PT was really interesting today. Learned some things, wish I'd been taking notes or recording it because they guy covered a lot of ground. Seemed to know his shit. Got confirmation that the level of extension in my big toes is RIDICULOUSLY low. The guy literally said, "Wow," a bunch of times while he was moving them around with his hands.
He also told me that basically my problem is beyond physical therapy. I should be stretching twice a day for 60 seconds even if I don't feel a stretch, just to improve the ROM. No one knows whether that will decrease my pain, though. And the manual therapy can deal with some of the adhesion issues in the bottoms of my feet, on my shins, etc. Beyond that, he said I should see a podiatrist, so I made an appointment for Friday with a guy that the PT recommended. X-rays for sure and we'll go from there. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing the insides of my feet. I still have the X-rays from when I dislocated my collarbone a few years back.
Lastly, and most shittily, the guy told me I'll probably have to get surgery. The toe doesn't hurt when I wear cleats and he said it probably won't get any better or worse over the summer so I should play out my season and then get it operated on in the fall. I'm inclined to believe him because he's not a surgeon so he has no personal interest in that route. But we'll see what the podiatrist says.
In the meantime, he gave me the go-ahead to start biking and doing some exercises for my knee. I've said it before, but my cardio/work capacity could be WAY better. So for the next week, I'm not going to do any loaded shit on my legs, just focus on upper body stuff and then hit the bike for ~30 mins at an extensive aerobic pace (HR ~160). I need to start building some capacity. Won't be jumping or doing heavy squats for a little bit anyhow, may as well start to work hard* at something else. If my jumping/strength/speed go down, well, what can I do, I need healthy legs before I do anything with them. Thinking:
Warm upspin x5-10mins
usual (minus lunges and other standing leg stuff)
hamstring leg curls w/physioball 2-3x a fuck ton (PT basically said, "smoke 'em")
Workbench 3-4x6-8
pullups 3-4x6-8
core
spin @low-moderate pace x30mins
Cool downspin @easy pace x5mins
stretch
foam roll/tennis ball/super ball
Once my knee is feeling 90% or so I'll throw some unilateral shit in there and once it's back to normal I'll go back to jumps, squats, jump squats, DLs, etc.
*To be honest, I'm not sure how "hard" I can work at aerobic stuff right now. That's how much I suck. But I've got to start somewhere.
Show Posts