5/19 Rest 5/20 I didn't work today, so no walk. Also Muay Thai is right by work and I didn't want to drive that far, so I swam today & plan to go to Muay Thai tomorrow instead. Swam for cardiac output, 49 minutes, avg HR was 129 bpm.
5/21 I wasn't feeling well... I slept for about 11.5 hours or so (tried getting up after ~8 hours and just felt really exhausted) and felt really tired all day. No walk or other exercise. HRV was 60 (yesterday too), low recovery (54% on the 20th, 67% today). 5/22 I got a migraine the night of 5/21 that persisted through the day... 11 hours of sleep, didn't do any exercise. HRV 65, recovery 91%... 5/23 Forgot to take my HRV this morning. I was feeling really lethargic & sluggish most of today. Walked 30 minutes at 2 mph, avg HR was 109 bpm. I didn't get sweaty at all, for once. I still felt pretty sluggish afterwards, but started to wake up more over the next few hours. I got to Muay Thai for an hour today, all ranks class. (I think... it could be beginners. It seems like there are advanced classes every night now, which I hadn't realized. It used to be just the one all-students class on Tues/Thurs. They don't really update the schedule online.) We worked on punching, elbows, and kicking. Partner drills, at first with gloves & shinguards going back and forth during a round, then later with focus mitts on one partner for one round before switching. I definitely felt a difference in my cardio today. I was able to do all the drills without gassing out, including a good bit of kicking (though with shin guards on a partner, not into pads, so kind of soft kicking). The HR monitor supports that--very little time in the red zone today.
5/24 Really poor sleep, was mostly awake til 7 am just lying in bed, then slept til noon or so and worked from home, so no walk. 5/25 My trainer is out of town this week and I didn't do anything today (other than my thumb & wrist therapy exercises). 5/26 Shoulder maintenance 1 (blue theraband, 2 sets each side): - 15x abduction - 20x external rotation @0 - 15x y-fly Shoulder maintenance 2 (blue theraband, 2 sets each side): - 15x abduction - 20x external rotation @90 - 20x reverse fly Walked hills for 53 minutes for cardiac output. HR avg was 135 bpm. I would have gone swimming as it is pretty hot out, but my finger has an open cut on it and I figured it would be better to avoid the pool for another day. I slipped on the way back home and hurt my ankle a bit, not sure how bad. The area just under the bony **** thing on the inner side. It hurts when I walk on it, but only a little. I iced it, then showered & ran hot water on it for a bit, and am about to ice it again.
5/27, 5/28 Didn't work either day, no walk, no other exercise other than the thumb/wrist therapy exercises. 5/29 My ankle is not too bad. I don't think I'll be able to do Muay Thai this week, but I can walk for a little while without pain (with a support brace on). Walked 21 minutes @ 2mph, avg HR was 105 bpm. I stopped a little early as my ankle was starting to get some discomfort. Swam for one hour for cardiac output, avg HR was 134 bpm. I had to go a bit more vigorously than usual to get my HR into the cardiac output range. I had mild discomfort at times but nothing persistent (like I got while walking).
5/29 addendum HRV in the morning was 64, 91% recovery score. After swimming, 10 minutes in the hot tub, cold rinse off, 15 minutes in the sauna, cold shower. 5/30 HRV this morning was 69, recovery score 57%. Shoulder maintenance 1 (blue theraband, 2 sets each side): - 10 push-ups (only one set) - 15x abduction - 20x external rotation @0 - 15x y-fly Walked 31 minutes @ 2mph, avg HR was 109 bpm. Shoulder maintenance 2 (blue theraband, 2 sets each side): - 10 push-ups (only one set) - 15x abduction - 20x external rotation @90 - 20x reverse fly
5/31 I had a migraine most of the day and didn't do any exercise. I did see a doctor about my ankle and big toe (big toe has been having issues for a while, maybe a year). The ankle is a mild sprain. The doctor recommended getting a couple PT sessions before going back to Muay Thai to reduce chance of reinjury. The PT I usually see is booked out 3 weeks for intake though... The doc basically said it should be back to normal by then, if it's not come see him again. 6/1 I went in for strength training but there happened to be a few PTs in the building who know my trainer. I got them to take a look at the ankle and recommend some stuff so I can get that going and maybe get back to Muay Thai later in the week or early next week depending on how it feels. The advice I got was: - It is pretty inflamed, do hot water Epsom salt baths daily to get the inflammation down - a few exercises to do 2-3x/week My trainer did some fascial scraping done for the ankle (scraping the calf area). My left knee has been bugging me for a few weeks. He did some fascial scraping on the quad and around the left knee (which has been bugging me a few weeks) as well. After the tissue work we did the ankle exercises. One of them we tried was a split squat but my left knee (other leg from the ankle issue) was getting some pain during those. For the knee issue my trainer says I need to work on hamstring recruitment--Ill try to do some hamstring exercises on my own, like valslide leg curls. So with him I did hamstring curls, eccentric calf raises, and balancing on one leg while catching & throwing a light ball. (I couldn't balance well on a foam pad, which is what I should be working up to apparently.) Swam 31 minutes for cardiac output, 134 avg BPM. 10 minutes in the steam room after, then a cold shower.
6/2, rest 6/3, rest (worked from home, no walk) 6/4 I've been fasting today, and plan to break it with dinner (~20 hours fasted). I'm working on rehabbing a bunch of things... still doing my left thumb & right wrist exercises. The thumb hasn't really been improving with the occupational therapy... at least, in terms of range of motion & discomfort in certain movements, it is about the same as it was before I started, except for a few hours after doing the exercises where it has lower range of motion without discomfort (I think it gets a bit of swelling or something when I do the exercises). I see the OT again next week, I'll likely have to get this MRI'd and figure out what is going on from there. (This is the long-standing thumb injury from Oct 2016.) The right wrist is improving somewhat, hopefully that will clear up as I continue the exercises. My left knee has been bugging me for a few weeks as I mentioned in my last post. I'm working now on improving hamstring recruitment to help with that. For the right ankle sprain I've been doing the epsom salt soaks. I did a few eccentric calf raises on 6/3, and will do more exercise for it today. Still doing maintenance exercise on my shoulders as well. So: Hamstring recruitment 1: - 10x valslide leg curls, eccentric only for the first 6, full motion for the last 4. Hamstring recruitment 2: - 20x bridges - 10x valslide leg curls, full motion (well, maybe half full motion, half bringing one leg back at a time which is a bit easier). - 6x single leg hip thrusters (each side) Walked 35 minutes @ 2mph, avg HR was 104 bpm. I barely sweat, so that is nice. I haven't been wearing my ankle brace for 4-5 days now, without issue. I did feel my ankle a bit during the last ~10 minutes of the walk, if I wasn't paying good attention to proper walking technique. It is slightly sore now (very mild), compared to not noticing at all prior to the walk. I'll have to see how it feels later when I do eccentric calf raises on it later, and how it feels tomorrow. I may try to go to an hour of Muay Thai tomorrow (with brace on). Shoulder maintenance 1, 2 sets on each side with blue theraband: - 10x push-ups - 15x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 0 - 15x y-fly Ankle rehab: - 3 sets of 8 calf raises (on stairs, raise all the way up, lower over 5 seconds). Shoulder maintenance 2, 2 sets on each side with blue theraband: - 10x push-ups (just one set this time) - 15x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 90 - 20x reverse fly Hamstring recruitment 3: - 20 bridges - 6x single leg hip thrusters (each side) Swam 30 minutes for cardiac output, 134 avg bpm.
6/5 Slept 6.5 hours last night, HRV 64 (87% recovery). I was feeling my ankle after the walk without brace, especially later that night. I think I'll wait til next week to consider rejoining Muay Thai class. My heavy bag should be back up this week so I can see how various movements go with the ankle. Walked 32.5 minutes @ 2mph, 116 avg BPM. I find it interesting how different my average HR is on some days vs other days when doing the same walking... I wore my ankle support brace today, but still felt the ankle a bit while walking. I think I need to wear it for a while more, at least while walking.
6/6 I've been fasting since lunch yesterday. I was expecting to have bad sleep due to fasting overnight, but it wasn't too bad: 8 hours sleep. HRV 64, 88% recovery. I haven't done a > ~20-22 hour fast in a long while now. I'm surprised that I haven't had any hunger issues. I have felt perhaps 5 minutes total of hunger since the fast started, otherwise nothing. I did have a headache when I woke up that started to turn into a migraine while I was driving into work. I took migraine medicine (non-painkiller), a dose of acetaminophen (I figured it would be easier on my stomach than ibuprofen) about an hour later, and one more dose before I left work to go swim. (Headache stayed mostly muted but noticeable all day, with a few flare-ups and a few periods of not feeling it at all.) Ankle rehab: - 3 sets of 8 calf raises (on stairs, raise all the way up, lower over 5 seconds). My ankle has been hurting in a different spot the past few days, more on the outside portion than the inside area that was hurting when I first injured it. I think walking ~30 min without the brace a few days ago was a bad decision. My heavy bag is back up as of today, and I (perhaps foolishly) hit it a little this morning. Mostly striking with the leg the ankle is injured on so I wasn't posting on it a lot, but I did throw a few kicks with the other leg... I feel like that may have aggravated it a little (no pain/discomfort during, I did have the brace on, but a bit more discomfort a few hours later). Hamstring recruitment 1. 2 sets of: - 20x bridges - 6x single leg hip thrusters (each side) Walked 46 minutes @ 2mph, 109 avg BPM. Hamstring recruitment 2. 2 sets of: - 20x bridges - 10x valslide hamstring curls. First set I did ~3-4 eccentric only, as my hamstrings (especially the left) were cramping on the concentric portion. I managed to get through it, stretched my hamstrings out before the next set and the cramping cleared up. I did feel a little light-headed after this, for maybe 30 seconds when I stood back up. (A 'little' meaning I felt in no danger of fainting or anything like that, but it was noticeable.) Swam for cardiac output, 47 minutes with 136 avg bpm. 10 minutes in the hot tub, fairly cold shower, 9 minutes in the steam room, and then a very cold shower for ~10 minutes. I'm not sure when I'll break the fast. I still haven't really been hungry, and I feel pretty good other than the muted headache.
6/7 I slept poorly last night. I had a lot of trouble falling asleep. 5.5 hours of sleep, 4.5 or so restful. HRV 71 (52% recovery). I don't feel as good today as I did yesterday, likely due to the lack of good sleep. Walked 42 minutes @ 2mph, 114 avg BPM. The washed out/tired feeling from earlier in the day receded a bit by about half-way through the walk. Swam for 26 minutes for cardiac output, 133 avg BPM. 10 minutes in the hot tub, fairly cold shower, ~8 minutes in the steam room, very cold shower. I ran my HR monitor during all this, until the end of the very cold shower when I took the watch off to wash it. The hot tub is the first stretch, the spike after 8 minutes is when I got out of the hot tub (I was lying on my back floating on the surface, so HR was lower). Then the cold shower, waiting until my HR fell back down below 120. The steam room took a little while to heat up, and I was sitting for most of it. I am going to break the fast right after I post this, which makes it roughly 55 hours. I'm going to start with some nuts, dried cranberries, and cheese (180 cal total), and wait maybe an hour before having more food just to let that settle.
6/7 aftermath I had a relatively healthy dinner an hour after breaking my fast, but then pigged out a bit on less healthy stuff. I need to work on willpower there--I was full, but just wanted more anyway. 6/8 I only got about 5 hours of sleep... instead of strength training I did a lot of foam rolling, some stretching, and had some fascial scraping done on various parts of my legs. HRV was a bit high (70, 73% recovery), and I didn't end up doing any other exercise. 6/9 11 hours of sleep, 71 HRV (73% recovery). Finished setting up my gym space now that the mats and bag hangers are in. Its about 4 square meters in the matted area. There is still a little work left: a bit of painting, sealing the wood treads of the stairs with polyurethane or whatever, and the contractors are finishing up some protective matting that can be placed on the stair (in case I go off mat, wouldn't want to have that wood there where a head might hit), and to go over the window sill's trim. The rest of the basement (which you may have seen if you watched any of my bag work progression thread) is being finished as a home theater space, though that isn't ready yet. I'm excited to have this space set up with nice mats (2" zebra pro-series MMA mats). I haven't had a space at home where I can do jiu jitsu/wrestling type stuff. I've got my 150 lb cloth stuffed banana bag in there, and added a ~100 lb upper cut bag. The upper cut bag is by Aqua training bags, and is filled with water. I am hoping there are no leaks... if there are, at least the bottom of the floor is concrete under those mats. I will do some tempo intervals & maybe other bag work down there today (I hope) or tomorrow, with the ankle brace on, and see how that feels.
6/9 continued 35 minutes of exercise today: - 5 minute warm-up (shadow boxing mostly) - 15 tempo intervals: 12 seconds work at ~70% effort, 60 seconds rest or active rest. I mostly just slowly kept walking around the room during the rest period. I think I may have gone more like 80-90% on the high effort portions... - free form bagwork
6/9 addendum Forgot to add: Ankle rehab: - 3 sets of 8 calf raises (on stairs, raise all the way up, lower over 5 seconds). My ankle felt fine doing kicks & stuff off that leg during the tempo intervals/bag work. We had some people over and one wanted to check out the heavy bags, so I also did a little kicking without the brace on but only for a few minutes. 6/10 HRV: 67, 97% recovery score. 7 hours of sleep (6 restful). My ankle still feels fine, no noticeable soreness or anything from the bag work. I plan to swim today, but may also do a little bagwork to see how the ankle holds up without a brace. I hope to be back in Muay Thai on the 12th. I didn't make it to lunch today, so I figured I'll fast til dinner tonight or sometime tomorrow. Hamstring recruitment 1, 2 sets of: - 20x bridges - 6x single leg hip thrusters (each side) Walked 40 min @ 2mph, avg 109 BPM. I didn't wear the ankle brace, and my ankle is just a little sore now on occasion when I take a step (not on every step). Hamstring recruitment 1, 2 sets of: - 20x bridges - 10x valslide leg curls. These were much easier this time than they seemed last week. Swam 1 hour for cardiac output. My ankle was a bit sore on the first couple laps when doing freestyle, but stopped having discomfort after a little bit. I still mostly stuck to breast stroke. The first 15 minutes were a bit spotty as I was trying out some new equipment--waterproof mp3 player + earbuds to listen to music or podcasts on. I spent some time re-adjusting the earbuds, especially at first. I figured it out after the first 20 minutes or so, though occasionally water would get in one a bit and the sound would get very quiet in that ear. I got to where I could fix it without pausing for more than a couple seconds though. I am going to eat after posting this, so roughly a 22 hour fast.
6/11 Only 6.5 hours sleep (woke up early and couldn't fall back asleep), but 67 HRV with 91% recovery score. I worked from home today so no walk. Ankle rehab: 3x8 eccentric calf raises Bag work - Warmed up with some forward rolls (which feel awkward, I've fallen out of practice with these), shadow boxing, and a bit of hitting the bags (first 8 minutes or so). - Did a ~90 second round, gassed out fairly quick, camera fell over so I aborted that round. - Three more 3-minute bag rounds, see my bagwork progression thread for those videos. I feel like I got tired real quick today. I didn't wear my ankle brace, no issues with the ankle. Hopefully it will feel ok later as well.
6/12 HRV: 72, 71% recovery score (yellow) Sleep: 8 hours (6 restful) Shoulder maintenance 1, 2 sets each side with blue theraband: - 15x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 0 - 15x y-fly Finished with 10 push-ups (one set only). Walked 31 minutes @ 2mph. avg 110 bpm (though that is a bit lower than it should be; first ~4 minutes walking my watch wasn't seated correctly and I noticed it was reading an HR in the upper 80s. It quickly jumped to 110 after adjusting it to the correct position). I ended up not doing another set of shoulder maintenance exercise today.
6/15 HRV: 68 (88% recovery) I've been fasting so far today, but will probably eat around dinner time. Heavy Bag Warmed up with some forward and backward rolls, shadow boxing, a little light hitting the bag, ~7 minutes. The forward rolls felt a lot better today than they did the other day (which was the first time practicing these in a long time), much smoother and the mechanics just 'clicked' a lot better for me. Three 5-minute rounds (video in bagwork thread). I managed the pace a little better but ideally I'd like to stay in that yellow zone. I feel like I got tired pretty quickly again today... Ankle rehab: 3x8 eccentric calf raises (5 sec reps) Swimming 1 hour for cardiac output, 134 avg BPM. I am planning to make a new conditioning program for myself tonight or tomorrow, for the next 8 weeks. I'll try to actually get through it this time too instead of getting a few weeks in and letting it fall apart.
6/16 Tempo Intervals, 12s 70% effort, 1 minute rest/active rest. I warmed up for ~8 minutes first (shadow boxing, forward rolls). 15 intervals on the heavy bag (mostly kicking), tried to keep the effort level at ~70%. The last 5 minutes or so on the HR graph was me doing a bit of skill work on the bag (circling bag while punching lightly, focusing on keeping my stance good/chin tucked/etc, and on staying in my frame for straight punches and not winding up on hooks).
6/17 7.5 hours sleep. HRV 65, 51% recovery score (low end of yellow). I will not try going back to Muay Thai tonight, will try to get to it on Weds though. I saw the PT today about my ankle. She tweaked the exercises I am doing: - Eccentric calf raises daily (up from 3-4x/week), switch to single leg on the eccentric portion, still 3 sets of 8-10 reps. - Heel sits (sitting with the tops of my feet flat on the ground behind me, legs tucked under me, rocking into it but not to the point of sharp pain). One 60-90 second sit per day. - Lateral steps with black band, can be used to warm up before doing kicking/etc on the heavy bag, 3-4x/week. She says I can try going back to Muay Thai this week but to limit it to 1 hour class, not 2 hours, and see how it feels. I can also continue to try bagwork on my own and maybe try a longer session of that to see how it affects the ankle. I've stopped the thumb therapy exercises for the injured left thumb--I forget if I posted about this already, but the occupational therapist says that despite increased strength, range of motion, and muscular endurance in that area, since I still have pain when pushing the thumb into the palm of my hand and it hasn't really changed from doing 4+ weeks of exercises, I should go back for an MRI or CT scan to get a better picture of what is going on and if there is anything further I can do to improve it. I'm still doing wrist therapy on the sprained right wrist. Using a gyroscope daily to fatigue, and alternating days of isometric wrist exercises with days of planking (5-6 reps of 30 seconds) on a wobble board (at an oblique angle with my knees down, moving towards a 90 degree angle over time, can't manage that yet without pain). I'm also still working on hamstring/posterior chain recruitment. I may stop doing my shoulder maintenance exercises temporarily if I find difficulty fitting them in, though I will try to keep doing them at least 1x/week. (But if I'm going to drop something, it would be this as the shoulder isn't injured anymore.) Hamstring recruitment 1, 2 sets of: - 20x bridges - 10x valslide leg curls (full motion) Ankle rehab, 2x8 eccentric calf raises (both legs concentric, single leg for eccentric portion, did both legs). I stopped at 2 sets as it was pretty fatiguing, the PT warned I might need to build up to doing 3 sets as switching to single leg for the eccentric portion is basically doubling the work that leg is doing. Hamstring recruitment 2, 2 sets of: - 20x bridges - 6x single leg hip thrusters Ankle rehab: 20 lateral steps in each direction with black theraband. Walked 31.5 minutes @ 2mph, 116 avg BPM. Wrist rehab: 10x 5-second isometric holds in 4 directions (up, down, inside, outside). Did some foam rolling (and softball, etc) for about 30 minutes. ~90 seconds rocking into sitting on my heels, felt a little discomfort, more for a minute or so after getting up. Wrist rehab: gyroscope exercises
6/18 I hope I'm not getting sick... I slept 5.5 hours and HRV was 64 (48% recovery). I was just unable to fall asleep for a couple hours after going to bed (which often happens for the few days before I start feeling sick when I've caught something). I was also a bit congested last night in bed. I hope to get better sleep tonight and get to Muay Thai for an hour tomorrow, assuming I don't feel sick. I made an 8 week block of conditioning programming for myself this past weekend. This week I have: - Cardiac output 60 min - Tempo intervals 10-15 reps - HRI (High resistance intervals) 8-12 reps, cardiac output 30-45 min - Cardiac output 60 min I've done the first two already. I was planning to do the 3rd today, but given my HRV & sleep I think I'll take today as a rest day. Ankle rehab: 2x8 single-leg eccentric calf raises (double leg on the concentric part), both sides. Walked 31 minutes @ 2mph, 116 avg BPM. Ankle rehab: Heel sits/rocking, ~90 seconds. Wrist rehab: Gyroscope exercise, wobble board sort-of-planks (5x30 sec). My right foot has had some discomfort in the arch for the past few days. Spoke to the PT and she said to keep rolling it out with a golf ball and to go back to two legs on the eccentric calf raises until the discomfort clears up.
6/19 9 hours sleep, HRV 66, 85% recovery. I don't appear to be getting sick, which is nice. I am fasting today. I haven't decided yet whether I'll break it for dinner tonight. If so that will be in an hour or so, otherwise I'll go through tomorrow late morning (or later). I tweaked my right knee last night... I had gone to a work outing and stood for 90 minutes. The last 30 minutes or so my right foot was hurting in that spot I've been having discomfort in. I drove home and a few minutes after getting home was leaning forward a bit and bent the right knee, and felt a sharp pain in there. The knee was a little off the rest of the night but not too bad--no discomfort walking/on stairs/getting up from a chair/etc. But there is a tender spot in there, and loading that leg in some positions with the knee bent causes discomfort or pain. I'm not going to try going back to Muay Thai tonight. Maybe tomorrow or Friday if the knee is still feeling ok. (I plan to test it out a bit today with some heavy bag work & high resistance intervals on a bike.) I rolled out my foot with a golf ball this morning, it is feeling pretty tender. Hamstring recruitment 1, 2 sets of: - 20x bridges - 10x valslide leg curls Wrist rehab: 10x 5-second isometric holds in each direction (up, down, in, out). Wrist rehab: gyroscope exercise Hamstring recruitment 2, 2 sets of: - 20x bridges - 6x single leg hip thrusters The hip thrusters bothered my right knee a bit... not painful but I could tell it was off, and felt a little discomfort. Ankle rehab 1: Heel sits/rocking for 90 seconds. Ankle rehab 2: Eccentric calf raises, 3x8 both legs at once (as my foot hasn't calmed down yet in the arch). Ankle rehab 3: lateral steps, 3 sets of 20 (10 each direction) with black band (as part of warmup below)/ Muay Thai solo work Warm-up: the lateral steps noted above, interspersed with shadow boxing, forward rolls (only two, bothered right knee slightly when that was the primary leg coming back up out of the roll), and some jumping (without a rope). Heavy bag: 3 5-minute rounds with 60 seconds break between rounds. I stopped about a minute early in the first round as I was having foot pain in the right foot in a new spot, felt like a pinched nerve or something. I dug at it with my fingers for a bit and stretched it out. It was still a bit uncomfortable for about a minute after that, then went away completely. High resistance intervals: 10 sets (5s work at maximum intensity max resistance on an elliptical, rest til HR 130-140). I started the monitor but tried a few different machines before I gave up and just stuck with an elliptical. I was looking for one that wouldn't turn off during the rest periods, but they all did. So I would rest, then start moving a little bit, set up max resistance, go as hard as I could for 5-6 seconds, and then rest again. Swimming for cardiac output, 32.5 minutes, 132 avg BPM. Breast stroke bothered my right knee slightly. Its a bit sore now, fairly mild though. I should probably not try to go to Muay Thai this week (well, maybe Friday, will have to see how the knee feels)... so this will be the 4th week I've missed since spraining my ankle if I don't get back Friday. (I think the ankle is ok for it now, but the knee probably isn't.)
