power cleans. I imagine my time would have been substantially higher with 135#, because with 90 I could get away with using my back for the touch-and-go part.

Regardless, i'm happy I worked out today despite missing the class.

OHS 5 rep mas

So Friday was to find our 5 rep overhead squat max.

I got up to 145, but only got two reps in at 155.

I've always enjoyed this exercise, and after the oly lift cert I have more of a feel for hitting correct form. Perhaps my biggest accomplishment today was Jerry checking out my 135 lift and his only critique was "you got a lot more weight in you." The 145 was pretty dang tough, and on the 155 attempt I was really struggling to keep active shoulder, so after the second rep I lost my balance and dropped the bar. There is a part of me that wonders if I gave up on it, just because I didn't have that moment where I told myself the chance to work on this won't come back around for a while. However, I don't have absolute faith in my left shoulder since the rotator cuff tear. Sigh, I wonder if that shoulder will every be the same.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Gameplan for the hip and Deadlift 3 rep max

On Wednesday I got to see the surgeon, Dr. Johnson. According Dr. Johnson, Dr. Bruno was a little uncertain if I have a torn labrum because in his notes for Dr. Johnson he wrote, "torn labrum?". Anyway, after looking at some x-rays and the MRI, he determined that I definitely have femoro-acetabular impingement, as indicated by a cyst in my femur. Whether or not the labrum is torn was a little harder to tell, given that the MRI was done without contrast (even though I suggested to Dr. Bruno that it be done with contrast, thank you online med sites). However, the cyst is from the femur hitting something in the hip improperly, so even though the images were not exactly clear, if the hammer shows damage, most likely the anvil has damage as well.

He said that if I were to have surgery I wouldn't be able to get back to crossfit for around six weeks.

Six weeks? Is that all? I could do that no problem.

However, first I will try conservative treatment to see if addresses the pain, and if not then we'll do surgury. Here's the Hierarchy of treatment, starting from the most conservative to the least, being surgery.
  1. Physical Therapy
  2. Prolotherapy
  3. injection of the hip joint of a numbing agent
  4. Arthoscopic surgery
The third option would also be prep for the surgery. Contrast in MRI's are just liquid, so Dr. Johnson recommends adding a numbing agent so we can hit two birds with one stone. First, we'll have contrast for another MRI. Second, if the numbing agent takes care of the pain then we'll know the pain is not from anything muscular.

Regardless, I'm very excited about prolotherapy and am not afraid of surgery anymore. I'm also very, very happy to have a game plan. I think the mental anguish of not knowing what to do was worse than anything else. Now that I have a plan, nothing looks that bad.

I think the mental boost was very helpful for Wednesday, because we had another heavy lifting day, and tried to find our 3 rep deadlift max. Last time we did this (6/23/09) my 3 rep deadlift max was 265. Today it was... 305. A full 40 pounds more. I also managed to do 2 reps of 315, which is 20 pounds more than my previous two rep max.

I'm very happy with how I approached this workout. I caught myself mentally giving up, looking at the 305 bar and doubting my ability. Thankfully, because I caught it I reminded myself that this is my chance to prove my strength, that I have to make this moment count because this exact moment won't come around again. This motivated me to address the bar, take a deep breath and pull. At first nothing happened, and I almost gave up, but then I dug a little deeper and the bar started to move, and then I was standing. I could feel my back bend under the weight, but I kept the core tight and nothing hurt. This was great because I found a way to keep focus and push though, and most importantly, I didn't hurt myself.

It seems that I'm addicted to making large gains, it's like I've been going through withdrawal and Wednesday I got my fix, and it was quite a high.