FOCUSED.

shoulder is doing pretty good and the lifts are starting to get a little heavier. It’s interesting the confidence right now is still not there to go back to kb and I’m wondering when a good time to do this is because the last thing I want to do is ‘pop’ my shoulder back out.. just because the recovery process sucks a&*S and takes waaay too long. Have to start hitting the cardio hard as well because it has definitely dropped through the floor since my surgery and starting at 10minutes and adding a minute a day so hopefully I’ll be back up to spec in no time but we’ll see I guess. On the upside.. no more SHIN SPLINTS!@.. yes that’s right folks .. after almost a year of fighting off that horrible feeling on the inside of the shins my stretching and exercises have definitely paid off.. for any of you in the same situation it’s all about the two calf stretches and one legged squats that have helped immensely. I’m now up to 10 minutes of skipping pain-free 3 times a week.. I’m going to try and slowly progress to 5 times a week 20mins.. we’ll see how long this takes but i’m not going to push it..

On the flip side my motivation has definitely taken a lift because I’m working on a grad project right now that is on sport psychology and the recovering athlete. One of the biggest challenges is that athletes see themselves as impaired by their injuries and do not enough on what to do in the moment and focus too far ahead on outcome goals that they have no control over. Since being able to reframe my injury things have come a long way and I’d almost say the operated shoulder is even more stable than my other shoulder. Anyways anyone who wants to talk more about sport psychology can give me a shout.

Finally! 10 weeks out and I can finally get my arm far back enough behind my neck to stabilize the bar and start doing squats! yay! too bad I was so excited I overdid it a bit. 2sets 20 reps w/ 135.. ok so yea my legs are still no happy with me from all the lactic acid build up. Also managed single leg squats which are helping with shin splints. I had no idea how much the hip flexors and stabilizer muscles are involved with running/skipping.. hopefully a couple more weeks on this regime and I can do away with the shin splints for now. Also ankle exercises were prescribed as well.

I have gained 1 lbs! starting to notice my appetite is increasing with the intensity of the exercises building. I feel the savageness coming and I can’t wait for the next couple of workouts. Just gotta keep myself under control as i’m still healing from the shoulder surgery and need to bring up the rotators and rear/ant deltoids before i start going really heavy.

nutrition has been decent so far. I’m thinking of getting back on the superpump/sizeon and animal test after I start to plateau. I’m guessing that still might be a couple months away.

shin splints fired up two days ago again.. it’s getting really annoying.. *sigh.. so i’ve rested them for 3 days now and been doing self-massage and tigerbalm.. seems to be helping.. i’ll be going to the gym again today and seeing how things work out.. less pain in the shoulder as well seems to be getting better but i’m starting to hit a new frustration high. save for the cardio i’m barely breaking a sweat and don’t feel like my gains are going very far.

on nutrition note i’m putting in some more calories into my diet as I seem to be dropping more weight *sadly it might be muscle mass. oh well another month or two and i’ll be able to start doing upper body chest/shoulders again.

lats are sore today from yesterday’s workout.. who would’ve thought that I’m actually getting sore now. lol.. guess it’s a good thing i’m getting back to the gym. Good rest day today.. nutrition is back on track and consuming carbs again feels good. none of this mid afternoon crash (well at least it’s not as bad).

i’ve started to get back into kicking the bag today!! yay! that’s all i can say about that! but i really found out how out of shape i am.. i’ve lost a lot of cardio since having the surgery.. hopefully i can get back into full out running and start raising the bar again. I guess everything is coming slowly but surely. I have made progress and success begets success so here’s to tomorrow! AND THE DAY AFTER!

Also made myself a whole wheat pasta dinner tonight and it really does make a difference going into the gym on more carbs.. just feels like i can go a bit harder.

i’ve started to get back into kicking the bag today!! yay! that’s all i can say about that! but i really found out how out of shape i am.. i’ve lost a lot of cardio since having the surgery.. hopefully i can get back into full out running and start raising the bar again. I guess everything is coming slowly but surely. I have made progress and success begets success so here’s to tomorrow! AND THE DAY AFTER!

Also made myself a whole wheat pasta dinner tonight and it really does make a difference going into the gym on more carbs.. just feels like i can go a bit harder.

wow.. so i’ve had a small hietus from the blog.. that doesn’t mean I stopped working out! it’s just hard to train and track my sessions as I’m mainly recovering now and listening to my body in the gym. I’ve found that resting a week or a couple of days between doing rotator cuff exercises definitely helps the recovery instead of hitting the bands every day. I’ve started to ease up on my diet too as i think my diet was suffering from low levels of carbs. I started to get grouchy at the middle of the day and tired; unable to do much of my school work and focus was also lacking.. so I started to throw some oats back into my protein shakes and a little bit of peanut butter and oi did that work!.. so yes i’m going to try and consume some more carbs right for now. Gotten a little too lean as well I think.. dropping under the 150 mark i didn’t think was ever possible but here it is.. 148 as of yesterday morning and 155 in the afternoon.

Going to try and pack on some more good pounds in the next couple of months while the shoulder is getting better. High reps… maybe cardio 3-4 times a week instead of the 5 times a week i’ve been going and slotting some more rest days.. training like an noob now and forgetting that ‘yes’ i can be overtrained. *sigh .. recovery.. what a roller coaster.

took a cheat day 2 days ago.. otherwise my diet has been pretty clean..

i’ve found that if i don’t do anything my shoulder seems to feel waaay better at this point. Just getting back to the gym and doing cardio twice a day lately and lower body.. today:

leg press set1: 90lbs x20rps set2: 180lbs x20rps set3: 270lbs x 20rps set4: 360lbs x 10rps set5: 90lbs x 20 rps

calf raises (1 leg at a time) set1-4: 45lbs x25rps per leg

stiff legged deadlift: 50lbs DB x 15rps x4sets

usual ab workout

45min 125 bpm walk

50g PWO

45min stationary bike

60 alt leg twists
60 alt leg up/down
60 v-sits
50 situps

meal1: 50g pwo
meal2: 4 eggs, spinach, blueberries (animal pak)
meal3: tba
meal4: tba

energy and focus is good today. shin splints seems to have subsided. i’ll give it another couple of days before hitting the skip rope again. physio on monday 3:30 we’ll see how my shoulder is doing at that point. Collagen is still aligning and muscles still need time to anchor in properly before i do any heavy lifting. It’s definitely not the right time to be messing with recovery right now. I’m anxious to start hitting the weights again as cardio is getting boring and is getting even worse because i lost my ipod yesterday .. booooo.. well yay for being able to buy new sH7T!

30min treadmill

rightarm only
bi-curls 20lbs x 20rps x 3sets
military raises 20lbs x 20rps, 25lbs x 20rps, 30lbs x 20rps
tri kickbacks 20lbs x 20rps x 3 sets

100situps

evening: 45min treadmill

meal1: 40pwo
meal2: brocolli, roast beef (animal pak, flex)
meal3: 20g protein bar
meal4: spinach, chicken

good energy today. more later!