Done with PT, Half Angie

Saw that at CFR they were doing a half Angie, witch is 50 pull ups, push ups, situps, and then squats. being bodyweight movements I figured it was a good idea to go for it.  And it worked out allright.  My endurance really has gone down the tubes, the pull ups and push ups took a really long time, I actually finished this WOD after everyone else.  That didn't really bother me, push ups are still a problem for me, but what did bother me was my mechanics in the squat.

This whole injury/rehab process really has brought attention to the asymetry in strength in my right and left legs.  I think the weakness in my right leg, namely my adductors, where what caused the injury.  In pilates, when I really focus on extending my right leg in certain movements, I can really feel how certain muscles want to take over but weaker muscles are starting to fight back and take on the work that they're supposed to.

Anyway, back to the squat.  Near the end when I was starting to fatigue I could really start to feel how wobbly my right knee is.  Actually, I think it is a lot wobblier now that it used to be because my groin is stronger and is now starting to fight instead of just not firing at all.  This problem in mysquat mechanic really could be the reason why my right hip has has so much pain.

I've spent so much time working on pushing knees out when squatting that I never thought the ability to keep my knees in to be an issue.  Now I know better.

It's been six weeks of PT, and I had my last session on Wednesday.  The therapist said that my groin is now much stronger, and all the exercises I did really did get easier as the weeks went by, but I should still keep up with the pilates.  This I already know, it's funny I could lift 220 pounds over my head but I can't go through a pilates class without taking like 45 breaks, and they're only using bodyweight.  All this work on power has left me with little work on endurance.

I still can't run without pain, although this pain seems to be more where my psoas is than the groin.  Still working on it, not really sure what to do.  A lot of things kind of hurt, but only a few things really hurt, if that makes sense.  I do a lot of self massage with the lacrosse ball, and that seems to help with the referral pain.  The fact that it is referral pain tells me that this is probably muscular and not a hernia.  Yay for silver linings.

MRI results

Ok well had the MRI and it shows some thickening (a sighn of inflamation) of one of the tendons in my right hip.  This does not disprove the idea that I have a hernia, but the doc thougth that the inflamation from having that tendon snap over other muscles and bone.  The doc described it as rubbing sandpaper on the tendon, so it's inflamed and probably why it hurts.

I have mixed feelings about this, it sounds a lot like the situation back in July '09 where Dr. Craddock said nothing should be clicking because all the muscles are in correct alignment.  If everything is in the right place, then the muscle shouldn't snap over anything because there's a clear path, if that makes sense.  Yet, there was still clicking, and this is what led me down the path of figuring out I have FAI and a torn labrum in my right hip.  ...I'm left a little puzzled, not sure what exactly to do.  This ortho here perscribed some PT, so I'm thinking about doing that and seeing how that works.  The pysical therapy on my groin is getting better, but it is still showing signs of weakness on the right side.  I need to fix this asymetry, I feel like it might be a source for all of my problems.

....The MRI still does not rule out a hernia, but it seems to be getting better (it's tough to tell because that air force wod really set me back) so if it is in fact getting better then it's def not a hernia.  I'm seeing Bobby this Thursday so we'll see if that will help with the recovery process as well.

injury mystery deepens

Ok so it's been like a month of rehabing the groin and despite that setback last week I'd say the actual hip adductor is 75% back.  However, there is still this hip pain that's right where the psoas is.  It doesn't hurt to do a sit up, but it does hurt to hold me feet a few inches above ground, or to hold a plank.

Saw the Doc again, and there are a couple things it could be, all of which are hard to tell because of the location of the pain.  It could be a sports hernia, it could be a ligament sprain, or maybe a muscle sprain.  To figure this out, I'm getting an MRI on Monday.  Yay.  I figure it's worth the $30 to add another piece to the puzzle (yay for gov benefits).

Really hope it's not a sports hernia, but even if it is it beats not knowing.

I've been doing some light lifting to shake the rust off, and boy is there some rust. Good news is that afterwards I did not feel like I was worse off than before, and that was my main goal.  ...I see that I'm now doing a butt wink when I squat, I think I've lost some of the flexibility, and also my body just might not remember how it's done.

I have not been exercising like I'm used to, and I feel lazy.  I have to stay active, and though I'm doing PT and pilates for a total of 5 times a week, it's just not enough, I need to go to crossfit or something.

Three steps forward...

So everything was going well and I decided to push my body a little harder on Monday, where I did the Airforce Wod for the first time.  I figured I would scale the weight and see how it went.  Turns out that was a bad idea.  I didn't feel anything during, but afterwards my hip area was SORE!  This worried me in that I thought maybe I do have a hernia.  Things were suddenly worse, I couldn't do movements that I could do last week without pain. 

I have been doing pilates three times a week, and while that's helped me work on my abs I am also finding out how weak all of my stabilizers are.  In physical therapy I'm finding a pretty big asymmetry in strength, my right side being my weaker side.  Perhaps this asymmetry is what is causing my hip pain.   Regardless, pilates seems to be exactly what I need to work on to fix this.

Thankfully I was able to see my massage therapist again, and it seems my psoas was rock hard, again.  Bobby spent about 45 min just working that one muscle and the pain I felt from the pressure felt a lot like the pain I experienced when trying to keep a hollow body or hold a plank position.  So I don't think I have a hernia, but I do think I've done something to my psoas, maybe a strain? I don't know.  All I know is that I feel better after the massage, but I'm still in quite a bit of pain.  I am going to try to do a lot of self-massage and see how that works. 

...Again apologies for not having a lot of posts lately, but I should have some good links posted tomorrow.