2 Months, 1 Week

No posts for a whole week (and some change), but, honestly, there wasn't really much to write about. The knee generally feels about the same as it did a week ago, and I haven't been doing anything new or particularly challenging in the mean time that would show improvements or expose weakness. The one somewhat noticeable improvement that comes to mind is that, while the knee still doesn't like it when I stand in place for too long, it doesn't seem to swell up as much when I it happens.

I've been to the PT last Tuesday as usual, but even that was more of the same with just a few updates. I did the longest uninterrupted jog to that point, which would amount to maybe 200 meters or so. Then we did some jumping from one foot to the other, side to side, front to back and diagonally with random interruptions to balance on one foot, plus some throw and catch on top of it to make it even more challenging. Finally, he showed me two new exercises to include in my home or gym sessions. One is one leg deadlifts with dumbbells and the other is squats with a jump at the top where the jump is done into the squat and not out of it, so to say (so I fully stand up before jumping and going straight into a squat upon landing).

I have quite a list of exercises to pick and choose from now. The idea is not to try and jam them all in every session, but to have a variety to keep challenging the body in different ways. These are the exercises so far (in no particular order):

• One leg balancing - combinations with throw and catch, shallow squats, touching the foot with the opposite hand, with and without the balance board).
• Gluteus medius exercises - leg raises on the side, leg abductions, clamshells, side steps all with an elastic band and so on.
• Supermans and one leg deadlifts.
• Glute bridges on an exercise ball, one and two legged.
• Squats - standard squats with weights, squat and shoulder press combination, jump squats, single leg squats while holding an exercise ball against the wall with the opposite knee.
• Knee extensions.
• Leg press.
• Lunges.
• Elliptical trainer (I've replaced this with running intervals).

This week I won'be be having PT sessions and I can say that I am looking forward to it. I will use the opportunity to make a workout program that I will hopefully be able to use in the long term with occasional tweaks, or at least see in general what works best for me, how much rest do I need and how hard should I go on different days. At the moment, the PT sessions always break my weekly rhythm a bit since they are never truly hard sessions, but at the same time they tend to be hard enough to require some recovery afterwards. Next week I'll go to the physio with any conclusions and see what he thinks about it.

I have had one gym session so far this week. To begin with, I did 30 minutes of 4+1 walking/running intervals (4 minutes walking, 1 minute running) where I tried to do actual running instead of jogging once I warmed up. There are various theories about whether cardio should be done before or after weight lifting workouts, or in the same session at all, but seeing as I can't really run hard enough or long enough yet to significantly tax the cardiovascular system, I think this is a good general warm up.

After the running I did squats to shoulder press combinations, two sets, then a set on the leg adductor trainer as a sort of a break for the hams and glutes. This I followed with four sets of barbell deadlifts with progressively increasing weights. To finish it off, I did three sets of knee extensions and then two sets of bicep curls just to give the arms some work as well.

The idea was to focus more on deadlifts in this session, while doing some squat-based exercises as well. Since I'm limited by shoulder strength in the squat to shoulder press, this exercise served more to warm up the posterior chain muscles, while deadlifts really worked them. For the next session the focus will be on squats, so I will start with single leg deadlifts and then do proper barbell squats. I will also alternate leg press and knee extension workouts. In the days between the two gym sessions I will do some of the exercises that don't use weights, plus at least one or two full rest days.

Other than that, I will try to bump up the cycling distance a little. I've been commuting by bike almost every day, but I haven't really been cycling other than that. The longest ride so far is still the 8.5 km or so from a week ago. It's time to get into the double digits finally.