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Post Surgery Log


Rick Walker

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Extra rest day for me today. We got hammered with a lot of snow and ice. Already plowed out the snow, but I need to get a spade shovel to the mound in front of the wife's garage or she is never gonna get her vehicle out! Then it will be snowman construction with the kids where I plan on lifting some snow atlas stones and stacking them high. The red beast came through and climbed my mountain of a driveway last night despite the several inches of snow that accumulated.

My son was hitting 65 mph out of the machine with his wooden bat yesterday and a guy in his mid to late 20s stopped and watched and couldn't believe at age 11 he was able to even get a piece of the ball with a wooden bat, let alone hit it well. I bumped him to 75 with his composite bat and he was ripping those as well. He moves up this year to 11-12 baseball and 11-13 football. Not a scared bone in his body. FEAR IS A CHOICE. He will be prepared for all obstacles that come his way.

I am checking out some spring meets, either full or deadlift only. Haven't committed and most likely wont until the last day forms are being accepted. Would like to see some more full meets within an hours drive so my son can bump his records up more. He is getting stronger all the time. Its almost scary to think about where I was in 5th grade and where he is. The only thing pushing him is 2-4 year old brothers who are already foaming at the mouth to get a football helmet on and a barbell in their hands. I will put them through a bodyweight workout sometime this week and record it so people can see how to safely and effectively workout 4 year olds and make it fun for them. If you are letting your kid sit around on his rump this winter playing video games and watching TV you are doing them a great disservice. You don't have to force them, but if you can make it fun they will ask to do it. Our youth are suffering because WE, as parents, are doing a shitty job. Stop Facebooking for 30 minutes an play with your kids.

If your kid is soft as drug store cotton, it's YOUR fault. Sometimes tough love is better than being their friend. You will have lots of time to be a friend when they are older. Be a parent now. And put foot to ass when necessary.

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-Plate loaded machine bench: 230 x19, 5 negs, 1 iso hold / 250 x13, 5 negs, 1 iso hold, x10, 4 negs, 1 Iso

-V-grip pulldowns: put legs up OVER the piece that you usually put your legs under, 140 x12, 4 negs, 1 iso hold / x9, 4 negs, 1 iso hold / x8, 3 negs, 1 iso hold

-Axle floor press: 165 x10, 175 x10

super set with

-Decline flys: 50 x10, x10

-Seated low row: 140 x10, 190 x10

super set with

-1-arm row: 90 x10, 130 x10

-Decline machine bench: 240 x10, 250 x17!!

super set with

-Standing band flys: x20, x20

-Standing pullovers with rope: 70 x10, x10

super set with

-Inverted row on axle: x10, x10

Always getting better. Sick still, cold has moved south to my lungs so I am trying to cough it out but it doesn't want to budge. Working out helped me feel MUCH better!

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-Plate loaded military press machine: 210 x10, 4 negs, 1 iso / x8, 3 negs, 1 iso / x6, 3 negs, 1 iso

-Shrugs: 495 x10, x10, x10

-Side raises: 30 x10, 10

superset with

-DB press: 60 x10, x10

-Farmer shrugs: 430 x20, x20, x20

-Partial side raises: 30 x20, x20

superset with

-Partial front raises: 30 x20, x20

-Rear delt partials: 30 x20, x20

-Side raise holds: 30s x 36 seconds, 32 seconds

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-Belt squats: 255 x10, x10, x10, x10.

-Glute-hams: x10, x10, x10, x10.

-Calves: 180 x20, x20, x20

Had to cut it short. Had an appointment with the Ortho doc. He let me know that I have some nice arthritis in both patella's as well as a nice case of patellar tendonitis. He cant shoot cortisone into them as he stated it has been shown that in men "my age" (like I am suddenly f*cking old) it has more of a chance of causing a rupture than it does working. He also said the prolotherapy wouldn't work because it causes damage and I would be laid up for weeks until they regenerated and healed. He then proceeded to tell me that I need to ice them, use anti-inflammatory drugs when needed, and go to physical therapy where they will show me how to work my quadriceps in other ways besides squats.

After all that I looked at the dude and let him know that I wasn't looking to "work my quads" but wanted to move more weight and having a background in exercise physiology I was pretty sure I knew every angle to work my quads. His attitude changed and he decided to prescribe some cortisone gel that will be applied and ultrasound waves will push it into my knees. He said I most likely wont blow it off if I keep squatting but I will be in some serious pain. I can deal with the pain, and I can deal with it popping off if that's the case.

I will be headed to Slippery Rock to get another opinion probably next week. My training partner's sister is a professor there and is very good friends with the ortho surgeon there who deals strictly with sports related stuff.

Until then, I will need to make a decision if back squats are worth the trouble when my focus is the deadlift. I have a lofty goal in my mind in the deadlift and I don't want to do anything to jeopardize that. I have some thinking to do as the wide stance belt squats cause no pain...

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Found an interesting website where the author reports he tried cortisone, plasma, etc. To no avail. What finally cured him was single leg squats on a slant board, facing down so all the pressure is on the tendon. You just perform the eccentric movement super slow than use your other leg to assist in 90% or more on the concentric. Start with a couple sets of 10-2 times a day and work up to 3 sets of 30. Hurts like hell but him, and several others who commented stated it worked like a miracle. The pain gradually goes away over a short period of time. Worth a shot.

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Hope you get it all figured out. In regards to the prolo I personally know about 5 guys that have each gotten multiple shots in everything from wrists, elbows, shoulders, and knees and it didn't lay anyone up. These guys were in so much pain that the slightest bit of side pressure would almost send them to tears but were back pulling within a day.

I think it's still pretty new so the information that's floating around can be pretty varied. This is just what I know of these guys, other athletes who know how to train and push themselves intelligently.

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This dude was straight up anti-lifting on all accounts. He asked me if I ran...really? You see a lot of 230 pound guys who run distance? He just wasn't into helping me much at all.

He said the prolotherapy takes time to heal since it is so irritating to the tendon and would keep me from being able to squat at all. I told him I wanted to compete in late April and he said no way would I be healed enough from it by then to compete due to needing several shots a week for several months.

The website I found the author said the plasma injections hurt something fierce for 24 hours, bad enough that he decided not to do them again though he stated Tiger Woods and Troy Polamalu had good success with it.

I'm going to seek a second opinion and continue to do the slant board eccentrics. I did remember once I read the article that once I started doing super slow db chest and shoulder presses the tendonitis in my shoulder went away.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16882889

A short read but the meat and potatoes is this: "No advantage was demonstrated for surgical treatment compared with eccentric strength training. Eccentric training should be tried for twelve weeks before open tenotomy is considered for the treatment of patellar tendinopathy".

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-Seated machine curls: 3 drop sets of 6 sets each.

-Dips:3 drop sets of 6 sets each.

-Drag curls: 2 sets of 10

super set with

-hammer curls: 2 sets of 10

-Close grips: 2 sets of 10

super set with

-Skull crushers: 2 sets of 10.

Done. My body is telling me to take some time off. Tomorrow is a rest day and I just might make it a rest week. I have been going straight since October with no more than 2 days off in 10 day cycles.

I need to go back to super slow eccentrics to rid myself of some of these nagging pains. My right shoulder where I got cortisone years ago is acting up again, I have a bone spur the size of an eagle talon in it. My forearm tendonitis is acting up. All signs that I need to make some changes. Time Under Tension/super slow eccentrics seems to keep me pain free, so I believe I will go back to TUT for awhile. I will still continue to deadlift every 10 days as that has been feeling great. I believe I will just do the wide stance belt squats until I get these knees back. I am going to give these super slow eccentrics on the slant board the full 12 weeks before I make a decision about them.

I made the mistake of jumping out of the back of my lifted F-150 this morning after I chiseled the ice and snow out of the bed. That hurt like hell and probably made them worse! I then spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon moving stuff around at my friends how preparing for his dad to move in. He has a sweet basement and we are going to build another dungeon gym!

Time to eat and stay warm. I am going to get the coal stove glowing!!

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Hi Rick,

That really sucks about your knee(s?). Since you know a lot about exercise physiology this is probably of not much use to you but I wanted to share my experience with my own knee injury any way.

About 7-8? years ago I sustained my knee injury. Some sort of cartilage tear/rupture. Couldn't even walk up the stairs without pain. Went to a fysio and started doing eccentrics. Continued doing this for a year(!) this worked fairly well and the pain subsided untill it didn't bother me in daily life any more. However putting as much force on the joint as I was used to in training was a completely different story. I have never competed and I was never at your level of strenght, but squatting for reps with 180kg is still way too much force for an injured knee. I struggled for years trying to gradually increase my weights, but it went up and down. Couldn't do any heavy deadlifting, squatting, leg pressing etc.

It wasn't untill two? years ago I realised I needed to try other stuff. I'm now finally on my way to being able to use (semi) serious weights again. Have deadlifted 205kg last year pain free.

This is what I think helped me:

- Hamstring and hip mobility work

- Hamstring strenghtening. Knew I had to do this. But all the leg curls in the world weren't helping me at all. What I finally did find benificial were lunges and romanian deadlifts.

- Stabilizing ab work like planks and/or ab wheel rollouts.

- One legged Calf presses. Didn't really knew these worked untill I didn't do them for a couple of weeks one time and the pain came back.

- Foamrolling. Yes it's a hype, but it does really help get rid of tightness.

- Magnesium (citrate) suppletion 300-600mg daily. It helps relax the muscles amongst numerous other benefits.

I'm also currently doing Zercher squats instead of back squats because the pressure on the knee is somehow very different and I can do it pain free. You can use much less weight than with the back squat, but you do get the benefit of a great core/posterior chain work out. And they require much less flexibility to do safely than say front squats.

Best of luck.

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Thanks for the post. Luckily it isn't injured to that point yet. There is a chance I could pop the tendon, but the doctor seemed to think the chance was not that great. Not sure how much I believed him. At any rate, I am not too concerned with upping my squat too much and if I have to just belt squat I can handle that as I do not want to cause an injury that will take me away from deadlifting. As of right now, I have no pain when I deadlift and very minimal pain when I do wide stance belt squats. Despite the negative attitudes towards being a one trick pony, I am only trying to prove something to myself, and that something involves a pretty lofty deadlift goal.

I did pick up a pressure band that goes around the knee right on the tendon and I can really crank it down. I will test it out and see if it eradicates the pain at all. Despite my calves being tiny, I do work them quite frequently. I do need to get back to my DDP Yoga and get some flexibility back and will most likely try and find some time to fit it back in.

I am more concerned about this shoulder right now. I think I will be headed to the ortho again next week for another cortisone shot in it. Its been 6 years so I am due.

Set up a system in my garage to let my twins hit off the Tee today as they will be playing T-ball come April. Both of them are ripping the ball. Some coach is going to be pleasantly surprised with them as they are a package deal.

Back to training tomorrow. In pain but I will be training.

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Good luck with your shoulder than also. Have you investigated if your infraspinatus muscle is painfully tight? If you have an infraspinatus issue you will not feel any pain there unless you put pressure on it, but it can cause all kinds of shoulder pains. I had this nagging shoulder pain for years. A fysio told me it might be an infraspinatus problem. I started massaging the infraspinatus using a hard ball and a wall daily. In the beginning any kind of pressure hurt like hell. But now I can really rip into it. My shoulder pain is almost completely gone.

Cortisone injection seem to work well, but they are known to deteriorate tendon tissue.

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Lots of rehab work on my shoulder/pec with light dumbbells. Stretching, PVC pipe rolling, etc. You bastards are getting to me. Actually, my therapist said some things to me last week that had me thinking. At any rate, I am still beat up, but starting to feel better.

-Deadlifts: 450x5, 460x4, 470x3, 480x2, 490x1. No belt.

-Low rows: 300 x 3 sets of 10.

-Behind the neck pulldowns: 90 x3x10 to help rehab the pec.

-Standing back ext: 460 for 3 setts of 8 reps.

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Good stuff, Rick.

Especially that 95 pound picture perfect deadlift capped off with a smile.

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Thanks Eric. Did the side view help you at all?

I always remember talking to Ed Coan and him saying to not focus on an arch, but rather a straight, ramp like back. I try to do that.

The record in my daughter's weight and age group is 85 pounds. She will decimate it. If she does a full meet she only needs to squat more than 65 and bench more than 36 and she will own all 3 records and the total. She can bench the 45 pound Oly bar already. She isn't big on being out there competing, but I just might be able to convince her otherwise. She is playing baseball this year, first time ever, so we shall see if I can push her to do a little more.

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Yes, it sure did. The freeze frame of the video showed the side angle, so I was extra eager to watch this one. Yeah, textbook form from the side angle!

Pretty soon you guys could have a decent sized powerlifting team.

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Not sure I mentioned this earlier, but Casey hauled up 205x3, no belt, last week. That kid never ceases to amaze me with his abilities.

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Not sure I mentioned this earlier, but Casey hauled up 205x3, no belt, last week. That kid never ceases to amaze me with his abilities.

That's really quite remarkable.
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Well, I was working on the alternator on my SUV yesterday, walked around the side of the vehicle, hit an ice patch and my right leg slid out from underneath me and my left leg went under me, causing my knee to hit me in the face and my leg to twist under my body. I laid there for a bit and did a once over to see what hurt. My left knee was killing me, but I tucked my chin and didn't hit my head so that was good. Hobbled around for the rest of the night but it felt ok this morning, so it was leg day.

Back to time under tension to rid myself of these constant aches. 5 second eccentric followed by explosive concentric.

-Wide stance hip squats: 150 x 60 secs, 170 x 60 secs, x 60 secs, x 60 secs.

-DB leg curls: 40 x 60 secs, 35 x 60 secs, 60 secs, 30 x 60 secs. Used the head harness strap to strap the DB to our feet. Made it easier to control and you didn't have to worry about the db falling. Did these on a decline bench. Much harder.

-Leg ext: 73 x 120 secs,, 86 x 145 secs, x 125 secs. Just closed my eyes and focused on the quad burn. Let the worries of the world float away in a sea of pain and lactic acid.

-1-legged leg curls: 36 x 60 secs, x 60 secs each leg.

Done. Knee feels ok. Lots of Jacks Blue Heat. Pain is temporary, pride is forever. Good to have the 5.0 back lifting with me. His schedule has been screwy lately. Bis and tris tomorrow.

Crank your speakers and try not to break your neck! Breaking other stuff is completely acceptable behavior.

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Yeah, me too. As soon as I started going down my first thought was "my knee is done!" I am like that guy in "Hot Tub Time Machine" when he keeps nearly getting his arm severed and eventually he does. Not funny unless you have seen the movie I guess.

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The super slow belt squats have left my hips, hams, and glutes in extreme DOMS and my knee feels normal, which to me normal is a dull ache.

My therapist is popping a baby out soon. Probably this week if not today, so by the time she gets off her maternity leave for 2 months I am going to be one ornery SOB to be around. Thank God for good friends, jacked up trucks, and iron. Having someone to vent to with an outside perspective helps a ton and if you are wound up tighter than a piano string I recommend you do the same. It might save your life.

Bis and tris later today. Right now my one 4 year old is playing Minecraft and the other is with momma at the store. Might need to dig into the couch for a nap.

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Forearm tendonitis hurts so bad that I want to vomit in my mouth the entire time. So what. No one cares. Shut up and lift.

-Seated cable curls: 55 x60 secs, x60 secs, x60 secs, x60 secs.

-Machine bench triceps: 70 x 60 secs, x60 secs, x60 secs, x60 secs.

-Face curls with fatgripz: 50 x 60 secs / 60 x 60 secs, 60 secs.

-2-arm push downs with Atomgripz: 70 x 60 secs, x60 secs, 60 x 60 secs.

-1 arm preacher curls: 30 x 60 secs, x 60 secs, x 60 secs each arm.

-OH ext with EZ bar: 70 x 60 secs / 60 x 60 secs.

I want to have surgery to sever my forearm tendons, shorten them, then reattach them. Just think it would make me bull strong in the upper body.

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-Plate loaded machine bench: 140 x60 secs, x60 secs, x60 secs, x60 secs. Pec is coming around as I was able to do this without pain, but did not want to push the weight up more.

-Atomgripz pull-downs: 130 x60 secs, x60 secs, x60 secs, x60 secs.

-Incline DB presses: Fatgripz on DBs, 50 x60 secs, x60 secs, x60 secs.

-Low Row: 180 x 60 secs, x60 secs, x60 seccs.

-Plate loaded decline bench machine: 160 x60 secs, x60 secs, 140 x 60 secs.

-Standing pull-overs with Atomgripz: 50 x60 secs, x60 secs, x60 secs.

-Seated good mornings: 135 x10, x10, x10.

Ordered $5000.00 worth of equipment yesterday as my business venture gets closer to launching. Super stoked. Got a roman chair, some new cable attachments, and a full set of bands for my gym, the rest is for my mobile unit.

I am going to try and see if I can find a Powerpohl.

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