I'm Bone Dunked

Well, it's been just over a month since the shin bone collision that's slowed my progress. The X-ray turned up negative, the weird bump is slowly going down since I've been rubbing it several times a day, and aside from some discoloration the first week there's been no outwardly physical signs of damage. I spoke with the training staff and they conclude, since the X-ray was negative, that the most likely culprit is a bone bruise. Confirmation of this diagnosis would require an MRI, but the last time I had that done it cost $300 and I'm not THAT curious.

"What can I do to speed up the healing?", I asked politely of the head trainer. "Jack", came her succinct response. "Can I injure it more by playing sports on it?", I inquired. "Nope" she eloquently answered. It takes anywhere from several months to a year for a bone bruise to heal completely. FUCK. THAT. I just got my body back into kickass shape, and now I'm laid up because of this suckass injury. Well, at least I know I can't make it worse by continuing to exercise.

I played my worst game of basketball last Friday morning, going 1-for-5 and turning the ball over twice. Awesome. My team lost all four games. I'm definitely not nearly as mobile, but having not shooting around in a month has really deteriorated whatever shot I thought I had. Sunday I played football and because of stupid leg got to be all-time QB and surprised myself, completing long and short passes regularly. I managed to suck it up and play receiver on a third of the plays and did well there too, although I couldn't start fast off the line as I couldn't push off my leg.

Today in the weight room I did my first squats at 150# and finally met a fail point! On my third set of 10, I could only do 6 reps. Ach! I'm not too worried however, as it was my first set on a new weight and I hadn't done lifting since Thursday previous. I'm confident this Thursday I can knock out the entire 3 sets of 10 at 150#. On cardio days I've been increasing my time as well, and on Monday I did 44 minutes on the Death Machine. Of course I would murder to be able to run outside - 75, sunny, no humidity - but this damnable leg won't let me.

So for now, I'm going to keep trying to play through on Friday basketball and Sunday football. The leg is s l o w l y feeling better, and I'm sure if I laid off the weekend sports it'd heal faster, but I just can't do it!! I'm also going to dedicate an ibuprofen routine, 400mg 3x a day, one glass of milk a day (strong bones!!), and icing the leg when I get home. With an estimated recovery of several months, I can't really gauge when I'll be 100% again... but the build-up of dunkness continues unabated! If I can keep this squat-weight increases up, by the end of the month I'll be squatting my body weight - how cool is that? I mean, for me?

Sleek Dunks

The Return of the Tanita Body Composition Analyzer TBF-300A Maximum Comfort Tentacle Wonder!!

Initial Analysis 01/11/10 (difference)

Weight: 166# (+1.6)

BMI: 23.8 (+0.2)

Fat %: 8.4% (-2.2%)

Basal Metabolic Rate: 1819 Cal (+10)

Impedance: 447 Ohms (-48)

Fat Mass: 14.01# (-3.4)

Fat Free Mass: 152# (+5)

Total Body Water: 111.2# (+3.4)

Explanations of these metrics.

Hell and yes. It would seem I've gained about 5# of muscle while losing 3.4# of fat, accounting for my slight weight gain. Being poor pays off - I can't afford to eat out a lot, and don't buy any snack foods or mayonnaise, so I'm kinda healthy by default. These numbers aren't super impressive by any stretch of a meathead's imagination (and there's not a lot to stretch to begin with - zing!), but I'm not looking for big gains in muscle. In fact, adding too much weight would be a detriment. The only area I'm concerned about is keeping my weight low and my leg muscles up.

I did my last 3x10 of 145# squats today with confidence - this weekend I'll try my legs at 150#. Tomorrow I'm going back in to basketball for the first time in two weeks. My leg no longer hurts at rest, but pounding it up and down the court may result in a different feeling. I'm planning on taking 4 ibuprofen before the game as a preventative measure. It'll be an interesting Friday, as tonight I'm going to a concert that most likely won't be over until near midnight and I have to get up at 5:30 for basketball. Ah, life: how tremendous!

Just a brief how-do-ya-do.

The pain in my shin has subsided somewhat. It has moved a little further down and a little deeper. It feels closer to my ankle. But it is not significant, and is fading slowly each day. Another week off and I should be OK.

I have been using the Death Machine, and added the leg press to my workout for the first time. This was done as a final exercise, so I didn't push for a heavy load but could comfortable do 2x10 reps of 200#. I've done my third round of 3x10 squats at 140#, so tomorrow I'll try 145#. The squat weight hasn't become impossible yet: each 5# addition is noticeable however, but by the third round I'm usually able to finish without having an aneurysm.

Again, nothing super to report, as I'm waiting for this leg thing to go away so I can resume playing basketball. I'll probably give it a shot this coming Friday and hopefully not re-injure anything. I'll also try and get another body analysis done. I've been eating less-than-ideal recently, mostly out of laziness/time constraints, so I'll be interested to see how that interacts with the workouts I've been doing since the last analysis.

In other news, the Hawks continue to frustrate with their glaringly inept leadership, there are 6 weeks of school left, and baseball opens today. So now I can watch 4 uninterrupted hours of fat guys hanging out on a lawn, getting paid more than the GDP of South America. Neat.

This is an athlete. If it approaches you, do not smell like a cheeseburger.