PTAaron's DC Training Journal

[PTAaron]

Fun in therapy today... got up to 20lbs for 2 sets of 15 on my curls! Woohoo! I'm such a beast! LOL!!
Also did a leg workout - that felt great. Did knee extensions, leg press, prone hamstring curls, and seated calf raises.

[PTAaron]

Forgot to mention that I now have about 150 degrees of active shoulder flexion (reaching straight up to the front) and 110 degrees of abduction (to the side). When my therapist is stretching me I have almost full range (170-180) flexion and abduction, and I do have full range external and internal rotation So I'm pretty thrilled with the progress to date for only 2 weeks post-op. Of course this makes me think I need to me a lot more aggressive with my patients in the future! I want them all like this 2 weeks post-op from now on!! *evilgrin*

[PTAaron]

Shoulder was really stiff and sore today - ever since last night when I was being nice and massaging Tracy's shoulders and it popped.
Range was more limited today in therapy... but I bumped up my weights on a few things...
Did my curls with 25lbs 2x15 today!! I'll tell ya by rep 8 on the second set i was DYING!! Ha! Felt great though. Also added in front pulldowns today with some very light weight (7 plates x 15; 9 plates 2x15) and it felt awesome.
Legs are toasted from the workout yesterday! I woke up and my calves were sore just laying in bed - so I knew it was going to be a lot of fun once I stood up!
Very happy today

[PTAaron]

Cardio today - did 45 minutes on the treadmill. Felt good to be on a treadmill again instead of the bike.

[PTAaron]

Weighed myself... 243lbs Down 5-6lbs in just under 3 weeks... kinda worried about what will happen by the time I can hit upper body for real in the gym again!

[irongirl]

Aaron, don't sweat it too much hun. You won't lose your gains that quickly. You'll bounce back in no time when you are back at it in the gym.

[PTAaron]

Hoping so IG... I also need to get back on top of my diet - been letting it slip like crazy since I've been off.

[irongirl]

Chin up Aaron!! You can do it. You KNOW you can!!!!

I'll be needing motivation while I am off with my knee and can't do any cardio..lol..so you can help me out in that department then. I am soooo afraid of putting on too much weight

So you can encourage me then

[PTAaron]

Will do IG You'll do great! It will work out nice - you can train upper body and I'll train lower body! LOL!

Went to the gym today for cardio (speaking of that!) - did 10 minutes on the bike while waiting for a treadmill, and 35 minutes on the treadmill.
Saw something really funny today while I was on the treadmill - it was the worst case of ILS I have ever seen! That is Imaginary Lat Syndrome, also known as PLS - permenant lat spread in case you are unfamiliar. This guy in a BB.com t-shirt and a winter hat (not a beanie, a full knit cap) was walking around the gym like he had Ronnie Coleman's lats tucked under his arms! I was laughing so hard when I saw it I almost fell off the treadmill! I mean the guy looked like he had some muscle to him - but damn! LOL!!

[PTAaron]

Did a "real" leg workout today... Actually did a biceps/forearms/calves/hamstrings/quads the proper DC way after my PT appointment. Bicep and Forearm exercises were limited by what my right arm could handle.

Dumbell Bicep Curls:
30lbs x 21 RP

Hammer Curls (5 second negative):
30lbs x 8 - brachioradialis was really sore on these.

Seated Calf Raise:
too light - did 15 reps with 15 second stretch, 5 second negative each rep.

Prone Hamstring Curls:
130lbs x 21RP

Knee Extension (to prefatigue quads):
190 x 15 sraight set

Leg Press (cable):
400lbs x 20 - max the leg press goes to... thats why I pre-fatigued the quads.

[PTAaron]

Cardio today...
Treadmill for 41 minutes. Strange time you say? I agree. At 30 minutes my shoe started rubbing the crap out of my heel, so I stopped for a second and tightened it up - that didn't help. Finally at 41 minutes I couldn't take it any more so I stopped. I just got new shoes, I should have broken them in on a shorter walk. Oh well.

[PTAaron]

Did biceps/forearms/calves/hams/quads at the gym Thursday... Biceps/Forearms were limited by what my right arm/shoulder could handle.

Cable Preacher Curls:
50lbs x 23RP (felt a lot heavier than 50lbs!)

Reverse Grip 1-Arm Cable Curl (5 second negative each rep):
2plates x 8 - again major pain in the brachioradialis muscle belly during the exercise, I wish I knew why.

Paramount Calf Raise (5 second negative, 15 second stretch at bottom each rep):
110 x 10

Seated Hamstring Curl:
140lbs x 20 RP

Cybex Squat Press:
720 x 12 straight
540 x 22 straight
*I probably could have gone more reps, but I was afraid to push it to far with no spotter and not being able to use the right arm to self spot.

NOTES:
Different entertaining guy at the gym today - this guy has some realy big biceps, so he knows how to do something right... I just got some good laughs watching him when he went over to the hanging leg raise station and started doing extreme high speed swinging of his lower body - so his feet were going up past his head and then coming back down completely uncontrolled and slamming his body against the back pad. I could just see the joints in his back getting jammed together on each rep... This was happening right in front of me as I was trying to do my preacher curls.

[PTAaron]

I'm really excited... today in PT we added shoulder presses with dumbells! I started out at 6lbs for 10... did 9lbs, 12lbs, 15lbs, and 18lbs all for 10 reps! Just some pain at the top of my shoulder at the AC joint during the sets - nothing bad
We also discovered that my teres major and lats are majorly tight and causing a big part of my end range pain. The ironic thing is that if you stabilize my shoulder blade and try to stretch into flexion (this stretches the teres major) my GOOD side is more limited than my surgical side! So thats a real good sign! Really excited about the progress especially since I just hit 3 weeks post op 3 days ago!

[PTAaron]

Cardio:
Walked on treadmill x 30 minutes; bike x 6 minutes
Right shoe is giving me problems still... rubbing the back of my heel raw... I think the support part in that shoe is curved in at the "top" a bit more than left shoe. Had to stop on the treadmill because my heel was just too painful - messed me up on the bike too.

Just started taking VPX Redline (the liquid version)... I'll let ya know how that works for me.
Currently my suppliment routine looks like this:
AM: glucosamine/chondritin, 1000mg vitamin C, vitamin E, multivitamin, MSM, bromelain, 1g arginine, VPX Redline.
Midday: 1g arginine, bromelain, Redline
PM: glucosamine/chondritin, 1000mg vitamin C, Vit E, multivitamin, bromelain, 1g arginine, 500mg Niacin.

I have the niacin at bedtime so I don't have to be awake to deal with the "flush" that goes along with it... also sometimes taking melatonin at night.

When I get back to the gym I'll add back in Creatine Ethyl Ester HCl 3-5g post workout only, and 5-10g glutamine preworkout/10g glutamine post workout in my shakes. Pre-workout shake is 3 tightly packed scoops of WPC with 1 package of instant oatmeal in it. Post workout shake is 3 tightly packed scoops of WPC with 3 scoops of dextrose/malto.
Any questions or comments are welcome...

[PTAaron]

This blows - I typed this all out then hit the wrong key and lost it... lets try again...
Good therapy session today. Did shoulder presses with 20lb dumbells today, only had some moderate soreness in the AC joint - but I guess that is expected from the decompression they did on the joint. Cool thing I noticed is that I am able to do weights on seated one arm rows that actually fatigue out my "good side" just as bad as the surgical side Of course I'm not used to doing 3x15 on anything anymore, so I guess thats no surprise. Even funnier was that my therapist went to do a workout after my treatment and was using less weight than I was on the rows - naturally I had to laugh at him. We're good friends, so it was just some friendly teasing.
After my 2 hours of PT I did a biceps/forearms/calf/hamstring/quad workout DC style:

Seated Bicep Curls:
30lbs x 22 RP (limited by right bicep failing)

Dumbell Pinwheel Curls (5 second negative):
30lbs x 12 straight set (no brachioradialis pain today)

Seated Calf Raise (using hamstring machine):
(5 second negative, 15 second stretch each rep)
110lbs x 16

Prone Hamstring Curls:
130lbs x 20 RP

Cable Leg Press:
420 x 26 straight

Leg extension:
190 2 x 15; 3 minute long drop set (see "Notes")

Notes:
Leg press machine at work doesn't hold enough weight, so I did an extra set of leg extensions to toast my thighs. While doing my set of leg extensions one of the other therapists was on the stairmaster and was going to wimp out on the last 3 minutes of her workout - I told her I would keep going on the leg extension without stopping until she finished on the stairmaster... so naturally she wanted to see me in pain and kept going for the full 3 minutes. By the end I had 30lbs on there and needed a 10 second breathing break between each rep... I seriously thought my thighs were going to explode!