wshaffer

So, today at my PT appointment, we measured my range of motion and compared the numbers with what they'd been on my first visit:
lifting arm straight up in front of me: range of motion increased from 130 degrees to 160 degrees
lifting arm straight up to the side: range of motion increased from 110 degrees to 160 degrees
holding elbow at side and rotating lower arm outward: range of motion increased from 30 degrees to 60 degrees
My PT doesn't record a numerical value for the "reaching up to scratch between your shoulderblades" motion, but he considers me now able to reach my "mid-back" rather than just "lower back".

I've still got some way to go, but that's a very nice rate of improvement!

As my reward, I get a new batch of exercises to add to the ones I'm already doing. Wheeee!

So, when it comes to climbing, my toes have always been my Achilles heel* (er, so to speak). I tend not to point my toes properly and put too much weight on the ball of my foot, which means that by the end of a climbing session, the base of my big toe is sore.

I had hopes that getting my own pair of climbing shoes (rather than the rental ones I've been using) would remedy this. And it sort of did. My new shoes squish the toes together a bit and really force the foot into proper alignment. The ball of my foot didn't hurt at all as I climbed tonight. However, my toes, not used to bearing the brunt of all my climbing, were in a lot of pain - enough so that that was basically the limiting factor in my climbs. I'd come down off a wall when I couldn't bear the thought of putting weight on my feet anymore.

Now that I'm home and back in normal shoes, my feet feel fine. I think it's just a combination of my needing to break in the shoes, and my feet needing to adjust to the demands of this different mode of climbing. I'll give it some more sessions to adjust, and if it doesn't get better, I'll go to Planet Granite's shop and ask them to help me find some non-painful shoes.

* Well, apart from my other Achilles heels like poor flexibility, lack of upper body strength, and a mild fear of heights. Yet, somehow, I love this sport.

So, I realized that I've been (not entirely consciously) holding off on doing another fitness report until a) I could get my body fat percentage measured again, and b) I could announce that my stupid bursitis was ALL GONE.

Well, a) was just a matter of waiting for the next convenient date when the folks with the tank were at my workplace. B) is a more vexed question. As far as I can tell, the actual inflammation of the bursa is long since healed, but I'm still prone to getting a slight ache in my left hamstring and/or tensor fascia lata if I overdo it. Determining what constitutes overdoing it is a process of trial and error, because I seldom feel pain while actually exercising. The overall trend is towards less pain and faster recovery when I do get pain, so I'm hopeful that some time in the not too distant future I can call this injury a thing of the past.

( What I'm doing )
( My goals )
( My progress )

I have a couple of posts of actual substance fighting their way to the top of the mental queue, but they'll probably take a while to get there. So, have a few brief notes and links instead:

While I have to admit that the geek in me loves the idea of the music genome project, Last.fm has recently been kicking Pandora's butt at actually introducing me to new music that I like. Because Last.fm has so much more music available on it. Although this is forcing me to confront the fact that there are an alarming number of German Sisters of Mercy clones, and that I kind of love them all. Sometimes it ain't about originality.

Somebody at snorgtees is determined to put increased pressure on my already overflowing t-shirt drawer. Do I want the I heart heart Gallifrey shirt? Or the Knock Knock shirt?

This article describes what's been going on with my left hip far better than anything else I've come across in my internet researches. Trochanteric bursitis? Check. Tight tensor fascia lata? Check. Sore gluteus medius? Check. I think it would be smart to add a few gluteus medius specific exercises to my routine for the next few weeks. (And to train myself to stop crossing my left leg over my right knee when I sit.) And if I do end up having to go back to the orthopedist, I'll show him this article and see what he thinks of it. (To his credit, when I saw him last, he did do the standard test for gluteus medius weakness, which is to see if you can hold your pelvis level while standing on one foot with the knee slightly bent. My guess is that I'm kind of a borderline case - strong enough to pass the test, but not quite strong enough to hold up to a long running session.)

Fit and Feminist has a lovely post on runner Lauren Fleshman, posted just after I stumbled across this Nike ad featuring Fleshman. I sort of love the line, "I'm not a small pink version of a man. Don't give me small pink versions of a man's running shoe." Even though I'm not entirely sure what it means. (I've been giving some serious thought to buying myself some men's running shoes, because so many women's running shoes don't come in wide sizes. I've read articles claiming that women's feet are different from men's, and that women's running shoes are designed to take into account these important differences. I am somewhat skeptical.)

Due to getting caught up in work yesterday morning and having to hustle off to the gym, I didn't drink my usual whey protein shake before heading off to my workout with my personal trainer. I'm only mildly sore today, so notwithstanding my previous data on the subject, it appears that now that I'm reasonably well acclimated to strength training, the extra protein isn't critical for preventing muscle soreness. (Of course, it's always possible that I'd be even less sore if I'd consumed the whey protein. It's a problem when you use yourself as a clinical trial of one - no controls.)

Whey protein is still very handy as something that I can eat shortly before an intense workout without being in danger of it making me sick. But it's nice to know that if I miss it once in a while, it's not catastrophic.

On the downside, something that I did in my workout yesterday irritated my left hip a bit. It would be a hell of a lot easier to follow my doctor's advice of "Exercise as much as you can, but don't do anything that causes pain," if I didn't have to wait 18 hours to know that at least one of the 6-10 exercises I did was apparently a bad idea.

I did a really interesting exercise with my trainer in today's session: basically, we did step ups, but rather than doing them for strength (slow, controlled step up and down), we did them for power/speed (pop up and back down as fast as you can). I already knew that my left leg was weaker than my right, but when the exercise is done this way, the difference is striking: not only do I generate less power with my left leg, and tire faster, but my balance is noticeably worse. (Like, "How do I not tip over when I got up stairs?" worse.)

I don't know whether this weakness is the cause or an effect of my recent hip injury, but it's something I'm clearly going to want to correct. Fortunately, I can do step ups anywhere there are stairs, so it ought not to be too hard to work more of them into my routine. (I've been trying to do more glute and hip flexor exercises to help with the hip bursitis, and they all involve getting down on the floor and doing things that look either undignified or obscene. I have a hard time doing them where other people might see me.)

On a more triumphant note, I overhead pressed 18 pounds today. That may not seem like a lot, but I can remember a not-too-distant time when overhead pressing 10 pounds was a struggle.

So, what I said on Friday about my quadriceps seceding? Yeah, totally. Yesterday, both getting up from a seated position and getting into a seated position were sufficiently painful that it usually took a couple of attempts to do either. I spent some of my relatively immobile time reading review articles like this one and this one to see what the latest in medical science has to say about the treatment of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), which is the official medical term for why your muscles decide to hate you after you do exercise that they're not used to.

Alas, modern medical science mostly says, "Suck it up, cupcake!" Light exercise of the affected muscles provides temporary relief, but doing it is no picnic. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown in some studies to provide relief, and in some studies not, and in some studies have been shown to delay healing. However, the good news is that in a worst case scenario, I should be pain-free within 96 hours after exercise, which means that I'll get at least a day of being able to get out of a chair like an able-bodied person before I go weight train again on Wednesday. (Don't worry! The post-exercise soreness for my second session will be much less bad - I've already trashed all of my weakest muscle fibers!)

There was a period yesterday during which I spent quite a lot of time contemplating whether I wanted a glass of water badly enough to endure the pain of standing up and walking to the kitchen to get it. This must be what people mean when they talk about a physical disability being mentally exhausting - it's bad enough that you can't just do what you want to do, but having to go through the whole, "Well, the water will be good for me. On the other hand, maybe I should just wait until I have some other reason to get up and then I can accomplish two things while only having to get up once..." is particularly draining.