Dewey’s BodyBlog

Therapy hurt today. I went to physical therapy today and after talking to my therapist about increasing my abduction motion in my arm. She said she’s going have to work me over more. And she did…. First I did all my exercises, with a couple new moves. Instead of shoulder shrugs she had me do an arm raise exercise. She told me what it was. But I was like a dog. I would recognize my name but every other word was blah, blah, blah. Any way, finished my exercises and it was time for stretching. This is were she worked me over. She started with a warm up called flexion. I was laying on a padded table and she would take my arm and raise it over my head. This move still hurts. She would take it pretty far and my butt came off the table a couple times. Then she did the abduction. Moving my arm out and up over my head, like standing raising your arm to the side. This was very painful at first. After a few times, it was less painful. Hurt more coming down than going up. Then she would switch to inferior gluide. She would hold my arm out and push down on my upper arm. This stretches the joint capsule. She would go back and forth from abduction to inferior gluide. Not sure how many times she did this because I was concentrating on my breathing, due to the pain I was enduring. Afterward she measured how far I could raise my arm out to the side. (active abdution against gravity) I was able to get up to 120 degrees. Before I could barely get my arm up halfway. So we’re going to be working on these stretching moves for a while. And in case you’re wondering. I asked her about all this afterwards and took notes so I could write this blog.

Saw my Othorpedic Surgeon. He was ok with my range of motion. But he said it could be better this far out of surgery. (a little over 6 weeks) I can raise my arm higher in front than I can to my side (abduction). When raising my arm in front, my hand ends up just above my head. But to side, I can’t even get half way up. My next appointment with my OS is at the end of August. So another 2 months of therapy. He wants to see a larger ROM by then. I have therapy today. So I will talk with my PT and see about focusing on stretching my arm more and not so much on excerises. That could be more painfull.

Didn’t do plyo this weekend. Saturday was my daughter’s b-day (19). So I took her and 2 friends to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Spent all afternoon there. Before the museum, we ate lunch at a place called the Hobbit Cafe. I ordered a chicken wrap with avacado. That thing was HUGE. I ate about 90% of the the wrap. Full for the rest of the day. When we got home that evening, we had cake. So the diet on Saturday wasn’t all that great. Sunday just took it easy. Washed clothes. So tomorrow back to plyo. And I’ll strive for 3 times this week.

I’ve pulled my P90X dvds back out and have started plyometircs this week. And boy am I sore. I haven’t excercised since mid April. Yea, shame on me. But a little background on what’s been happening. April 29th I had surgery on my left shoulder to repair a torn labrum. This injury happened before I started P90X. I stopped excercising about a week before. Had the staples removed on May 11th. Then started physical therapy on May 20th. I go to therapy 3 times a week. The first couple weeks was passive resistance. Then June 1st the excercises began. I still do the passive resistance excercises. The others are tricep pull downs (currently 30lbs), db bicep curls (8lbs), shoulder shrugs (8lbs), standing rows with resistance bands, and sitting chest press (machine 30lbs). There’s a couple other excercises. Like reaching up and putting pegs in a board. Each week my Physical Therapist’s add another excercise for me. So far I spend about two hours in therapy. At the end of each session they stretch my shoulder. In the beginning, that was very painfull. Still hurts, but getting better. I must say I’m very impressed with my PT’s. They are very good at what they do.

Two weeks ago I could not touch my head with my left arm. I can now. But my range of motion is still limited. It’s funny how excited I get when I find I can do something else with my left arm. I’m talking silly things. Like putting on deoderant under my right arm using my left hand. That was a milestone. Being able to wash my hair with both hands. Stuff like that.

But I’m still a good ways from doing the full P90X routine. So I started plyometircs this week. I am going to do plyo 3 times a week. (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) Why just plyometrics? It’s a killer work out and I don’t have to use my left arm that much. On movements where I have to raise my arms, I modify to get through the excercise. I will also start doing legs on Fridays, in another week or so. In P90X, when you do legs, you also do back. (pull ups) I will just be doing legs, for obvious reasons. I will wait until I get full range of motion, with out pain, before I start the other rountines. Not sure how long that will be. But I’m looking forward to being able to BRING IT again.