ACL Reconstruction & Recovery: 5 1/2 weeks Post Op

It’s been a week and a half since my last post.  My wife has reminded me a few times that my blogging has been pretty lame for a while.  I admit it.  I’m not in a great routine right now as I focus on rehab and upper body workouts.  I got the green light to use the elliptical machine again.  I forgot how much I enjoy this as a workout.

Over the past week, I’ve been sprinkling in P90x and 1-on-1 workouts.  I’ve recently completed Just Arms, Diamond Delts and Shoulders & Arms (from P90x).  I can do all of these with no problems.  I don’t have a problem bearing any weight on the new knee to do things like shoulder presses, etc.    This morning I was doing crouching bicep curls and I got a shooting pain in the back of my knee (near my hamstring tendon).  Not sure why that happened–I haven’t felt it before.  But it was fleeting and didn’t affect any of the rest of the workout.

Since I can work out again, I have my workout buddy again.  We’re doing about 3X’s per week.  The other days I’m trying to incorporate some cardio (mainly riding the bike and the elliptical).

The knee rehabs is progressing.  I’ve been able to do lots of my rehab exercises interspersed during the day at work (I’ll sneak to the back room and do wall squats) or practice stepping up on a stool in front of the television in the evening.  I’m making progress and can see a considerable improvement in my quad strength from when I tried steps only a week and a half ago.

None it really hurts.  It’s  a little sore after I work it out hard, and I’ve noticed that it’s been quite achy when the weather is nasty.  Overall, when I am just sitting around, the knee feels just like the “normal” one.

Someone asked me recently how recovered I am. This is a loaded question considering what “recovered” means.  He specifically wanted to know how I would do if we were to go out and play 1-on-1 on the basketball court.  Basketball-wise, I’m probably 5% recovered.  I can’t run or jump.  On the flip side…if I were a 70 year old man, I’d say I’m about 100% recovered.  I can do most anything that a 70 year old man could do.  That doesn’t really make me feel good, however.

P90Hybrid: Round 3 – The Final Workouts…

Tomorrow is the day I’ve been waiting for two months for: the knee reconstruction.  I haven’t been very faithful with blogging, but I have been working out pretty regularly.

My last four workouts have been: Diamond Delts, Chest and Back, Just Arms and Chest, Shoulders and Triceps.  Obviously, with a blown out knee, I’m limited to upper body work.  I have been noticing that my upper body has gained some mass over the past month, however I’m embarrassed that my gut has seen some increase as well.  

As for the workouts, each one was a bit unique.  Diamond Delts is a great way to blast the shoulders.  I committed to up my weight quite a bit.  Chest and Back, this past week, was tough because I wasn’t feeling well.  I almost threw up (again) but managed to put out a personal best 339 push-ups overall.  Unfortunately, I get so geeked up about blasting through hundreds of push-ups that I fail to put the appropriate emphasis on pull-ups…where I really need the improvement.  On Just Arms, I once again cranked up the weight.  I lowered the reps, but made significant gains in weight.  In fact, I’m starting to think that I may want to look into the larger Bowflex Selecttech 1090 dumbbell set.   I’m not there, quite yet. 

For the last workout,  I decided to do Chest, Shoulders and Triceps.  I chose this workout because it’s the most challenging workout for me and it will likely be the last time I can really push myself (for a workout…not rehab, of course).  No matter how strong I feel that I’ve gotten, this workout kicks my butt!  Slow motion push ups are a killer and virtually all of the bizarre shoulder exercises do a great job of demoralizing me.  BUt in the end, the workout is very satisfying.

SO tomorrow is my surgery.  I’m scheduled to have my ACL reconstructed along with multiple meniscus repairs.  Over the next few weeks, my blog entries will transition from workout updates to rehab updates.   Farewell, P90x and other One on One workouts.  I look forward to visiting you again soon after I get my knee working again.

P90Hybrid: Round 3 – Just Arms + ARX

I’ve been a little bit lackadaisical in keeping up with my blogging, but since Jamie is back on the bike (with Insanity) I figure I need to get a little more committed in blogging too.

I’ve been working out only about 3 times per week, but I’m turning that around. Today Aaron joined me for Just Arms and Ab Ripper X. We’ve been focusing on arms on Tuesdays and Chest/Back on Fridays.

We last did Ab Ripper X last Thursday and I did not do any Ab programs over the holiday weekend. I normally get ISO Abs worked in but I ended up eating a bunch of fudge instead. Consequently, Ab Ripper X was a little tougher today that it should have been. It wasn’t really my abs as much as my hip flexors. They burned, but once I got through Crunchy Frog, things cooled down a bit and I was able to finish with no issues.

Since we did Shoulders and Arms last week, I selected Just Arms for today. Nothing about this workout is particularly “hard” but since it is so isolated on “just arms” you get burned pretty quick. I decided to up my weight on some of the moves. I also noticed that on Crazy 8’s, in weeks past I did 32 reps, but you’re really only supposed to do 16 reps. In the end, the workout was fine. I never felt like I was “in the groove” and while my arms are exhausted, the rest of me is not. That’s a (known) consequence of a pure isolation workout.

P90Hybrid: Round 3 – Week 7 / Day 6 – Just Arms + Ab Ripper X

Today was a bonus upper body workout.  This is the second time in a row that I’ve done this workout and failed to allot enough time to get finished.  For some reason, I was thinking that it was about 45 minutes long, but it goes for another 5 minutes.  Also, all the sets in this workout repeat, except for the final “Super Set” which is only completed one time.  I didn’t realize this (I had the volume turned down) and so I mindlessly starting repeating the final Super Set.  So, in all, I did a few extra sets of bicep/triceps moves, but didn’t do the final “crazy 8s” rep.

This is a great workout for when you want to work the arms, but the rest of your body is sore.  My legs and back were a bit sore from yesterday’s workout and I was  a little tired too.  So, it was good to still feel the burn while allowing the rest of my body to recover.

I also did Ab Ripper X today.  I’ve been doing Killer Abs quite a bit and brought out Ab Ripper X again the past two days…and I have to say Ab Ripper X is MORE difficult than Killer Abs.  It doesn’t make sense, but I think the slightly slower pace of ARX makes it that much harder.

P90Hybrid: Round 3 – Week 2 / Day 6 – Just Arms + Killer Abs

My abs are killing me.  I don’t want to laugh or sneeze because it hurts.  Actually, they’ve cooled down a bit now, but you get the point.  Now, my gut is not the picture of a washboard…however I HAVE been doing Ab Ripper X three times weekly for the better part of 6 months now.  So, under that “blanket” of flab, there’s some muscle hiding under there.  P90x touts the “muscle confusion”, which is a term I don’t really buy into, however I do buy into the concept of working new muscles (and muscle groups) in new ways.  I think this makes muscle stronger and more durable.  So, even though I’ve been doing Ab Ripper X for quite a while, adding Iso Abs and Killer Abs has caused some new muscle areas to work.

Just Arms went well.  I really like the forearm work in this routine.  I consider it equivalent to the Shoulders and Arms only you’re working forearms instead of the shoulders.

Review: One on One with Tony Horton – Just Arms (Vol 1. Disc 4)

One on One with Tony Horton -Just Arms (Vol 1. Disc 4)

Length: 40 minutes

Summary: A dumbbell-based arm focused workout that works the biceps, forearms and triceps .

Potential Supplement For: Shoulders and Arms

Intensity: Similar to Shoulders and Arms, although it has one or two fewer circuits. 

The Ranger came over this afternoon to work out with me.  It’s fun having anohter P90x grad to work out with.  He’s turned into a workout beast.  He did push ups and pull ups yesterday while I did a cardio workout.  We both agreed that an arm program would fit in nicely. 

The Just Arms program is pretty self descriptive.  It’s not a full body workout, by any means.  It’s a straight up arm routine and works specifcially the biceps, triceps and forearms.  In fact, I think this workout is very similar to “Shoulders and Arms” from P90x, except it works the forearms instead of the shoulders. Like “Shoulders and Arms”, it has three-move circuits that you do twice.  Then you move on to the next circuit.  Each circuit starts with a bicep move, than a forearm move and then finished with triceps.  Interestingly, only a few of the moves are repeats from P90x (side tri-rises make an appearance), although any P90x grad will quickly catch on. 

Just Arms makes signifncat use of an incline bench.  It is not technically required, as Tony describes how to do the moves without a bench, but I would find it difficult to get the most out of some of these moves without a bench.  Don’t let that deter you though…if you don’t have a bench you can make it work.  But if you already have one (like me) and it’s just collecting dust, it’s time to pull it out.

Overall, the workout clocks in at about 40 minutes.  Tony spends a fair amount of time goofing around and talking with Mason, the camerman.  Much of this is just a waste of time.  Sometimes, however he does actually offer useful instruction.  One thing that I really liked about this workout was it’s emphasis on the forearms.  I’ve never work specifically on my forearms before (although Back & Biceps on P90x always makes them scream) so this was a good opportunity to work something new.  My forearms were on fire!

I  will most definitely be doing this worout again.  In fact, as I assemble by Round 3 of P90x, I see this workout being split 50/50 as the second resistance workout in Phase 1.  If I do Just Arms half of the time and Shoulders and Arms the other half, I’ll be able to add variety and another muscle groupd to my workout routine.