Ola!
Today marks the 2nd week of rehab and things are going quite well. Overall I feel good. Day to day I don’t feel like I’m injured at all. The only thing that reminds me that there I’m not 100% is the slight tingling in my index finger and weakness on my left side. The weakness usually manifests itself when I try to use my left side to say pick up something heavy or when I try to get up from the floor by using my arms. Also, I’ll feel it during PT, which is part of the reason why I’m doing it so that makes sense. The tingling is weird. If I don’t touch my finger I don’t notice it. It has definitely improved from the first day and has sort of plateaued. Hopefully, it will improve even more by the end of the month.
This week the majority of my routine has not changed; however, my PT added two new exercises that are really cool (in my opinion).
Here’s my usual routine:
Head press against pillow: hold for 5 seconds and do 15 reps.
- It’s basically me lying supine on a table with my head on a pillow. I press my head into the pillow as if I’m trying to get my face away from something.
Band extension variation 1: 20 reps.
- Still lying supine I hold a band above me with my arms extended as if I’m about to pull a bar off the holders to perform a bench press. I bring my arms out to my sides, which brings the band to my check. The idea is to use my back muscles to perform this exercise.
Band extension variation 2: 20 reps.
- Same position as the variation 1 except that I tuck my elbows in my sides and perform the same motion as variation 1. That one is a little tougher and that’s where the weakness starts to manifest itself towards the end of the exercise.
Band tricep extension: 20 reps.
- Still supine, my PT stands at my head and holds the band while I perform a basic tricep extension. That’s the weakness really manifests. At first I would get to the 10th rep and start to falter. Now I can get to the 15th rep with only a slight feeling of weakness and then it starts to kick in.
Band pull down: 20 reps.
- Same as the tricep extension except that I’m holding the band as if it were a baseball bat and bring it down to my belly button. The weakness is still there and gets a little more intense as I’m still recovering from the tricep extensions.
Balance ball squeeses: 20 reps, 5 second holds.
- I stand at a table with a balance ball between my arms. I press down on it 10 times. Each time I hold it for 5 seconds. Then, I squeeze it 10 times and hold it for 5 seconds. I like this one because I get to talk to any patient working out next to me.
Band standing rows variation 1: 20 reps.
- Pretty straight forward, standing up pulling on a band squeezing the muscles on my back as if I were at a seated rowing machine. This one usually goes pretty well.
Band standing rows variation 2: 20 reps.
- Same position as variation 1 except that instead of bring my arms to my back I bring my arms down to my hips.
Pull Downs: 20 reps.
- This one involves three motions. I pull down on a bar with weights to my collar bone, then pull it down to my hips and then bring it all the way back to the top. The weakness hits me pretty quickly on that because I’m still recovering from the previous exercises. I fight through it.
Seated rows: 40 reps.
- Just like it sounds except that I don’t do 40 reps straight through, instead I do 20 reps using one hand grip, then 20 reps using another grip. This is tough. I have to fight through this one; however, it was a little bit easier than last week.
Dumbbell arm raises: 20 reps.
- I’m standing up with two 6-lb dumbbells in my hands and keeping my arms straight I bring them up to shoulder height.
Armbike: 6 minutes.
- This is a great exercise. I go in one direction for 3 minutes and then the opposite direction for 3 minutes. I started off with a 5 minute session and now am up to 6. Not bad.
Traction: 10 minutes.
- I’m supine and this machine pulls on my neck for 10 minutes. It pulls and holds for 30 seconds and then releases for 30 seconds. Awesome! Feels so good and a great way to end the work out.
That was my standard workout except that my PT added two new ones this week, which were really cool.
The first one had me standing with a band strapped around my head. I had to walk backwards, keeping my head straight, until I felt strong tension from the band and then walk back to the starting position (it was between 3 and 4 steps). Then had to do it in the opposite direction. That was really cool. I’ve seen BJJ guys doing that on videos on YouTube. It was really cool.
Then, I had to do push ups off of an balance ball that’s in a chair propped against the wall. This one is very difficult. The weakness comes on very quickly and I struggled with it. I’m looking forward to seeing how I do next week.
I’ve spoken to my PT and she said it was OK for me to do these exercises at home if I want to. Fortunately, I have a lot of the same equipment so I can have an effective workout. I’ll do that Saturday morning.
I hope that I see a big stride in improvement by the end of the month and maybe take another month until I’m 100%. That would be ideal.
In speaking with my instructor I think this injury will be good for me. I’ll be more careful, pay attention to my body more and use way less strength when I train. In the end it’ll improve my technique, which is great. Looking forward to it.
Hope you all have a great weekend!
Chau e bom dia!
