So Bruns might poop his pants that I'm updating two consecutive days, but consider this an early birthday present to you Bruns.
So today, I joined a few non handler types for a track workout of sorts. We went to memorial stadium to run stairs. First we did a pretty big warm up job around assembly hall and back into the stadium. Stretched a lil bit and then goose started rambling about what this was gonna work and the origins of the words stadium. I think his dissertation is making him more crazy than usual. Either way we were gonna do 2 sets of 5 from bottom to top. Apparently Sidrys counted and its 72 steps. We were running on the bleachers themselves. 72 doesn't sound like a lot but as you go higher the height difference between steps gets larger and you start getting winded.
After the 2nd or 3rd rep my legs were burning pretty good and starting to shaking. I toughed out the rest of that set and then my legs were shaking even more. The second set i ran on the smaller concrete steps which there are more of but are smaller which seemed to be a little bit easier. I also only did every other rep so a total of 8 reps overall.
This definitely was an eye opener to how weak my legs really are and how out of shape I am. Lots of work to do before/during the series and in the off season to get where I want to be.
Mar 29, 2011
157 days
Its been 157 days since I tore my ACL, and I completed my first practice since then. It was a pretty awesome feeling to be back on the field not only doing drills (which I've been doing for a while), but participating in the scrimmages was exhilarating.
My knee felt good in all situations, my only complaint is that I felt really slow, and apparently looked it as well. I was described as being "Joe Sidrys" slow. I'll take anything at this point. Its only going to get better from here.
We have a tournament this coming weekend, Huck Finn, in St Louis, but I do not plan on playing. I see my doctor next week and he may want me to wear a brace before I go 100% crazy on the field.
While I was scrimmaging i still don't have the ability to cut hard at full speed. When I need to do any sort of cutting I really concentrate on my footwork with lots of choppy steps. I think that my time with the agility ladder will help with that.
Basically my plan is to see how it progresses these next couple of weeks in preparation for sectionals and regionals. The competition at sectionals shouldn't be too great so that'll be a good launching pad back into it.
I'm pretty optimistic about the weeks to come. Hopefully everything turns out as planned.
My knee felt good in all situations, my only complaint is that I felt really slow, and apparently looked it as well. I was described as being "Joe Sidrys" slow. I'll take anything at this point. Its only going to get better from here.
We have a tournament this coming weekend, Huck Finn, in St Louis, but I do not plan on playing. I see my doctor next week and he may want me to wear a brace before I go 100% crazy on the field.
While I was scrimmaging i still don't have the ability to cut hard at full speed. When I need to do any sort of cutting I really concentrate on my footwork with lots of choppy steps. I think that my time with the agility ladder will help with that.
Basically my plan is to see how it progresses these next couple of weeks in preparation for sectionals and regionals. The competition at sectionals shouldn't be too great so that'll be a good launching pad back into it.
I'm pretty optimistic about the weeks to come. Hopefully everything turns out as planned.
Mar 5, 2011
Sippin on haterade
I couldn't think of what to title this post so I'm titling it sippin on haterade because a few things have annoyed me lately but I wont go into that in detail.
I had my last PT appointment this past wednesday so I was pretty excited about that. Now its gunna be on me to get into the gym and getting stronger and faster so I can be back as soon as possible. My current plan is to participate in as many drills in practice as I can. If the team is doing something that I can't do I'm gunna work on one of the following: agility ladder, jump rope, footwork, throwing, or just form running and stuff of the likes.
At my last rehab session, She took the final measurements and pretty much everything was where it was supposed to be, and my range of motion was pretty much as good if not better than my good leg. (lots of stretching of just the bad leg).
My current plan is to continue doing what I'm doing and get into the gym 3-4 times a week to build up more leg strength. I should be going in for another checkup with the doctor shortly following spring break. That will be around 14-15 weeks which is a little early because I'm supposed to have a check up at 16 weeks which is also supposed to be when i can participate in "unrestricted sports." I put unrestricted sports in quotes because I'm not sure what his definition of unrestricted is compared to mine. Either way if I get cleared then (2 weeks early) I would be super pumped, and I would definitely be ready to play once the series start.
Tonight i practiced with the B team in Irwin because the A team didnt have practice last night due to unofficial, and this whole week was a recovery week for the A team because of team wide injuries and a tournament last weekend. At the B team practiced I warmed up with them and while they were doing a crossfit I worked on some footwork drills on the agility ladder. Hopefully that will help me recover some of my speed without putting too much pressure on my knee.
Theres a lot going on right now and hopefully everything goes well and I can be back for the series.
I had my last PT appointment this past wednesday so I was pretty excited about that. Now its gunna be on me to get into the gym and getting stronger and faster so I can be back as soon as possible. My current plan is to participate in as many drills in practice as I can. If the team is doing something that I can't do I'm gunna work on one of the following: agility ladder, jump rope, footwork, throwing, or just form running and stuff of the likes.
At my last rehab session, She took the final measurements and pretty much everything was where it was supposed to be, and my range of motion was pretty much as good if not better than my good leg. (lots of stretching of just the bad leg).
My current plan is to continue doing what I'm doing and get into the gym 3-4 times a week to build up more leg strength. I should be going in for another checkup with the doctor shortly following spring break. That will be around 14-15 weeks which is a little early because I'm supposed to have a check up at 16 weeks which is also supposed to be when i can participate in "unrestricted sports." I put unrestricted sports in quotes because I'm not sure what his definition of unrestricted is compared to mine. Either way if I get cleared then (2 weeks early) I would be super pumped, and I would definitely be ready to play once the series start.
Tonight i practiced with the B team in Irwin because the A team didnt have practice last night due to unofficial, and this whole week was a recovery week for the A team because of team wide injuries and a tournament last weekend. At the B team practiced I warmed up with them and while they were doing a crossfit I worked on some footwork drills on the agility ladder. Hopefully that will help me recover some of my speed without putting too much pressure on my knee.
Theres a lot going on right now and hopefully everything goes well and I can be back for the series.
Feb 25, 2011
10 weeks
So...... It's been quite a while since i've posted but for a while I was just chuggin along with PT with not much to say so I didnt feel the need to post.
In the past 2 or 3 weeks though a decent amount has happened.
In week 7 I had a PT session where I did 45 minutes of assorted squatting exercises. This was on a Monday, Thursday night we had practice at the ARC and I rode the bike for probably 30-40 minutes with 10 minutes of that being at a pretty intense rate.
The following Monday rolls around and my knee was pretty swollen above the knee. It was swollen enough to cause for concern so she had me taking it easy and recommend that I just ice it and try to get the swelling to go down. Sadly, it didnt.
Fast forward to the next week, which was this past monday, 2/21. I had a doctors appointment to check out the swelling as well as my 8 week checkup. He said everything looked good and wanted to wait another 3-4 weeks to see if the swelling went down. I pretty much figured that it would go down since it hadn't in the previous 2 weeks. I asked him if there was any reason not to drain it and he basicall said the only reason was that people usually dont like needles. I dont give a shit. So I told him lets get it done right then. He numbed it up and drained it and it immediately looked and felt better. He also gave me a brace/sleeve to wear to try and keep some pressure on it to reduce future swelling as well as support the kneecap. It has hinges in it as well to give my knee some lateral support as well.
So now I'm being militant with my icing and trying to ice 5x a day for 20 minutes each so my knee gets pretty chilly all the time this whole week my knee has continued to feel really great and my range of motion is pretty much back to normal.
The big news is that at PT on thursday I ran on the treadmill for 3 minutes. Doesnt seem like much but since I havent ran in more than 4 months, it's a pretty big deal for me. So my plan right now is to start participating in parts of practice next week. I should be able to do any drills where I can dictate my speed and not any defense. For any drills that I can't do I think Im gunna work with the agility ladder and jump rope on the side.
Thats pretty much all I got right now. i think i should be on track to playing in the series so I'm pretty pumped about it.
Also, I'm sitting in kansas right now getting prepared to melt some faces tomorrow and sunday. KILLKILLKILL
In the past 2 or 3 weeks though a decent amount has happened.
In week 7 I had a PT session where I did 45 minutes of assorted squatting exercises. This was on a Monday, Thursday night we had practice at the ARC and I rode the bike for probably 30-40 minutes with 10 minutes of that being at a pretty intense rate.
The following Monday rolls around and my knee was pretty swollen above the knee. It was swollen enough to cause for concern so she had me taking it easy and recommend that I just ice it and try to get the swelling to go down. Sadly, it didnt.
Fast forward to the next week, which was this past monday, 2/21. I had a doctors appointment to check out the swelling as well as my 8 week checkup. He said everything looked good and wanted to wait another 3-4 weeks to see if the swelling went down. I pretty much figured that it would go down since it hadn't in the previous 2 weeks. I asked him if there was any reason not to drain it and he basicall said the only reason was that people usually dont like needles. I dont give a shit. So I told him lets get it done right then. He numbed it up and drained it and it immediately looked and felt better. He also gave me a brace/sleeve to wear to try and keep some pressure on it to reduce future swelling as well as support the kneecap. It has hinges in it as well to give my knee some lateral support as well.
So now I'm being militant with my icing and trying to ice 5x a day for 20 minutes each so my knee gets pretty chilly all the time this whole week my knee has continued to feel really great and my range of motion is pretty much back to normal.
The big news is that at PT on thursday I ran on the treadmill for 3 minutes. Doesnt seem like much but since I havent ran in more than 4 months, it's a pretty big deal for me. So my plan right now is to start participating in parts of practice next week. I should be able to do any drills where I can dictate my speed and not any defense. For any drills that I can't do I think Im gunna work with the agility ladder and jump rope on the side.
Thats pretty much all I got right now. i think i should be on track to playing in the series so I'm pretty pumped about it.
Also, I'm sitting in kansas right now getting prepared to melt some faces tomorrow and sunday. KILLKILLKILL
Jan 17, 2011
Back in Champaign, 4 weeks post-op
So some people have been bugging me to update more frequently (kevin bruns), but I'd rather update less frequently with more information and progress with my knee.
So as it stands right now I'm about 4.5 weeks out from surgery but all the info in this post will be about 4 weeks out.
So last week was our "hell week" for our team and the last stage of tryouts for our A team. We had practice twice a day, the practice in the morning was mroe ultimate geared (drills, strategy, scrimmaging) and then our afternoon practice was more conditioning and lifting. So I had 5 hours a day of watching ultimate which can get somewhat tedious when theyre just running through an offense that I already know so I took advantage of this time to use the pretty much empty athletic facilities. Everyday I stretched, biked, and did my rehab exercises twice a day. I think I made some good progress last week.
Also last week I started physical therapy at the new place down in champaign. Its the same chain as in Schaumburg, Accelerated rehab, but obviously different people and different location.
Theres only 1 physical therapist at this new location so I'll be getting more one on one time with the same person over and over which is really nice because she can more accurately track my progression. The first appointment she took a bunch of measurements that the other location didnt that had to do with swelling and atrophy so it was nice to put a number on some of those things. I think at that first appointment i was at 126 degrees of flex and -4 degrees of extension which has been pretty consistent. I dont remember the specific numbers for the other things though. Today I had an appointment again and got to 131 and -5 degrees.
The exciting part about this location is that the physical therapist, Gretchen, likes to push my limits and gives me a lot of challenging exercises and specifically she uses a treatment call ASTYM. Its a kind of deep tissue stimulation that breaks up the scar tissue and promotes healing of the locaiton. If i had to describe it in one word it would be: Painful. Essentially what she does is take a piece of hard plastic and digs it into my quad and hamstring for about 15 minutes. Not pleasant but hopefully this will get back to ultimate quickly. I've seen her using this method on other patients and they are brought to tears.
Now that I'm past 4 weeks I'm allowed to do more sorts of exercises according to the protocol outlined by my surgeon. I'm doing some light squats on a shuttle machine, and some more intensive exercises. One in particular was doing squats on a bosu ball, http://www.ab-core-and-stomach-exercises.com/images/bosu-ball.jpg , which wasnt actually that hard but i started shaking uncontrollably as i went down. It was pretty annoying. I'm really looking forward to when i can start running and start getting back into cardio shape in preparation for my return to ultimate.
I dont have much else to update on. I'll do my best to update but I won't update again till next week, especially now that classes have started.
So as it stands right now I'm about 4.5 weeks out from surgery but all the info in this post will be about 4 weeks out.
So last week was our "hell week" for our team and the last stage of tryouts for our A team. We had practice twice a day, the practice in the morning was mroe ultimate geared (drills, strategy, scrimmaging) and then our afternoon practice was more conditioning and lifting. So I had 5 hours a day of watching ultimate which can get somewhat tedious when theyre just running through an offense that I already know so I took advantage of this time to use the pretty much empty athletic facilities. Everyday I stretched, biked, and did my rehab exercises twice a day. I think I made some good progress last week.
Also last week I started physical therapy at the new place down in champaign. Its the same chain as in Schaumburg, Accelerated rehab, but obviously different people and different location.
Theres only 1 physical therapist at this new location so I'll be getting more one on one time with the same person over and over which is really nice because she can more accurately track my progression. The first appointment she took a bunch of measurements that the other location didnt that had to do with swelling and atrophy so it was nice to put a number on some of those things. I think at that first appointment i was at 126 degrees of flex and -4 degrees of extension which has been pretty consistent. I dont remember the specific numbers for the other things though. Today I had an appointment again and got to 131 and -5 degrees.
The exciting part about this location is that the physical therapist, Gretchen, likes to push my limits and gives me a lot of challenging exercises and specifically she uses a treatment call ASTYM. Its a kind of deep tissue stimulation that breaks up the scar tissue and promotes healing of the locaiton. If i had to describe it in one word it would be: Painful. Essentially what she does is take a piece of hard plastic and digs it into my quad and hamstring for about 15 minutes. Not pleasant but hopefully this will get back to ultimate quickly. I've seen her using this method on other patients and they are brought to tears.
Now that I'm past 4 weeks I'm allowed to do more sorts of exercises according to the protocol outlined by my surgeon. I'm doing some light squats on a shuttle machine, and some more intensive exercises. One in particular was doing squats on a bosu ball, http://www.ab-core-and-stomach-exercises.com/images/bosu-ball.jpg , which wasnt actually that hard but i started shaking uncontrollably as i went down. It was pretty annoying. I'm really looking forward to when i can start running and start getting back into cardio shape in preparation for my return to ultimate.
I dont have much else to update on. I'll do my best to update but I won't update again till next week, especially now that classes have started.
Jan 5, 2011
2 1/2 Week Update
So I've been meaning to post for a while because a lot has been going on which has also led to me not posting. I started PT shortly after my last post and I've have 5 appointments thus far. First appointment was pretty tame with a bunch of stretching done by the physical therapist. Some of it was pretty painful, but a good hurt. Specifically was when she put a towel under my ankle as I was laying on the table and she basically just pushed down on my knee which stretches out my hamstring and works on my range of motion. Other exercises focus on building hamstring and quad strength and overall range of motion. At this first session my range of motion went from -5 to 120 degrees which is ahead of schedule according to the goals given to me by my surgeon.
At my third session I started riding the exercise bike and have done so each time following. Its good knowing that I can start working on cardio now that I can do the bike. Also my range of motion has improved to -10 to 130. Im making lots of progress and the exercises are becoming a lot easier to do, although my right leg looks and feels like a slab of meat. I have very minimal muscle definition in my leg, but all this rehab hopefully will change that quickly.
I went back to the doctor on Tuesday for a checkup. This check up is supposed to be at 3 or 4 weeks but I had it early so I can head back to champaign for our week of practice. Everything went well at the doctor. He said everything was on schedule. He also removed all of the strips that were over all of my wounds. It was good to finally get a good look at my scars. He also gave me a prescription for antibiotics to make sure that it doesnt become infected.
So I've been off crutches for a while now and I'm supposed to wear my brace anytime I'm walking but if I'm just walking around the house I dont put it on because its a pain to take on and off all the time. I'm driving now too, which is pretty nice because I was getting cabin fever not being able to leave the house. Most of my time at home is spent watching TV, playing video games, and sleeping during the day and being up all night. I'm also icing a bunch of times at home with my ice machine which is pretty awesome.
In the spirit of the New Year I've decided to make some goals, or resolutions. I want to stay ahead of the plan laid out by my doctor for the rehab. My end goal is to be able to play competitively middle of April right around sectionals which is right on schedule according to my surgeon. He predicts that his patients will be back to their presurgical state by 4 months after surgery which in my case is right around the middle of april.
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