GHD Situps are Painful

Today's workout was 20 minutes for max rounds:

10 Pulldowns @ 170# (Rx L-pullups)
15 GHD Situps

I made 4 rounds in 17:23

In other news, I'm using a Frogpad to help my one-handed typing and I have to say it's got it all over the Dvorak.

Push Jerks

Went in on the way to work. I was a bit nervous as the push jerk takes more coordination and control than some movements. But it went all right. Four warmup sets:

45x3, 65x3, 95x3, 95x3

Five work sets of five reps each:

115, 125, 130, 135, 135 (only 4 reps)

135 is definitely my max for 5 reps. Found some pain in my right wrist - wrist flexors may be weakened a bit.

Tough to Get Used To

My workouts have been extremely spotty since my last post. I'm coming to understand that I need to get it done first thing every day, or I'm likely not to find time for it later. Maybe that's why PT in the Army is always the first thing after you wake up.

Of course, writing this entry at 3AM isn't exactly consistent with this goal. You do what you can.

Did get to the gym on Monday (yesterday, now), and gave a good account of myself. The prescribed WOD was 3 rounds as follows, for time:

Run/walk 1/4 mile
Dumbbell swing (55lbs, 21 reps)
Lat pulldown (150lbs, 12 reps)

I completed 2 rounds in 25:44.

I was wiped out afterward. Didn't recover fully for about half an hour. I note that at the moment 150lbs is my upper limit for 12 reps.

Later today, Push jerk 5 5 5 5 5

Bench Pressing

WOD today was Bench Press 1 1 1 1 1 1 1. I put in 5 warmup sets at

45x10, 65x10, 65x10, 95x5, 115x1

Workout sets were 1 rep each at

135, 145, 145, 155, 155, 155, 165

Pressing strength hasn't been degraded more than I would expect from a long layoff. I find that the full body tension (even bearing down on my diaphragm) that helps with deadlifts also helps here.

Back in the Gym

I've started working out again, following a scaled version of the Crossfit workout of the day. Yesterday was Cindy, one of their benchmark workouts. In 20 minutes I completed 7 rounds:

5 pulldowns (120lbs)
10 pushups
15 squats

I walked to Medina's Gym and back home afterward, about 1.5 miles each way.

Today I dropped by the gym on my way to work. The WOD was back squats, 7 x 1 rep. After several warmup sets I made 315, 325, 335, 345, 355, 365, and 375.

Fear is a funny thing. I wasn't afraid when I started, and I blew out my arm doing deadlifts, not squats. But as I approached and then passed 325 (the weight that ruptured my biceps) I could feel my guts tighten. I pushed through but it was odd to feel that, understand it, and recognize that it was totally irrational.

I need to work on squat form, though. Maybe some research is in order.

Why Are We Here?

It all started in the gym. My workout of the day was heavy deadlifts. I got a bit lax in my form, and I felt something like two rubber bands snapping in my right arm. It actually didn't hurt all that badly, but the way my biceps bunched up toward my shoulder looked ominous. MRI confirmed a total rupture of my right distal biceps tendon.

I considered my options and decided to try for surgery to repair the tendon. I hadn't lost too much function, but I thought if I had a good chance to recover my full strength then I should take it. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

According to my orthopedic surgeon when they opened up my arm they discovered that my biceps tendon was "shredded." There wasn't enough left of it to hold sutures. So the original injury could not be repaired. But when I woke up from the surgery I found that I'd gotten a special bonus injury while I was under: My right hand is now partially paralyzed.

It seems that while they were rooting around in my arm trying to repair that tendon a nerve got a bit stretched: the posterior interosseous nerve to be precise. As a result when I awoke I was unable to supinate my right wrist and the muscles that extend my metacarpal/phalangeal (MCP) joints were dead. The MCP joints are at the base of each finger and thumb where they meet the hand, so the result is that I'm unable to extend the fingers of my right hand.

That was about 8 weeks ago. My surgeon tells me that there is no cure, per se, for my condition. Like most nerve injuries it will either get better on its own or it won't. A neurologist tells me that there's no way to predict how much function I'll recover, but that the next 6 months or so will tell the story.

There has been some progress. I can supinate my wrist about halfway now. Pronation is unaffected as is flexion of the wrist. Wrist extension shows a strong radial deviation due to loss of enervation in the ulnar wrist extensors. I have greatly reduced grip strength in my right hand - about 50% of what it was before the surgery. There has been very little recovery in my fingers: I have perhaps 2-3 mm of extension in my index finger, none in the rest.

I've spent the past six weeks learning to type with my left hand only, using a special keyboard layout designed for that purpose. I'm a technical writer by trade: I type for a living.

And of course I still have all the problems you'd expect from the loss of my right biceps.

So my training has a bit more adventure to it now. I'm in the process of recovering whatever function I can in my right hand, recovering as much strength as I can in my arm, and now trying to get back into the gym for the rest off my body. This journal is my record of that work. I'm living proof that surgery can change your whole life.