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!

7 Miles Walk & Right Hip

Last week was spent recovering from a lingering cold (which is still causing a sniffle) and giving my right abdominal muscle strain a chance to heal. So, I missed the gym and pool and didn't get out much.

On Sunday, I was feeling much better in terms of the head cold. The weather was dry and calm so I headed out for a walk. From the outset my right hip hurt. The pain originated in the right butt, on foot strike, and then started to refer to the upper/inner thigh and then into the groin/front of hip. However, I really wasn't going to take any notice of it as I felt full of beans and glad to be doing some exercise at long last!

All in all, I walked for over 2 hours and went more than 7 miles. Apart from the painful hip (which only got worse as the walk went on), it felt great. I had energy and the whole thing felt invigorating rather than draining. I was really chuffed.

On Monday, I restarted the right hip physio stretches and strengthening exercises. I figure I really need to give them a good go before going back to the physio or GP. I'm determined to keep them up for another 6 weeks and then reassess.

I missed the pool again this week (yesterday) because the abdominal strain is still there. I might try a gentle gym session on Friday to test it out. In the meantime, I'm doing some gentle daily ab strengthening exercises when I do the hip physio. Hopefully, that'll get it going in the right direction.

Poor Sleep, A Cold & the Gym

The title actually sounds far more depressing than the reality, thankfully. Yup, so, the "hardly worth mentioning" sniffle turned into a bit more of a cold and that's lingered all week. Still feel stuffed up and coldy today.

Since coming off the Trazodone, I don't sleep very well or consistently but actually feel better during the day than I would have done on the drug with sleep! Anyway, last night was one of those "not sleeping" nights. It took a couple of hours to get off and then I woke at 4am. Was awake for perhaps 3 hours - eventually turned on the light at 5:30am, fired up the laptop and faffed about on the net before finally getting another couple of hours sleep between about 7 and 9am. Apart from feeling coldy, I don't feel any the worse for the poor sleep, which is weird.

Anyway....headed to the first gym session of the year this morning. I had to take it pretty easy because of the strained/aggravated right abdominal muscle/area.

Today's gym set:

• 8 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. 
• Right Hip adduction and extension using cable weights 6kg 2 x 10 reps, 8kg 2 x 10 reps
• 10 single leg glute bridges (each leg), 5 sec hold each. 
• Press ups-plus (at 45 deg angle) 2 x 10 reps. 
• Press-ups on floor (knees on floor) 2 x 10 reps
• Seated rows 10 kg 10 reps; 12 kg 2x10 reps; vertical flies 4kg 2 x 10 reps.
• Chest fly with cable weights 4kg 3 x 10 reps.
• Trunk twist using cable weights 4kg 10reps; 6kg 10 reps. (done very carefully to prevent further ab strain)
• 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