Week 3 in the books.. 1 more to go

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Good stuff guys and girls, today starts my final week of "no substantial training".

Last week was a great milestone, I built up from long walks to 30-40 minutes per day of medium resistance Spin Bike training. After a hernia operation it take a little while for the lower core to start feeling up to "snuff" as it were, so being able to get a few 30-40 minute Spin Bike sessions with no before/during/after pain was the stuff of celebration.

So far the recovery plan is progressing nicely.

Phase 1 - Rest and no activity, Vitamin C, eat well, 1 nap per day (Week 1).

Phase 2 - Walking (20-30 miuntes), Vitamin C, eat well, 8 hours per night (Week 2).

Phase 3 - Walking + Spin Bike (Low to Moderate resistance), Vitamin C, eat well, 8 hours per night (Week 3).

Phase 4 - Walking + Spin Bike + Low resistance Stretching, Vitamin C, eat well, 8 hours per night (Week 4). (Planned)

Now, once we hit the "Return to Training" week I'm going to be scheduling a few private lessons with one of my instructors. This isn't so much to clear the rust (of which there will be plenty), it's more to control the intensity, if anything goes "south" while training I want to be rolling with a professional that will stop immediately.

Also, Weeks 5 & 6 will be bodyweight style training only, we'll gradually bring the intensity back up, but that should let me evaluate my body's response to resistance training on a day to day basis, and again if something goes south at least it won't be under load.

Oh yes, before I forget, all this time off has taught me a valuable lesson.

Short breaks (1 week) every 6/8/10 weeks of training is an excellent way to encourage growth and healthy muscles/joints/bones.

Thanks for listening guys.. 1 week left!

Recover Fast!

-hz

2 weeks down.. 1/2 way to full recovery

Friday, October 17, 2008

It's true what they say, the body is amazing at it's ability to adapt and heal itself.

I'm at the two week point and today my 40+ minute walk was 95% pain free, contrast that to a week ago when I was feeling beat up by the time I hit the 15 minute mark!

Today marks two complete weeks of doctor mandated healing and recovery, and while boring and at times unpleasant, here's a few things I've learned that I thought would be good to share with you should you ever find yourself in my situation.

1. Read more, and I'm not just talking BJJ books, I'm talking all sorts of books you'd never normally pick up. So far I've read "Three Cups of Tea" and "The Road", both completely different, but both enjoyable when there's not much else you can do.

2. Take your vitamins, in particular Vitamin C, everything I've read indicates Vitamin C is a great nutrient for assisting "tissue regeneration", which after surgery is plenty important.

3. Spend time with your family/wife/girlfriend/etc, use this as a chance to reconnect with your loved ones, trust me, we all could use to do a little more of that from time to time.

4. If you are completely obsessed with "doing something" try to learn a new language. I've been learning Mandarin for work, and sure it's challenging as all get out, but it's good to at very least challenge your mind if not your body.

5. As soon as you are able.. WALK! Get's the blood flowing and helps the recovery process speed along.

6. Stop spending so much time reading silly blogs and go get some rest!

See you all in a week..

14 days to freedom!

-hz

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Brand New Day

Friday, October 10, 2008

Just a quick note today guys, I had my post op appointment with the surgeon. True to form we talked Twisters and underhooks for a good bit of the "meeting", in the end he pronounced me well on the road to recovery.

In fact he even approved distance walking a week ahead of schedule!

So today I fired up the mp3 player and set out for a nice 30-45 minute walk along the bay.

The majority of the walk I was consumed with my mp3 lessons in spoken Mandarin, my work is taking me to China in December so I'm trying to improve my "survival chinese!", but after the lesson ended Sting's Brand New Day came up..



Very appropriate.

It's the starting of a Brand New Day!

8 days of healing complete, 2o more to go before I'm back to lifting, BJJ, and more.

-hz

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Where's Hazmat? The Long Road to Recovery

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Yes, it's been a while, and for that I'm sorry, but I think after you've read my story you'll be happy to cut me a little slack.

About a month ago I was rolling and experienced "eye-popping" pain in the "groin" area. From now on I'll refer to this area as the "man-basket" just to keep this simple and above board. At first I assumed that the athletic protector (read "cup") caught something and applied some pressure. Now we all know what a kick in the crotch feels like, this was a good bit like that, but it seemed to last a good bit longer than I can ever remember one lasting in the past.

Nevertheless, like a good man I decided it was fine and that it would just "heal up on it's own after a relaxed weekend".

And it did.. sort of.

The very next week it happened two more times while rolling, now the pain was more intense, and there was.. hmm.. how do I say this.. more "goods" in the man basket.

A few days later the swelling became too much to endure so I went to see a doctor. Poor guy had to end his day checking out the "goods"..

Short aside.. once you inject yourself into the medical world you can toss out your modesty, pride, and sense of privacy..

Anyway, his diagnosis.. Inguinal Hernia

I'll let you google that up, as I'm sure you are going to, I'll wait here for you to read a few things, look at some pictures (only if you are crazy!) and then come back to read on.

So? Had enough? Unpleasant eh.

So, now I had to go get an ultrasound of the man basket. Yes, just like it sounds, just like your wife experienced when she was pregnant with your child, I was about to have my equipment scanned.

That experience in and of itself was very interesting, in fact the ultrasound machine crashed during the scan! Yes, it blue screened and crashed. Some guys get all the luck... sheeez.

After my ultrasound was complete ( and I had giant glossy photos of the man basket) I was off to meet with a surgeon.

The surgeon meeting was equally difficult to get to, thankfully my wife knows many people in the business and was able to get me in quickly.

The surgeon was a consummate professional, in fact he was a high school and college wrestler, so after he checked out everything we spent a few minutes talking about BJJ and how quickly I could get back to my sport. I felt very good knowing he understood my concerns and motivations.

Now.. the surgery. Not too bad, but the recovery has been a bit harder than I expected. I'm still not sleeping and moving around as well as I'd hoped. My future return to BJJ is marked on the calendar and I'm following my surgeons recovery plan, sleep, rest, eat well, no lifting over 15 lbs, etc, etc.

So bottom line, I hope to be back on the mats in November, my plan is to go back in and have fun, as I'm sure my game will take a hit.

Thanks for reading guys, perhaps I'll come back with some video suggestions from my recovery.

Recovery Fast!

-hz

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