Physical Therapy – The Progress

GOSH I’m sore this morning.  On Tuesday night I did a full body workout at 11pm and on Wednesday morning I had a killer session with my doctor.  In less than 12 hours my body burned a tonne of calories and was pushed pretty darn hard.  When I woke up this morning I was tender, oh so tender.

I often give a quick update on my physical therapy appointments but it’s been a while since I gave a thorough post on my progress.  There also seems to be a bunch of new readers over here in Life After Bagels land since I announced my weight loss plan.  Hello new readers – hope you’ll stay, we’re super nice here

If you want a thorough explanation of my issues you can read this post.

Just to recap – in my left knee I have patellar tendinopathy and my right hip is just very very strained and weak.  These are chronic, long standing injuries that I’ve had for years, so yes of course it’s been taking a super long time to recover.

Since starting my rehabilitation process in May I’ve come a very long way.  I completed my 75km Ride for Heart bike ride, I started doing squats and lunges for the first time in years, and more importantly my daily pain has reduced.

In June and July I focused exclusively on strength training.  I’ve got a repertoire of lower body exercises that load and strengthen the degenerated tendon in my left knee and help to gain strength in my right hip.

In the last few weeks we’ve started to work on running.  Running is something I love, but I’ve never been able to do for a continued length of time because of the pain.  It turns out my running form is pretty terrible and even an able bodied athlete would be taxing their body.

I’ve spent a LOT of money to see my doctor on a bi-weekly and then weekly basis over the last three months.  I’ve spent HOURS and hours and hours at the gym, in my backyard, even training at the cottage.  For the first time ever, I’ve put myself 100% into rehab.  (I’ve dropped out of recovery programs in the past.)

Unfortunately right now I’m nursing a bit of an over training injury.  Sometimes pushing yourself hard has consequences.  (Remember that really bad pulled muscle just seven days before my Ride for Heart?)

It’s not too serious, but I have bursitis in my left knee right now.  I mentioned it last week but couldn’t remember what it was called.  It’s a fluid build up that causes quite a bit of pain.  The only thing that’s going to fix this injury is rest and ice.  I’m taking today and tomorrow off of all lower body stress to see if the pain lessens and then I can go back to things on Saturday.  I’ve got running drills to practice!

Yes of course I’m being careful and smart about the injury.  I don’t want to have to miss longer periods of training so a couple days of rest is no big deal.  Plus, I’ve got my weight loss efforts to think about.

There ya have it – a big ol update on my physical therapy.

Let’s see some food pics, shall we.

I accidentally picked this up at the Mennonite farm by the cottage.

Looks like a jar of peanut butter … but look closer.

SCHMIER?!?!?

It looks like peanut butter honey, tastes like frosting and is basically (accordingly to the ingredient list) peanuts and sugar.  Ohhhhhhhhh … dangerous.  Not quite peanut butter is it?!?!?

I stirred a teaspoon of it into my breakfast yesterday.  The mix included apples (microwaved for 2 minutes), cinnamon, plain greek yogurt, walnuts, and the schmier.

Oh me oh my.  Delish!

Tell me about your over-training injuries? How did you get them and how did you manage them?

Ever tried a schmier?  Is this a totally regular thing and it’s just new to me, are there secret schmier societies out there?