Back in the Saddle...almost

Timeline - I am just shy of 3 weeks post-op from my hip surgery and almost 12 weeks post-op from shoulder surgery.

My hip physical therapists are awesome, I enjoy this practice much more than the one I went to for my shoulder. I will use this office next time I have an injury for sure. They see a ton of young (and relatively young) athletic individuals. I like the way they talk to me and the way they work with me. Plus, they are all - to a one - energetic and personable. It makes for a much more pleasant therapy session.

This past Friday, I made my way to the swimming pool to get in my first real "workout" since the first surgery on November 4. It had been YEARS since I tried to do a swimming workout, but it's pretty much the only thing I'm cleared for at this point. I used to be a swim coach and knew I could overdue it so I decided to start slowly.

I swam 1,000 yards (40 laps). To non-swimmers this apparently sounds like a lot, but to competitive swimmers, it's the minimum you can do and still refer to it as a "workout", lol! I swam slowly attempting to maintain technical proficiency and alternated strokes every 100 yards, Freestyle, Backstroke, Breastroke. I also included a 100yd kick towards the end. The alternating came right about on time as Freestyle and Backstroke start making my shoulder feel sore after a bit and my hip has had enough of Breastroke after about 4 consecutive laps.

I felt absolutely GREAT after finishing up and was hungrier than I have been at any given point in weeks. Which was perfect because Ryan, Marcel, and I headed to Fogo de Chao in D.C. right after. Despite trying to go slowly though, I was still sore the next day. I guess that just goes to show how out of shape you can get in 3 months of inactivity. Haha!

I am beginning to feel so good that when I watch jiu-jitsu every day, it's super hard not to just jump on the mat and try it. But I know that the best thing I can do is to go back slowly. On Tuesday, I was able to demonstrate a couple guard techniques during the women's class. By today's class I didn't even feel soreness when I demonstrated a couple more techniques. Woohoo!

I have a plan for getting my strength, cardio, and range of motion back and I'm sticking to it. I will swim again on Monday (tomorrow), I have PT on Tuesday, then swim again on Wednesday, do my first Yoga class since October on Thursday, then have PT again on Friday, Yoga on Sat, Sun off, Mon Swim, Tues Yoga, Wed PT, Thurs Yoga, Fri Swim, Sat coach Alex at a tournament, Sun off, Mon Feb 7 - first Jiu-Jitsu session! And of course I have my 1-1.5 hours of Hip & Shoulder home PT exercises that I do every day on my own.

Good news for our women's program - we had a new woman sign up on Tuesday! Then another new woman came in Thursday and I hope she comes back. (She's a dancer and picked up the body movements very quickly.) I'm expecting an additional woman to come in this Tuesday night as well. There were 9 women in class last Tuesday and 8 on Thursday (not counting myself). It's so much fun to teach to a group of them! And I've been talking to Michelle Nicolini online and we are working out a week for her to come visit this Spring and do another seminar.


I'm BACK....Back in the Saddle agaaaiin!