Physical Therapy
I haven't even mentioned this on the blog but I've been going to physical therapy in January for my right knee. MRI revealed a small tear in the medial meniscus. It didn't go all the way through. In any event, I started physical therapy a couple of weeks ago. The first visit I had some manual distraction and shit down. I have a few little exercises I do as "homework." Mostly glute stuff with the bands.
The guy said he's seen a lot worse, and I have no doubt he has. The truth is, I didn't even schedule an appointment for this until damn near 6 months after the initial issue. Then I had to: go to the doctor, get referred for xray, get xrays back, get an mri, get mri back, get referral to pt, go to pt for screening. That took damn near 8 weeks. (Not necessarily the doctor's fault, a couple holidays and my work schedule interrupted things). By the time I started physical therapy, my knee had gotten a lot better on its own.
I also think I was pretty careful working around it. For 6 months I basically never let my knee go over my toe once. In the mean time, I figured out how to hammer my glutes and other areas while minimizing pain. And thats basically what the physical therapy amounts to. Glute work lol.
When January rolled around, I decided to dive into the swing thing even though I knew I'd be starting PT. Fuck it lol. At first the swings bothered my knees, but now they don't. In hindsight, I think the high rep work has done wonders for my joints.
The Rippetoe hybrid setup has been instrumental getting me back under the bar for squats. I really have no interest in the internet debates about hip drive, etc. I just know that I'm tall, I have shit knees, shit knee genetics (my Mom's side of the family literally all had knee surgies after athletic injuries), and I don't want my knees flailing all the fuck around when I squat. The hip drive feels powerful and safe to me. So, I'm going with it.
The Coming Weeks
The Balance powerlifting meet got pushed back again. It was supposed to be April 12, now its going to be "early summer." To be honest, I'm relieved. I would have had 9 weeks to prepare, and I kind of had this bad feeling like I would have made poor decisions leading up to it. This takes a lot of pressure off me and allows me to simply program based on what I think is right for me right now.
I want to run a classic 3 day a week barbell strength training program. I'm going to do a little more reflection on whether that is "right" for me. I think it is, but I just want to be methodical with my approach. Whatever I choose, I need to do something very, very moderate. I don't have the base to jump into a huge amount of barbell lifting off the back. Its not like I'm fragile, but I don't have the resiliency I did a while back when I was doing BB lifts like everyday lol.
Aside from easing back into it, I work long hours. I need something reasonable that I can stick to. My basic thought is this:
Tuesday - Lower
Thursday - Upper
Saturday - Combined
Its not completely optimal, but I don't have the time/motivation to get into the gym 3x on the weeknights. Also, I don't want to have to do full body warm-ups everytime I go to lift after work.
Those are just some preliminary thoughts. I ordered Practical Programming 3rd Edition, so I'm sure I'll have a million more ideas soon.
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