ENTRY NINE: February 1, 2014

I was really excited to get started on week six. I’ve been progressing along well and now it’s time to finally get into the strength stuff. I also knew I had my rescheduled post-op check in with Dr. Torpey so I was looking forward to hearing his feedback on progress.

He had me put my arms in several positions, lifting it overhead, to the sides, and reaching behind my back. I’m still not to 100% ROM, but everyday does continue to improve. He let me know that the six sutures I had was a lot, and reiterated that fact that my muscular strength really masked the injury’s symptoms before I got the surgery. I was basically lifting and lifting and paddling and paddling, just making things worse without even really feeling it. Kinda crazy. All in all, he feels I’ve made good progress and wants to see me again in four weeks which will be in early March.

Some good news is that I’m also officially able to do some “light” jogging and shorter runs now which is great considering how stir crazy I’ve been. (even though I’m not a huge fan of running.)

I continue to live in my bedroom, stretching daily, and whenever I can, going through all the usual motions. However, this week I did experience a few setbacks. With starting to strength-train I noticed my arm “catching” more often and getting into some kind of spasms. For example, on Tuesday I added very light internal and externals with resistance bands, 2 sets of 15 repetitions each. I’ve also started doing neutral grip lateral raises with 3 lb. dumbbells, and very light machine rows. The internal and externals felt fine, however the lateral raises created some clicking and popping, and the rows took a little while to get used to. The next day in the office my arm froze up on me three times where I had to do hanging arm circles or “pendulums” for a couple minutes. It’s been slightly frustrating, especially considering how many projects have been going on a work on top of not being able to really train. Some days are pretty crazy, I’ll be up at 7AM, work until 7-8PM, I’ll stretch, sometimes even pass out for a couple hours, then up working and then stretching again in the middle of the night, sleeping a few hours then repeat. Not ideal for healing, shit, not ideal for general wellbeing, but I’m a man on a mission and I’m pushing through everyday on all fronts. Gunning for record traffic numbers on MensFitness.com in January, redesigning the website, building Super Bowl coverage, Olympic coverage, launching a Yoga hub, coordinating workout challenge videos, coordinating a major summer transformation program, preparing one of our brand ambassadors for the Ultimate Athlete Games, and preparing for a relaunch of HUMANFITPROJECT.com on the sneak-tip. Wooooooo, that’s a lot. I’ve officially dubbed myself, Sweatpant Man.

This spring and summer I’m going to be bigger, stronger, faster, and smarter. Until next week…