Saturday, October 4, 2008

The Grand Experiment

Yesterday was the day. After 7 weeks of physical therapy, I decided to take the pink bells out for a short ride. (The pink bells are my AKC pro-grade 8kg kettlebells, in case you're wondering.)

I had hoped to keep my current activity variables constant so that I could clearly see what kind of effect the bells had on my back, but fate had other ideas for me. The family ended up going to a local holiday craft fair in the morning which included a lot of picking up, carrying, putting down, picking back up, carrying some more, etc, etc, etc of my little guy who is now pretty close to the equivalent of a 12kg (blue) bell.

With that in the morning, we got home early afternoon which then gave me the opportunity to perform the following:

Swing: 8kg - 10/10

Jerk: 2x8kg - 3 min (18 reps or 6 rpm)

I performed the double jerks today intentionally so that I would be forced to keep my back in neutral without any twisting. I also did not want to overdo any swings so kept those brief.

I then finished off with Intu-Flow Beginner Routine.

I am VERY happy to say that waking up this morning, I was no worse for wear! Don't get me wrong, I still have the ache in my back, but nothing acute and not any worse than the previous day. Good news!!!

Today was filled with my therapy-specific exercises and another round of Intu-Flow Beginner.

My plan for the next few days...

Tomorrow morning: Therapy-specific exercises and Intu-Flow Beginner - this will allow me to go to therapy that evening and wake up Tuesday (hopefully) feeling what I'll call neutral (or better)

Tuesday morning: Swing and (dare I say) Snatch with the 8kg - very light and easy - this will let me then wake up on Wednesday morning and objectively sense the effect of the Snatches

Wednesday morning: Play it by ear, definitely Intu-Flow, maybe therapy-specific exercises as well depending on how I feel.

That's it for now. My mood is starting to lift! Now I just have to be sure not to overdo it. =)

4 comments:

Nikki Shlosser said...

Right on, Howie, congratulations on your recovery!

hunashaman said...

Great news buddy. I'm glad things are improving. Take it easy and listen to your body!

Howie B said...

Thanks Nikki, but I still have a LONG way to go.

Baby steps Johan.

Franklin said...

Great progress, man .. keep it up!

And maybe throw in some band or tubing Goodmornings .. since recently adding them to my daily warmup, my lower back has never been better.