I Had a Dream...

The other night I dreamed that I was speedskating, and as I was crossover-ing my way around a corner, it occurred to me--"hey, this doesn't hurt at all."  Later that night, I dreamed that I met President Obama and he complimented me on my arm muscles.  Sadly, at the rate my leg recovery is going I think it's more likely that I'll hear the President directing a "nice guns" my way than that I'll skate pain-free any time soon. Or do CrossFit pain free.  Or sit or drive or...well, you get the idea.

Yeah, things aren't going so well.  My five-day Time Out From Exercise turned out to have no effect on my leg pain.  It did, unfortunately, have an effect on my waistline; when I can't exercise I get cranky and when I get cranky I want to eat.  Lots of pizza and ice cream was sacrificed last week on the altar of "I Need to Get Myself in a Better Mood Before I Kill Someone."

So Monday, after my five days in the recliner were completed and were proven to be a dismal failure, I turned to a couple of new options for improving recovery: electrocution and stabbing.


Or, well, technically, ARP Wave Therapy and Dry Needling.  Yes, both were very painful.  No, I didn't exactly plan to do both on the same day, it just sort of happened.

I had stumbled upon the ARP Wave Therapy at a CrossFit competition I was watching a couple weeks ago.  They offered a free consultation/trial treatment, so I figured what have I got to lose? So at 6 am Monday, I gave it a try.

ARP Wave Therapy uses electrical stimulation to improve healing and retrain the brain to send and receive impulses to/from injured muscles appropriately.  Or something like that.  For the therapy, they take an electrode (for the record, nothing good has ever come from a sentence that begins with the phrase "they take an electrode...").  Anyway, they take an electrode and move it all over the injured body part as they deliver electrical current through it.  Yes, it's painful. And what are they looking for?  Why, they're looking for the most painful spot. I was told they're looking for a "10 out of 10" pain spot, but since I'm pretty sure a 10 out of 10 would actually result in the patient either kicking the technician in the teeth and ripping the electrode off, or huddling on the floor in the fetal position sobbing and peeing on themselves, well, I can confidently state that we did not get to a "10" pain level on my leg.

The 7 or so that we hit was bad enough.

And then, after they've found the most painful spot, they stick the electrode there and proceed with a workout I like to call "The Devil's AMRAP." For those who don't speak CrossFit, an "AMRAP" workout is one in which you complete As Many Reps As Possible in a stated amount of time.  The Devil's AMRAP looks like this:  Attach electrode to most painful spot of injured body part.  Turn up electricity to "10" pain level (or as close as patient will let you get).  Perform a movement that typically causes pain in injured body part (in my case, I did 5 squats).  Pain from the electricity will theoretically drop with this exercise.  Crank up electricity to "10" again, and do 5 more squats.  Repeat for 7 minutes.

In my case, unfortunately, the pain level never really decreased, which indicated that either I didn't let them crank up the volts enough, we didn't find the right spot, or the therapy would be unlikely to work for me.  So the trial was disappointing as well as painful.  I haven't ruled out a repeat trial if things don't improve in the future, but in the meantime we've got to see how the stabbing dry needling performs.

I didn't intend to try dry needling the same day I tried the ARP Wave, but when I got to my Monday afternoon Physical Therapy session I, of course, whined extensively about how my leg pain has not decreased at all in the past two months or more, and about how frustrated I'm getting.  So the PT suggested we try dry needling.  Which is basically a more Western version of accupuncture.

So yeah, it involves needles.

Fortunately we only had time to needle two spots on my leg...and also fortunately, the needles were not nearly as painful as the electricity had been.  The combination of both, though, was enough to make the CrossFit workout that I did immediately after the PT appointment fairly interesting.

Not being content with trying two different treatment methods at pretty much the same time, I also tried therapeutic deep tissue massage a couple days later.  Unfortunately, none of the three treatments have yet produced much pain reduction.    So I'm not sure what to do next.  I think I'll ask the PT, when I see him again for more needles on Monday, if and at what point we start to wonder if something is actually wrong with how my leg is healing. Am I just a slow healer?  Should I go back to the surgeon and ask more questions?  Should I be concerned about this, or do I just need to be patient?

In the meantime, I'll keep hitting the upper body workouts hard in case I happen to bump into the President.

Time Out

No, not time out from blogging...although you might be forgiven for thinking that, given how infrequently I'm here!  No, I'm talking about time out from working out.  I'm currently on Day Four of a self-imposed five-day hiatus from working out.  No skating, no CrossFit, no running, no rowing.  I plan to serve most of my time-out (when I'm not at work) in my recliner.

Since I only have one day left after today, I think I'll make it.

Actually, since I chose to put myself in time-out rather than having a coach or a PT or someone else do it, it hasn't been so bad.  After all, I put myself in time-out for a reason: pain.  And the same pain that put me in my recliner makes it very easy to say "no" to workouts.

I'm not sure what to blame my increased pain on, but increased it definitely has been these past two weeks.  Ever since my surgery it has always hurt to walk, to sit, to drive, and to exercise...but I didn't expect that, at almost five months post-surgery, the pain would be increasing rather than decreasing.

I think skating is probably the main culprit.  Most exercises that I've done (once I got past the first few weeks of attempting to do anything more strenuous than walking to the kitchen) have been only mildly to moderately uncomfortable at the time; skating was actively painful from the very first right-foot push, and I'm still almost completely unable to do crossovers at all.  So skating is probably the main cause of the increased pain...but I can't forget that, in addition to the four skating sessions I've attempted in the past two weeks, I've also added several new things at CrossFit: cleans, weights in squats, and light deadlifts.

Or, well, supposedly light.  In my second deadlift session, I was planning to start at 50 pounds and work my way up to 70.  Unfortunately, I was thinking "50 pounds" as I approached the weights, and so of course I grabbed two 25 pound plates--completely forgetting about the weight of the 35 pound bar.  It wasn't until two more sets--and two more additions of weight--that I realized "hey...that's not 60 pounds on the bar...it's 95."  Apparently I need this shirt:

It's from Yakked Industries, which you can find on Facebook.

Anyway, between the skating and the new stuff in CrossFit, I've probably violated my PT's strict instructions to "not add too many new things at once."  And that's probably why I now find myself wearing sweatpants to work again, cussing my leg every time I walk or sit, and yes, feeling a bit sorry for myself once again.  Add up increased pain and absence of workouts, throw in a calorie deficit due to trying to lose the weight I've gained during my previous months of recliner-surfing, multiply by approximately 20 hot flashes per day, and it all adds up to one very cranky skater/CrossFitter.  That's some scary math right there.

So I'm trying some time off.  So far I don't notice much difference, but I'm hoping that will change by Monday, because I fully intend to go back to CrossFit on Monday, pain or no pain.  In the meantime, I'm also looking into a type of recovery therapy--ARP Wave Therapy (no, not AARP...although I am old enough to qualify for that)--that I stumbled upon at a CrossFit competition that I went to to watch last weekend.  It's an electrical-stim therapy that supposedly improves recovery time and reduces pain, (although Hubby Jim says that its main effect is probably to lighten the wallet), and since they offer a free consultation/trial I'm looking into it.  

In the meantime, I'll be in my recliner with visions of workouts dancing in my head.

Oh, Here I Am...

Oops, I see that I haven't posted on here in, oh, 22 days.  The only reason for this is that I seem to be getting bored with writing about recovering (I'm certainly bored with doing the recovering).  I don't want to write about it or think about it or even record my workouts during it (I know!  Me, the data queen, not recording a workout!)  All I want to do is just be done with it.

But still, there have been a couple things in the past few weeks that are worth recording.  I've done a few weighted squats, I've rowed quite a bit, I've run a mile (a blistering 11:40), and yesterday, for the first time since the injury, I did deadlifts.  Very slow, very cautious 45-pound deadlifts, but still deadlifts.  I can do hang cleans and hang snatches (but not "real" ones from the floor), as well as box step-ups and double unders (well, as much as I could ever do double unders).  I want to try handstands and rope climbs again; I don't think they'll present a problem (again, other than the problems I always had with them).  Still on the no-fly list are box jumps, kettle bell swings, cleans, snatches, jumping in Burpees, weighted lunges, and heavier squats.  And probably a few other things I'm forgetting.

So, what about skating?

Well, I tried it last Tuesday.  To say it did not go well would be a gross understatement.

I went to PT on Monday and he checked my range of motion and cleared me to try skating.  So on Tuesday I happily packed up my skates and my warmest winter gear--it was about 5 degrees, with a wicked wind--and headed to the oval.

Here it is, looking all innocent and festive...

Looks like fun, doesn't it?

Wrong.

As it turned out, skating was the most painful thing I've done since my injury and surgery, including when I slipped and fell a couple months after surgery.  And I didn't skate long or hard; I mostly coasted around, pushing very gently with my right leg because anything close to full extension was very painful.  And when I finally got up the guts to attempt crossing over in a corner, I learned that this is a very bad idea; way too much stretch and strain on the ol' hammy.  And in addition to the pain, I was not enjoying watching all the other skaters glide smoothly and strongly past me..I couldn't help staring at their legs and envying their nice functional hamstrings.  So in the end, I wobbled around for maybe 30 minutes and then had to quit.

That barely-visible "thumbs up" is a lie.

But my skating was not really done.  No, it turns out that skating is now the gift that keeps on giving. Four days later, my leg is still sore and swollen.  I've had to wear sweatpants to school for the past three days (fortunately that's not too much of a fashion downgrade from my usual attire), and my leg hasn't been this cranky since my post-surgery slip-and-fall.

My PT says I can continue to try skating, but to be very careful not to overload myself by doing it when I'm otherwise stressed, or have just done something new at CrossFit.  And since I'm currently sick (third cold since October, yay) and I did deadlifts for the first time yesterday...it's looking like I should wait a few more days before I get back on my skates.  And I'm pretty sure that I'm looking at next season before any real meaningful training on skates can take place. Good thing I've got CrossFit to keep me sane and exercised and happy.

And so the recovery continues...