Good day today, hit some nice rehab milestones.
Safety Bar Squat
70x5, 120x5, 160x5, 190x5, 215x4, 240x3, 260x3, 270x3
Notes: 240 felt totally fine on my shoulder today, which was great after it really was at the limit on Weds. I stopped at 270, but it felt less limit than 240 did on Weds.
PVC Ring Rehab/Press
PVC x 10/10 x1
+5 x 10/10 x1
+10 x 10/10 x1
Press
15x10
20x10x3
15x10
Notes: Did the PVC/ring stretch for 10 seconds before and after each press set, but I pressed from the rack for the first time since surgery, full ROM, pain free! I realized that, though the weights I'm using are MUCH lighter (20 lbs vs 145 lbs), my presses at this same point after the initial injury (7.5 weeks) still felt weak and uncomfortable with some pain at lockout. I'm using way less weight now as I work it up slowly as the repair heals, but the lockout position doesn't cause any pain.
I also was able to get into a position slightly beyond (behind) lockout today, for the first time since surgery. Not that I want to get into that position during the press, but it's a good thing to be getting that ROM back, in general.
Squats and Presses on IG
Deadlift
[135,185,225,255,275] x5
Notes: Easy, good, fast. Two seventy five. That's two and a quarter on each side, bro.
Kneeling Pulldowns with Posterior OH Stretch
Green x 12 x 4
Notes: Easy.
KB Press/Snatch - left arm only
24kg x6, 32kg x6
Notes: Haven't done KBs in so long that my wrists were a little sore from the KB impact of Wednesday's work. Still, these were pretty easy.
Good to see things progressing so well, Wolf!
Anyone going through an injury needs to see all of this, from how you got strong, to the return to strength after injury and repair.
Aren't you tempted to send the Press video to your surgeon?!
Thanks Kris. I hope it is/will be helpful for people going through this rehab in the future. My impression is we have more examples of cuff repairs around here than labrum, so hopefully this can add some more info to the mix.
Am I tempted? Of course. I'd love to have a local orthopedic surgeon to ask questions and refer people to, who understands what we do. I didn't write it all out in the post above because I didn't really think there was a point, but there were a few specific things he said that made me 99.9% sure he wouldn't have been thrilled had he known what I'd started doing the 7-10 days before seeing him, and what I'm continuing to do now. Hence, the not ready for the red-pill comment. The chances of him being receptive to what I had to say were/are so low that I decided to just keep doing it without trying to convince him. It would be more trouble than it's worth. If he asks me at the 6 month check-in, I might test the waters out and see, but probably not.
The baby gainz train keeps rolling. Today was my first day doing active/strengthening stuff in PT. I'm still at the point where doing this stuff is helpful, so don't mind doing it along with what I'm doing at the gym. My PT, who is really just a super nice guy, also commented that he's never seen a labral repair get better so linearly for 8 weeks before. I haven't had any day where it was worse than the previous day, and only maybe one or two days where it was the same as the day before. 53 of the 55 days up till now, it's been clearly and noticeably better than the day before. Is there a connection between that, my pre-surgery training status, and what I've done in recovery? I am quite confident that there is.
Safety Bar Squat
70x5, 120x5, 160x5, 200x5, 230x4, 260x3, 290x3, 300x2, 250x2
Notes: Shoulder is able to handle more direct pressure from the SSB every session. The 300 today felt less uncomfortable than the 210 and 240 last week. The weight is actually getting up to where I may belt later in the week, low 300's on the SSB feels better to me with a belt.
Press
[15,25,30,35,35,35,15] x10
Notes: Did press position stretches with the PVC before, in between, and after these sets. Easy. Will probably do 40 tomorrow and 50 on Wednesday.
Kneeling Pulldown with Posterior OH Stretch
Green x12, then
Assisted Chins
Black Band x3x4
Notes: Tried doing pulldowns with the next band up, black, but without something to hold me in place (like the lap thing on a lat pulldown cable machine), the black bands pull me up. So I tried doing assisted chins with them, and that worked, so did four sets of three. Felt good.
Deadlift
[135,225,265,295,295] x5
Notes: Easy, solid. First set DOH, second set I hooked because it's been so long since I've hooked and wanted to start re-adjusting to it. Wasn't awful but certainly wasn't comfortable. Hook grip tolerance is more like cardio than strength: comes and goes pretty quick.
300x2 SSB and 295x5 DL set on IG
(If anyone is wondering, I will start to put some stuff on YouTube again before too long, and may back-post some of my rehab stuff I'm only putting on IG for now. I'm considering making my YouTube channel one where I do more of a weekly training recap with some commentary, but don't know what is good editing software for that, as I've always just used basic YouTube Editor and not had any commentary. If anyone has experience and suggestions here, I'm open to em. PM me rather than commenting here.)
Ring Rows - bottom of ring ~3 inches below belly button height
BWx5,6,5
Notes: This is a good bit higher than I usually do these, but 5-6 reps was challenging enough for my right arm, so kept it there. I do have full extension, however, and it felt good to use it.
Fair enough. It is disappointing, but unsurprising, that he wouldn't be intrigued enough by an obviously strong guy making significantly faster than usual progress with recovery to ask if you are doing anything different from the norm.
Hope the rehab continues smoothly, it's inspiring and useful to see the process documented in this way.