Sunday, May 2, 2010

Dunk Another Day

I'm still hobbled by this shin splint / bone bruise / voodoo curse in my left leg. I've sworn off all impact activities for the next 3 weeks in a desperation move to heal before the 5k Warrior Dash on May 22, followed by a week of hiking and camping in the north Georgia mountains. As such, any notable progress on actually dunking is, as always, postponed until this damn body gets its act together.

Despite the injury occurring the first week of March, I have not done myself any favors by continuing to play basketball on Fridays and, occasionally, football on Sundays. A week ago today, I ran 3 laps on a track. 3. My left shin was throbbing for hours afterwards. Unbelievable.

So... it's just more exercise. Through most of January, February, and March I was working out 3, 4, or even 5 times a week. Sticking with my 5# weekly increases on the squat finally caught up with me, and the punishing workout schedule was not allowing my body to recover. It got so that I was always sore and never feeling at full strength. I felt I had finally peaked at 155# on the squat and was starting to trigger some old soreness in my hip. The 3-lap fail last Sunday was the last straw. I've been pushing my body too hard. Combined with the injury to my shin, I haven't been able to adequately recover and continue increasing weight in my exercises.

With that realization, coupled with a week of hiking I need to be healthy for, I've scaled back to 2 days on, 1 day off. Weights, cardio, recover. Repeat. Having been through this new cycle twice now, I can already feel the results. My body is in much better overall shape, and I plan on sticking with this lighter cycle until I return from the hiking trip. Tomorrow is my first attempt at squatting 160# - 5 more pounds and I'm squatting my body weight! That's gotta be a milestone or something, for scrawny guys. Anyway, because of my inability to run/jump, there will continue to be few posts here. Once I'm fully mobile again I'll start re-measuring verticals, running jumps, and things of that sort. Until then, sleep, perchance to dunk!

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