![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdaySo I'd basically let two injuries take me completely out of the daily conditioning routine that I'd followed religiously for about four years. First, I hurt my shoulder in a fall about 10-12 months ago but stubbornly continued an upper body regimen that would be a challenge to a much younger man, including 30 military-style pushups, 30 behind-the-neck presses, 30 curls, and 30 reverse curls.
And even though, in the two months before I gave it all up, I'd tried different exercises to get the same effect without further aggravating the injury, what I was trying wasn't gonna work. It was just gonna make things worse. Which it did.
Then I tore up my knee and that was it. As my old man used to say, mostly about himself I think, "A man who can't walk is a man who is soon going to die." And, in his case, and that of his ancestors who subsisted by farming and hunting the land, that was pretty much the case.
But I'm not him and I'm not them. Probably don't have the stones that any of them had. On either side of the family, but especially my paternal granddad, tough old SOB that he was. Thinking back, I'm pretty well convinced that he didn't actually die, he just wore out. He ran the machine until it wore out. But he never gave up on it.
And while it's true that I've been limping around and doing what I absolutely have to do, I've been dogged more and more by deepening depression and the feeling that life has become more about facing the end than figuring out a way to continue fighting on.
But just about a week before I was to see my orthopedics guy, Dr. Irving Rapael who does sports medicine for Syracuse University, I started looking into a device called the MagneTrainer ER which is a mini exercise bike that you put on the floor to execise your legs and on a table to exercise your arms, chest, and back.
I figured that with its circular, no-impact motion and variable resistance, it might be the perfect thing to maintain strength, range of motion, and aerobic fitness. So I wrote a proposal and sent it to him before my first exam. And I said that, if he thought it might be beneficial, I'd pay for it out of pocket if insurance wouldn't cover it.
At my exam, he told me that he'd used a similar device in P/T to rehab his own shoulder and that the SU rowing crew uses them to train in the off-season. And that he just wanted to wait for the x-rays and MRIs so that he could include a diagnosis in the script for the insurance company. He also advised me to continue resting the shoulder in the meantime.
(Aside from all of that, he's a really great guy. He has a terrific reputation as an orthopedic surgeon and a really nice manner when discussing your case and planning treatment. Her Nurseliness always says she'd rather have a doc who's good in the OR than one with a good bedside manner. My feeling is, if I can have someone with both, I'll take that. And Irving Raphael does.)
Anyway, I'd still been moping around and worrying about what was happening to my back, as well as the rest of me, while I waited for appointments and insurance companies, etc., etc. But I think the plan was actually coming together in my head, as it sometimes does, even when there are no outward signs of it.
So this morning, when I got out of bed and felt the tell-tale signals of an impending drop-you-on-your-knees back spasm, I decided that today was the day to initiate "Plan B."
Which is to do only my core stretching and strengthening, cut my reps for each exercise in half, and do them twice a day. Which probably would've made sense weeks ago and certainly would've made more sense than just dropping the whole routine.
I've already done my first session today, had a slammin' breakfast/lunch followed by a 12 oz. cup of Newman's Own "Kick-Ass Coffee" (my name for it, not his), and I'm off to pick up the MRI disc of my knee to be hand-delivered to the good doctor.
Then, after a couple more appointments--the doc, the shoulder MRI, the doc again--I should be walking out with script in hand on my way to re-engage the upper and lower extremities in my personal battle against aging and the diabolical agents of evil everywhere in the universe.
Um, I think that last part was the coffee talking...
LPK
LiveJournal
2.10.2016
And even though, in the two months before I gave it all up, I'd tried different exercises to get the same effect without further aggravating the injury, what I was trying wasn't gonna work. It was just gonna make things worse. Which it did.
Then I tore up my knee and that was it. As my old man used to say, mostly about himself I think, "A man who can't walk is a man who is soon going to die." And, in his case, and that of his ancestors who subsisted by farming and hunting the land, that was pretty much the case.
But I'm not him and I'm not them. Probably don't have the stones that any of them had. On either side of the family, but especially my paternal granddad, tough old SOB that he was. Thinking back, I'm pretty well convinced that he didn't actually die, he just wore out. He ran the machine until it wore out. But he never gave up on it.
And while it's true that I've been limping around and doing what I absolutely have to do, I've been dogged more and more by deepening depression and the feeling that life has become more about facing the end than figuring out a way to continue fighting on.
But just about a week before I was to see my orthopedics guy, Dr. Irving Rapael who does sports medicine for Syracuse University, I started looking into a device called the MagneTrainer ER which is a mini exercise bike that you put on the floor to execise your legs and on a table to exercise your arms, chest, and back.
I figured that with its circular, no-impact motion and variable resistance, it might be the perfect thing to maintain strength, range of motion, and aerobic fitness. So I wrote a proposal and sent it to him before my first exam. And I said that, if he thought it might be beneficial, I'd pay for it out of pocket if insurance wouldn't cover it.
At my exam, he told me that he'd used a similar device in P/T to rehab his own shoulder and that the SU rowing crew uses them to train in the off-season. And that he just wanted to wait for the x-rays and MRIs so that he could include a diagnosis in the script for the insurance company. He also advised me to continue resting the shoulder in the meantime.
(Aside from all of that, he's a really great guy. He has a terrific reputation as an orthopedic surgeon and a really nice manner when discussing your case and planning treatment. Her Nurseliness always says she'd rather have a doc who's good in the OR than one with a good bedside manner. My feeling is, if I can have someone with both, I'll take that. And Irving Raphael does.)
Anyway, I'd still been moping around and worrying about what was happening to my back, as well as the rest of me, while I waited for appointments and insurance companies, etc., etc. But I think the plan was actually coming together in my head, as it sometimes does, even when there are no outward signs of it.
So this morning, when I got out of bed and felt the tell-tale signals of an impending drop-you-on-your-knees back spasm, I decided that today was the day to initiate "Plan B."
Which is to do only my core stretching and strengthening, cut my reps for each exercise in half, and do them twice a day. Which probably would've made sense weeks ago and certainly would've made more sense than just dropping the whole routine.
I've already done my first session today, had a slammin' breakfast/lunch followed by a 12 oz. cup of Newman's Own "Kick-Ass Coffee" (my name for it, not his), and I'm off to pick up the MRI disc of my knee to be hand-delivered to the good doctor.
Then, after a couple more appointments--the doc, the shoulder MRI, the doc again--I should be walking out with script in hand on my way to re-engage the upper and lower extremities in my personal battle against aging and the diabolical agents of evil everywhere in the universe.
Um, I think that last part was the coffee talking...
LPK
LiveJournal
2.10.2016
