Right Abdominals & Lingering Cold

Heavy snow at the end of last week meant that I did my Friday gym session at home. I've got enough equipment to improvise most things and it went well. I'm still managing the right abdominal muscle strain problem and also a cold which I've now had for 4 weeks.

By Tuesday, I couldn't bare to be stuck in my house any longer and carefully made my way through the snow/ice to the pool. I swam 32 lengths (0.5 miles) and it felt really good. The right abdominal pain was aggravated but I didn't need to take painkillers at night for the right butt/hip or ab pain, which was encouraging.

Today, I made it to the gym (and thankfully they had Andy Murray's Australian Open semi-final on the TVs so I could keep an eye on that whilst pumping iron....Go Andy!). Throughout, I was monitoring and managing the right abdominal pain. I modified the workout as I went along (basically not doing the trunk twist with cable weights which is how I got the injury). I really can't work out where the pain is originating. I can't decide if it is mid-back pain (i.e. an irritated facet joint or something) referring to the right abdomen or genuinely an abdominal muscle strain.

Today's gym set:

• 10 mins exercise bike (difficulty level 8)
• Hip/lower back stretches
• Glute bridges (10 secs hold) 3 reps then quad stretches
• Glute bridges 10kg dumbbell across hips 10 reps, 10 sec hold. 
• Press ups-plus (at 45 deg angle) 2 x 10 reps. 
• Press-ups on floor (knees on floor) 2 x 10 reps
• Right Hip adduction and extension using cable weights 6kg 2 x 12 reps, 8kg 2 x 10 reps
• 10 single leg glute bridges (each leg), 5 sec hold each. 
• Seated rows 8 kg 12 reps; 10 kg 2x10 reps; vertical flies 4kg 2 x 10 reps.
• Chest fly with cable weights 4kg 3 x 10 reps.
• Wobble board 4 mins, 2 squats.
• Ab Crunches 2 x 10 reps
• Medicine ball Russian twist exercise (5kg) 2 x 10 reps
• Tricep extensions using cable/rope 8kg 2x10 reps.
• Combo lateral/front shoulder raises whilst sitting on exercise ball 3kg 2 x 10 reps
• Lying on the floor, starting with elbows by my side, arms bent 90 degs, then pushing weight upwards against gravity, straightening the arm (modified front raise) 5kg 2 x 10 reps 
• Plank 35 secs

Sleep still isn't great. Last night, I didn't get to sleep until 2am and woke at 8am. I think the problem is isolation. On days where I don't see or speak to anyone, my brain feels like it's left with too much unprocessed information and I'm wide awake into the early hours. Also, relating is a good way of wearing my brain out and inducing sleep, which is something I'm not getting. My life needs people in it but how on earth to achieve that is beyond me.

I'm keeping up with the right hip daily physio exercises - I really want this to work!