Training Log Archive: Wyatt

3x Heat/Massage/(*)/Stretch/Ice

(*) = on one set I did eccentric strength

1PM: Heat, Massage(light), Eccentric strength (10x50% arms), Stretch, Ice
4PM: Heat, Massage(light), Stretch, Ice

Pain: I think it's a little better than yesterday, but there is still a building-up burn when sitting, and occasionally even burning while walking around - I even had a sharpish increase in the burn while simply walking around the house slowly at one point...

~8PM: One more set of Heat/Massage/Stretch/Ice

And then later than night, a friend of ours who's learning massage therapy came over to practice :) Very relaxing.

Extra slow as part of a warmup.

11AM: Heat, Walk, Sparse Random Upper-Body Weights, Massage (light), Eccentric Strength on Hamstrings (7x50% arms), Stretch, Ice

Pain: Noticable but not bad for first hour awake. ~1hr after awake, while sitting, burn became (mildly) annoying again. Better than yesterday evening (but mornings are usually better) so not sure... Pain good now, although area still is a little numb...

2 Sessions - longer than before as I'm doing more stretching (up to 5 sets x 20 second on the bad side of each stretch.
10AM: Heat, Massage, Eccentric Strength (~10x50% arm strength), Stretch (longish), Ice
2PM: Walk (other entry), Light Massage, Stretch, Ice

Pain: Normal spot of inflamation - I can feel it a little while walking and a little while sitting, perhaps better.
Pain: Other - outside of my upper leg/glute area feels bruised to the touch (and slightly) when moving - perhaps a result of yesterday's deep tissue work. Plus, areas lower down the hamstring, and other other (Right side) ischeal tubericle have been slightly painful on occasion. Nothing to get too worried about, but I'm hoping that this will be settle down more on the next day or two (to nearly no pain more of the time - where I was last week) to show clear progress...

35 and drizzling, so for motivation, I did my first geocache

C • geocaching 1

4PM: Heat, Massage, Stretch, Ice
10PM: Heat, Stretch (light), Ice

Pain: Getting a little worse - more stuff hurts (all in the left leg/hamstring), and the burn is there whether standing or sitting. Maybe this is due to yesterday's PT, or maybe due to today's walk, which was a little faster/longer than yesterdays. Regardless of cause, I decided to hit it with 600 mg IB before sleep to help it calm down before morning. We'll see.

Plan: I'll stick to the home-PT (heat/massage/stretch/ice) only. Light on the massage, and light on the (1x/day) eccentric strength. And no walk tomorrow. And if it's getting better by tomorrow morning/midday, then it's probably the Wed. PT that exacerbated things. If not, it may have been the walk (in which case I'll more strictly do only what Val says...) If it's getting better by tomorrow midday/evening, then I may do a walk on Saturday. Or not.

It would be nice if this got pain-free in normal daily activities like it was for 3 days last week, but that's not happening. Damn.

Relay Chances: As of last Friday, I would have say 60% chance of running by the US Relay Champs. But that's been drifting down to a ~35% chance I'd estimate right now.

Heat, this walk, some transverse massage, stretch, ice.

Pain seems to have plateau'ed the last day or two - mild burn - perhaps even a 'cold'er burn than a few days ago.

I guess I just re-injured it 4 days ago so it may take a week or two for it to fully settle down.

After walk in morning.

Heat, Stretch, Ice only. Going to PT shortly. I think it may be improving as I'm not noticing it constantly while sitting (although the burn is there if I think about it...)

4:30PM Went to a PT Appt. Val was pretty busy when I got there, so I saw a few of Val's assistants, and they took me through:
- Heat,
- A long list of new stretches & strength exercises, including a Bridging, with knees squeezing a ball thing that hurt at 7 reps (I was supposed to do 20, but stopped - it is TBD whether this will be a set-back...)

I was struck by how the PT assistants were fairly competent at knowing where every muscle was, and how to do most stretches and exercise that Val wrote up, but Val is leagues beyond them in competence.

When she showed up to do the deep tissue massage (after exercise, due to her time constraints with other patient's) I had several questions - which had to pause occasionally when all I could do was breathe during so of the rougher deep tissue massage... - and she also worked through a few other strength providing the resistance herself, changing them on the fly, assessing thing during the motion - even asking during stretches "where is this pulling" and then making several small adjustments to the stretch to make it actually pull on the right spot.

That's really what a PT should be - way more competent than me and figuring out what is going on with my leg - not just slightly more...

Anyway, so after the leg beating and some stretching I did some ice. and this evening (now 8:30pm) it's still sore. But almost spread out more, and perhaps not quite as sore as yesterday... I'm not sure I'm following exactly what is going on, but Val inspires trust, and she's suggested I:
a) continue the exercises I have been doing, (don't add anything from today's PT yet)
b) call her if the pain gets worse.

I also booked a visit for Angelica to at least get her on & off Sciatica(?) evalutated, next Wednesday.

C • That's really sounds like a ve... 1

8AM: One set of heat/massage/stretch/ice
9AM: First felt a little burning today - at least it's not burning in the morning - I think I'm back to where I was a week ago or so in terms of burning/soreness...

Noon: Heat/Massage/Stretch/Eccentric-Strength/Ice
Leg still feeling a little burn today, but less noticable than yesterday

And 2 more w/o the eccnetric strength (~4pm, and midnight - last one w/o the transverse massage)

At some points it doesn't hurt at all (esp. standing/walking) but the burn comes back pretty consistently with sitting. And sometimes even when laying down I still feel it.

By late evening, after 4-5 sets of heat/(massage)/ice/stretch, the leg isn't burning much at all anymore (which is more than I could say this morning.) Off to bed for me...

4 times of heat/massage (forgot once)/stretching*/ice - about 5 minutes each. On one set of stretches (with a new PT), I did some eccentric strength. By the end of the day, the Ish.Tub. sore spot was barely noticable.

9AM: PT Appt. with Valeria A. at Rothman Institute in KoP. Seemed quite competent and so I think I'll be following her routine for a few weeks:

~Every hour or two (or at least 3x per day):
- Heat (laying on back with hamstring in light extension.) - 5-10 min.
- Transverse massage of the muscle, to the point of mild pain - 5 min. or so.
- Stretching - a few laying on back/side stretches - alternating sides to that legs get better stretch than back...
- (only 2x per day) Light eccentric hamstring exercise - laying on back and resisting with arms - only 50% effort for first few days to make sure it's working okay.
- Ice - Ice cup/cube massage, also transverse (more localized, and faster than ice pack.)

Also, she suggested we work on fixing my R-IT issue too, as that may help balance things so that this issue isn't as prominent?