No Body Weight Matrix for me :(

Today I did Stage 3 Workout A3 for New Rules of Lifting for Women.
It was a good workout today. I was sweating up a storm! I felt strong.

I did these weights today:
1 arm db snatch - 1x25#, 2x30# (with 30# I felt really strong for some reason)
db single leg Romanian deadlift - 3x35#ea (got better with each set)
barbell bentover row - 3x80#
db single arm overhead squat - 3x12# & 25# (partial squat due to knee)
db incline bench press - 1x25#ea, 2x30#ea (limit of left arm, a little scary due to wobble!)
plank - 3x90s (sweat!!)
reverse woodchop - 3x41# lifted (~81# on the cable)

Instead of the body weight matrix of squats, lunges, squat jumps, and lunge jumps, I did an interval session on the stationary bike. My left knee was really clicky when I squatted, so I headed my physical therapists advice and skipped those. He said I should ride my bike a lot, so I chose that for the interval session.

All in all a great workout. Several of the exercises seem to get better with each set. My balance improved over time, too. Weird.

My heart rate actually didn't get much higher while biking. Probably because I was sitting. It doesn't show up for the planks, either, even though I was really working! Those first three big spikes were the 1 arm dumbbell snatches.

Heartrate for Weight Portion

Heartrate for Bike Intervals

Oh, my calves!

Today was NRoLfW Stage 3B2. It went fine. I didn't go down to horizontal on the partial single leg squats, but I don't think I'm supposed to anyway.

I did the intervals on the recumbent stationary bike. That went well. I set my Garmin to time me on those. It was kind of funny/embarrassing to have it beeping away at me. There was only one other person in the gym at the time, though.

Friday that physical therapist had me doing some good exercises. One was a calf stretch then calve raises. Holy cow. Saturday, Sunday, AND today my calves have been REALLY sore. It's the upper part right below my knee that is sore.

We went camping this weekend, including some mild hiking. I swear I was waddling a lot. Especially when I'd get up from sitting for a while. But, Friday after the PT session, my knee felt great and the clicking was gone for a while. But, it did come back.

Got the bike out!

Since the physical therapist wanted me to ride bike, I got it out tonight. I had a meeting about 2.5 miles away, so I rode there. I was running late, so I kicked it pretty good. Not much of a leisurely ride. I even broke a sweat, which means something because it was a nice, cool night and the ride wasn't very long.

I rode relative fast back, too, because the sun was going down. I had my lights and even my reflective vest, but twilight is the worst time for visibility. I even am wheezing a tad now. It was a tad humid, so that probably contributed. I did get up to around 160bpm a couple times.

While riding I sometimes felt my knee cap tracking problem. Now that I know what to feel for, I can tell sometimes. It doesn't hurt as it's happening, but a dull ache appears over time. I noticed a little behind my knee for a while.

It was a nice ride. There are lots of hills, so it's not that bad sometimes that I have a mountain bike. I have lots of gears to shift into and never am tempted to walk. Down one hill, I hit 23mph. Of course, on my way back, I had to punch it out at 5mph.

Back from physical therapy

I just got back from physical therapy for my ongoing knee problems. I was really impressed with the therapy I received. I have an appointment for Friday.

I'm going to take a few notes here so I don't forget what I'm supposed to do and what I was told. It is very possible that I am remembering incorrectly, or incompletely, this is just what I recall, and my memory can be lacking.

There were a few things going on that we are going to try correcting. Hopefully, this will correct the situation. Although the pain is relatively minimal now, it's been ongoing for 5 months.

Here are the contributing factors he identified:
1) Weakness in a muscle on the medial side of the knee... I want to remember the name of this... he said there are four muscles around the knee and this is the only medial one, it's the one you see large on Lance Armstong, he said. Biking will help strengthen this muscle. Maybe the vastus medialis? That looks right. Here is some info on it being weak. This sounds similar to what the PT was saying. That's right. Now that I read more, he was talking about the quads (hence, four muscles) and I remember hearing the term VMO (Vastus Medialis Oblique) which is the lower part of the Vastus Medialis. This link really confirms what was said, including the patella tracking, and this link sounds a lot like what I've felt.
2) Left leg is shorter - might have helped cause some of the other imbalances?
3) Left leg muscles are tighter and less flexible than right leg, especially calf, this tightness and limited ROM was pretty obvious when he compared with the right side
4) Hip bones out of alignment - apparently there are times of the month for women when the things holding the hips together loosen up and the hips can get out of alignment
5) Patella not tracking straight - it was pretty apparent the "detour" it took in the middle of the range of knee movement (probably very related to #1) - my right patella tracked straight as an arrow

He checked other things like my ACL and PCL and the meniscus, but all of those checked out fine. (I'm glad about that!)

So, he put a warm pack on my back for a few minutes and realigned my hips. That went quickly.

Then he used electromyostimulation or Electric Muscle Stimulation on my knee (I believe that's what it was). He put the electrodes on my knee and made my muscles pulse. He said that this would help get the little bit of fluid from behind the patella that was a result of the inflammation. My knee was clicking some which indicated some irritation from the patella rubbing. He wants me to take some ibuprofen to decrease the inflammation. Also, I should ice frequently to keep the inflammation down while I am working on correcting it.

He taped my knee using "McConnell taping", which is basically pulling the patella medially to try to help it track better. (I'm unsure of how you use that in a correct grammatical way!) I'm not sure this is totally correcting the situation, because I can feel the clicking still. I think my vastus lateralis (outer quad muscle) is just plain strong.

I have a list of stretches and exercises I am supposed to do 3 sets of 25 of each day. I'm not supposed to run for a while and I'm supposed to avoid squatting, especially deep squats, until we get this fixed. Those activities would keep the inflammation going. So, I'll be modifying my weights and not running for a little while.

All in all, I think it was a productive session (almost two hours) and I was impressed with the therapist who saw me. I am satisfied that we're looking in the right direction and that I'll be able to correct the situation!

Wobbly legs

Not a lot of time to blog today. Just returned from Stage 3A2 and my legs are still wobbly!

Not much new right now. I improved my body weight matrix times to 3:40 and 3:30 this time. Although, for the last rep, I short squatted about the last two or three squat jumps. Should I take a 5 second penalty? :)

I'm getting the one arm dumbbell snatch better. Although, it's going to be a huge effort to go from 25# to 30#. Especially for my left arm. My right arm does ok with 25#, but I can tell it is on the limit for the left. I wonder if I should use differing weights or let my left arm catch up?

The dumbbell incline bench press is still good. I don't know how I'll ever be able to go from 25# to 30# each on these. I wish I had a way to go by 2.5# increments.

Plank were TOUGH. yikes. Especially that third set of 90s.

Tomorrow is my PT appointment. I hope they have some input for me. Lately, if I have soreness, it's above my knee cap. I have no clue why it moves around like that.