New exercises for Week 3:
- Bridge (3x5 progressing to 3x10 with a 5 second hold at the top)
- One-legged bridge (alternating legs)
- Swiss ball roll-ins (3x20)
- Swiss ball bridge (3x5 with a 5 second hold)
- Box air squat (3x5 progressing to 3x10; decrease height with success)
- VMO squat/wall squat (1x5 progressing to 3x15 with a 10 second hold)
- Air squat series (1x10 progressing to 3x10)
- toes straight forward
- toes straight out
- toes straight out with a toe raise out of the squat to the top
- lunge (one set with each leg forward)
- AM terminal extension with belt (1x5)
Roll ins seem to be helping with flexion, so that's good. The bridges are getting easier and have the added bonus of helping with glute engagement, which I suck at at the best of times. The one legged bridge, especially trying to bring my left leg into extension, is definitely a challenge.
With the exception of the VMO squat, which is not exceptionally difficult, all things squatting are demoralizing and frustrating. I seem to be improving, and I don't even necessarily think that I'm behind, but going through two straight injuries that eliminate your ability to squat functionally is awful mentally. I just want to be able to squat to parallel and not look like I'm trying to fold myself in half. It's embarrassing and frustrating.
I saw my surgeon on Friday (Day 16). I finally got the low-down on what went down during my surgery. As she expected, my knee was a mess when they went in there and there was a lot to clean up. Overall she was happy with how this went. My ACL was repaired using a hamstring graft. My bucket handle tear was indeed flipped and blocking the joint, rendering me locked. None of my torn parts were repairable and they took 2/3 of my medial meniscus. My medial compartment is my best one in terms of osteoarthritis, where I am a 2 on a scale that goes from 0-4. My lateral compartment was a 2-3, with a section observed at 40 flexion that was a 4. My anterior compartment was also a 3. The hope is that now that my knee is stabilized we can slow down the further degradation of the joint. She doesn't anticipate weightlifting putting undue stress and damage into it. Football is obviously another story. Overall she says that it shouldn't bother me arthritically for several years yet, and once it does my activities will be dictated by how I take pain. Not the greatest news, but no surprises basd on what my MRI had showed.
I'm still swollen, but less so than in the first two weeks. I have fallen off a little bit on my icing regime and should probably take some more care to be doing that. I think I may leave my cryo cuff at home from now on and emphasize icing from there. I don't think that I need to be icing while I'm at work anymore.
I got my fluid trainer set up last night so that I can happily bike away at home in addition to when I'm at the gym. I forgot to ask about the ski-erg at my last appointment so I'm going to make sure that's on the list for this week. I've seen pictures on instagram of another Sather patient able to use the rower, so I was going to ask about that as well. As of tonight I'm going to restart doing some upper body work as well so that I can try and get my routines back to some semblance of normal.
Not too sure what my goals are in terms of hitting them by my next physio appointment. I guess just general comfort and vague improvement in my squats so I feel less awful and incompetent. I am going to have to ask Ian what reasonable targets are in between my appointment on Thursday and whenever the next one will be as I am not a good judge and have proven to be a very harsh critic right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment