Three weeks back after my holiday and, after losing the first week to a virus, I’ve been back in the gym and making good progress.
In terms of landmarks, I’ve finally been signed off by physio so I’m free to do pretty much whatever I like with no restrictions – woohooo! I still need to increase strength in the ACL leg (it’s about 10% off the ‘good’ leg) and keep working on flexion (still can’t kneel down or put heel to glute) but things finally feel as though they’re getting back towards normal.
Having hit the gym hard for the first week, typical over-flippin’-enthusiasm, I’ve been reminded of the need for my ‘slow and steady’ mantra. While the knee has been okay *touch wood*, every other historic ache and pain seems to have been reawakened. Peroneal tendonitis? Hello. Tight Achilles? Hello. Sore lower back? Hello. Hip pain? Hello too.
So, after a week doing my best Quasimodo impression every time I initially stood up or got out of a car, I’ve re-jigged my ‘programme’ to make sure I regain my fitness and rebuild this body properly and in a more balanced way.
First up is yoga. I’ve tried yoga before and inevitably I just get bored and stop doing it but as I spend most of my day bent over a laptop and then have a tendency to hit they gym hard, I figure something more gentle and ‘progressive’ would be a good idea.
I’ve got a few old DVDs lying around the place and after a few sessions, I’m doing better than I thought. The only poses I’m struggling with are Tree pose (it’s going to be a while until I can twist the knee enough and have enough hamstring strength to hold my foot any higher than my calf on this one) and, bizarrely, some poses for the arms, which need you to kneel down and lean forward to enhance the stretch, but there’s a lot I can do and I’m already feeling myself standing straighter and experiencing less neck/shoulder pain at the end of the day.
I’ve also started using some old workout DVDs when I haven’t got time to get to the gym, starting with Davina’s Power of 3 (otherwise known as squats central). Given I’ve struggled with squats as part of the rehab, I was pleasantly surprised with how I got on with that one. My leg felt a bit strange afterwards – the best way I can put it is like swapping mid thigh to the top of your calf with a foam block, like the kind you get in gym training pits – and I’ve had that sensation quite a lot since the surgery but it settled down pretty quickly and was soon forgotten about when next day DOMS set in on the other leg (which, of course, hasn’t really been training for months).
All in all, this new ‘mixing it up’ approach seems to be going well and I’ve had a couple of my best and most natural-feeling runs yet in the last two weeks: first a 6x 4:1 run walk at 8kph; then an 8:2, 18:2 run walk at 7.5kph; and yesterday an 8:2 run walk at 8kph. So, I’m clocking up the kms for the Running Down Dementia challenge. I do feel some movement in the joint but it hasn’t given way and, so long as its stays that way, I can live with that.
Less successful has been the attempt to shift some of the weight I’ve acquired over the last two years so, in an attempt to give everything a kick start, I’ve started cutting sugar out of my diet – not just as a diet fad but to help manage other issues at the same time. First week (with no exercise) resulted in no weight loss but no weight gain. Last week, with four gym visits thrown in, resulted in 2lbs on and 1% point bodyfat gain. Unimpressed doesn’t come close. If I’m going to pile on the weight anyway, I may as well just eat the cake and damned well enjoy it!
So, week 3 weigh in is tomorrow. I’ve been good. Hopefully my body will be adjusting to the new regime and the scales will finally start moving in the right direction. If not, I’ve been promising myself a few PT sessions once I was fit enough to get back in the gym properly so maybe it will be time to bite the bullet. Wish me luck!