Tag: knee pain

11 F on 12 March

Nevertheless, the back felt ok and I was able to walk outside a bit.

2:10 worth of working out from 8:30 to 10:40.

Warm up, back work. Included spinal balance, 1 leg bridges

Dead lifts: warm up: 10 x 134, 10 x 184

Transition: 10 x 234

Main set: 5 sets of 3 x 290 with a new one every 3 minutes I suppose these were not “easy”, but they were not hard. I did cinch up that belt though.

PT session 1: standing knee raises, sit to stand on one leg then upstairs

Walk: 16 minutes for 1.1 miles. Felt GREAT for 10 minutes, ok for 3, and last 3, felt minor symptoms but, still, my best yet. I think the dead lifts engage the glutes.

PT again: this time, fire hydrants, banded walks (outside with a new blue band), dead bug, prone knee lfits

Yoga: the old Warrior 2, triangle, pyramid, revolved triangle, reverse warrior, twice on each side.

Then tree: still a struggle on the left, but not as bad as it once was.

Those knees!

Doing ok; maybe time to add just a little?

Note: the best back stretches for me:

McKenzie, Open Book, and the hang from the pull-up bar.

Garmin vs. Strava distance

My workout, which I was pleased with, is at the end.
But with Garmin being down due to a ransomware attack I got a chance to see what Strava would do with the same data points that Garmin connect uses.

This is the course in question. On Thursday, I did this course 3 times then a bit extra. The Garmin measured it as 6.3 miles and Strava got this at 6.4 with the same data points that the Garmin used.
Here is the Strava output, which includes the extra partial loop.

The time before, Garmin measured these two loops as follows:

Strava gave me 4.3 on the same data:

Now look at today’s walk, where the Garmin and Strava got the same mileage with the same data points:

6.22 (which is what the Garmin showed).

So, why the difference?

(yes, this is based on only a few outputs)

First note that there was a time when the outputs were all but identical. That tells me it is NOT “round off” error (e. g. one program carrying more digits than another).

But note when I had a different number: the lines are all “wiggly.” Reason: the two that were different were weekday morning walks; there was much more traffic. I made course corrections to avoid other runners, pedestrians and vehicles on the road.

Today’s trek was on a less crowded day: note the lack of “wiggles” in my path.

My inference: the difference is in how the algorithm connects the dots. First of all, each “dot” is really just an intersection of lines from different satellite signals and those lines of intersection form a polygon rather than an exact point.

The centers of these “polygons” formed by the signal lines determine your position points. So, what to do with these position points?

The crudest way is to draw a straight line path between these points (black). One can select the points in batches and fit different sorts of curves by either a spline or by a least squares principle.

Here, I approximated paths by cubic splines between each group of 3 points and one that uses all 5 points (but doesn’t quite cut through all of them.)

But one gets different distances when one uses a different “curve fitting” algorithm, and it is my guess that Strava algorithm fits curves through more of the points than the Garmin algorithm. And the difference is less when the curve has less “wiggle” to it (in math terms: smaller magnitudes for the second derivative).

Anyway, that is my guess.

My workout: I warmed up my glutes and back..(15 minutes)

Deadlifts (low handles, trap bar): 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 5 x 228, 3 x 250, 5 x 233 NO BOUNCED REPS. Note: this might not seem like much but at this time last year, I couldn’t get 225 for a single rep.
Then the walk:

It was 81 F at the start, 84 F at the end, 69 percent humidity. That is warm for us.

No glute pain. Not much knee pain either.

Ha ha..nerds will find a way.

Yes, Garmin is undergoing a loss of service attack.
But the workaround works just fine.

These mile splits are a bit better than what the watch showed. No miles over 15 minutes! I knew I had a decent walk, though, yes, I know, this was my “easy long pace” walk in times past. I was just glad to do it without glute pain; posture improvement is helping as are the pre walk exercises.

Afterward: 195.5. Slight “heaviness” in the knee.

More progress on that paper

I finally got my teeth into a paper that I had neglected since October. Maybe finish it next week?

Anyway…

Weights only (kind of hot and stuffy outside..I slept better due to a different sleeping position)

Workout, with the silliness of moving my car took a total of 2 hours, starting with my first warm up to the final putting away of the final weight.

Warm up: lots of glute, knee and back stuff; 20 minutes worth

pull ups: not feeling it today: 10 sets of 5 making sure each rep was a good one. rotator cuff recovery
10 sets of 5

bench press: a bit off..10 x 132, 1 x 176 (?) 1 x 187, 5 x 176 (hard), 4 x 176 (ok), 5 x 176 (UGLY)
outdoor: standing shoulder presses, single arm row, push ups (deficit)

Shoulder presses: assume 10 kg bar, 1 kg collars,
10 x (2 10 kg, 2 2 kg plates) 36 kg or 79.2
10 x (2 10 kg, 2 2 kg, 2 1 kg) 83.6
10 x (2 10 kg, 2 4 kg) 88
7 x (2 10 kg, 2 4 kg, 2 1 kg) 92.4
5 x (2 10 kg, 2 4 kg, 2 2 kg) 96.8

Not the best photos but they show my spiffy Adidas Superstar shoes.

Knee This is why my walking is ok, but running: not so much. note how little distance there is between the thigh and shin bone when I have my knee bent, loaded.

Walking loads the knee while straight, with no flight phase.

Management ..my knees

Well, first things first: I had a nice 4 mile walk; 14:0x pace for 4 miles. It was just enough to be work but nothing severe.

Then to the doctor.

I got a lot of x-rays. I was amused at the new machine; you stood and a technician adjusted your body, fiddled with the controls, etc. This wasn’t the old, clunky 1970’s stuff.

I was expecting one of either:
1. overuse..will get better with rest and PT or
2. more tearning…surgery.

I got neither. Instead, I was shown the x-ray; nothing lose but the gap between the bones in my right leg are narrower than the ones in my left. And arthritis continues to develop.
The PA recommended cycling, swimming or elliptical.

The latter two can’t be done at the moment, though in the future I might save up for an AMT machine.

That is a 2000 dollar investment.

Maybe..in the future.

Yes, some people who are already running can still run with arthritis and here are some tips (2-3 times a week…sounds familiar? Slow pace..yes, I felt pain after trying to pick up the pace)

Arthritis isn’t a death knell for runners nor for working out in general.

BUT those studies on runners: they are experiences (as am I) but my guess is that many have efficient strides and lean bodies. I am not built like a runner; walking appears to be more natural for me so I’ll stick with that. But: sane distances, and rest days, and yes, cycling in between.

I am at a stage in my life where my bets lifts, best runs, best walks and best swims are behind me. I am now at the “management” stage and doing what my body does the best (walks, lifts, then back to the pool) and my workouts will be two parts: PT, then sport (probably PT, sport, PT)

I might set some goals: perhaps a 35 minute walking 5K and a sub 3 hour walk half marathon.

And…all of the damned butt/knee/PT stuff..probably should do every morning.

knees: the easy stuff:

And the piriformis/glute stuff:

And yes, the “easy” knee stuff.

What I might try with weights: trap bar deadlifts (regular, straight)
step ups with weights
lunges with weights (light at first)
1/2 squats to the chair/box..some goblet, some barbell.

The knee?

It was almost 10 years ago today that I had my 4’th surgery on my right knee..am I headed for surgery no. 5? Last night, I had the “usual soreness” but then, upon getting out of bed to head to the bathroom, I felt pain radiate down my shin..up high…from the knee and I felt a bit unsteady on it.

It is walkable; I took some naproxen last night (2 am?) and again at noon today and feel ok; there was very mild swelling and very light warmth. But that radiating pain bothered me; no running for a while and I’ll keep whatever walking I do to short, manageable distances..maybe do some indoor cycling and stiff legged deadlifts.

Here you see what I used today (though I took the dumbbells outside; steps were fine) and I did use the trap bar on Saturday (222 is on the bar; 10 dead lift reps) That, plus the “playground for chins, pull ups, dips and pushups) constitutes my “resistance training gym.”

The racks, bench and dumbbell handles came from March when I knew gyms would close (and the pull up station); trap bar and bumper plates came from early this year just to do on my own. Metal weights and bars: came from 1984. Still useful for me, though a really strong person (who, say, uses 400 lb) would need more weight plates and a better Olympic bar.

Oh, the folding chair: it held me when I weighed 300+ lb, so it easily holds me plus the 90 lb barbell that I use.

Note: weight workout took 80 minutes from the start of pull ups to putting away all the weights; getting the weights out there takes another 10-15 minutes or so.

pull ups: 6 sets of 5, 10, then 2 more sets of 5, plus another when I got outside again. Did rotator cuff stuff. Focused on getting my chin over that bar.
bench press: 10 x 132, 3 sets of 5 x 166 (80 kg), with butt firmly planted and NOT lightly touching. These were harder than I expected.
seated shoulder: (count bar with collars as 12 kg) 10 x 70 (32 kg), 10 x 79.2 (36 kg), 8 x 83.6 (38 kg)
outside: 5 chins (already counted), 3 sets 8, 10, 8 of dumbbell shoulder presses (hands rotated inward) 35.4 lb (16.1 kg)
rows 4 sets of 10 each arm with 60? (57.4 lb? 26.1 kg)
push ups: below the handles, 3 sets of 10
plank: 2:30

That’s it..some experimentation.

Bloodletting

Ok, that title was way too dramatic: this was a mere platelet donation. That is what I do instead of go to ball games.

The workout: 78 F, 74 percent at 8 am (too late) and my right knee was somewhat sore. So I decided to run 3 miles (5K) and try to put some effort into the final mile, then walk 3 more after stretching the glute. Yeah, the glute started to hurt 2 miles into it but I focused on posture and that got me through without much pain.

I wore my old 4’th of July shirt to remind myself that eventually, the races will come back.

As you can see, I gave more effort in mile 2 and even more in mile 3. And, well, a 10:17 mile was WORK in this heat. Good Lord. My body needs more practice at putting forth effort.

The walk started down Moss and then I wandered all over the place.

Yeah, I wore my Chiefs shirt.

Ah…

July 4 sizzle and fizzle

Well, no public race today. Sigh…

So, what did I do? I started deadlifts a bit later than I should:

warm up: glute exercises, hip hikes
trap bar, low handles, of course:
10 x 134 (*always* out of breath on the first set)
10 x 184 (felt a bit better, but still huffing and puffing)
4 x 222 (217 + 2.5 kg plates) disappointing, kind of gave up
10 x 222 (this one was hard..got that “bad breath” on the last two reps.)

There was a little bit of knee pain (right knee) afterward..very, very, very minor. I have to watch my angle.

Then outside for 6.32 (or 6.37 if you believe USATF’s online map) worth of walking.
1:37 for the distance; pretty steady except for mile 5 when my mind started to wander; I bore down and focused on the final mile (NO sprinting)

15:25 pace overall. Yes, it was hot; 82 F at the start, 88 F at the finish (46 percent humidity) so I walked to Moss and then did “out and back” from Western to Sheridan ..a couple of times. I saw Sheridan twice and Western twice.

It WAS hot.

The bumper plates make the load look bigger than it was; it was only 222 lb. That is pretty much what is on the bar here, the difference is that she is using the skinny steel plates which take up a whole lot less volume:

View this post on Instagram

Mannnnnn a lot of people complain about high volume work but I guarantee you’ll never hear any of that from me. . Why? I couldn’t squat or deadlift for almost a year of my life. I know what it’s like to feel broken and shell of my former self. This is why I wake up every day grateful as fuck that I GET to do this. . I don’t have to. No ones making me. I make a conscious decision to chose it everyday. Just like any heathy relationship. . I am healthy enough to do what I love and I will never take that for granted. I hope you feel the same way about your own training. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 . 100kg/220lb 3×15. @the_lab_gym . #deadlifts #sumo #deadlifting #progress #volumework #hypertrophy #headdowneyesforward #loveyourwork #gratitude #strength #fitness

A post shared by Bonnie Schroeder • Coach (@bonschro) on

No, it isn’t heavy, but the weight killed me.

The shade on Moss Ave.

Personal life: we said “Goodbye” to a unplanned tree that lived with us for 20 years. We first notice a problem when some branches broke off and were resting on the utility lines coming into our house. I got a hand saw and got the branches off of the line and called in a pro to get the longer branches ..trim them up. Outwardly, the tree looked ok but when they took a closer look; it was sick and ready to be toppled by a good storm. So down it came; they will grind up the stump in a couple of weeks.

One of those inverted days

I wanted to practice some “running” and to get in some walking. Well, today it was “run 4, walk 5” and it was most unimpressive.
My right knee was somewhat sore from yesterday (deadlift?) and so the 4 mile “run” took 51 minutes and the 5 mile walk took 1:27

As you can tell, it was VERY humid (and warm) at the start); and 1 mile into the walk, I was all but ready to give into it. By mile 2 I got my groove. Note: I used Moss for most of my miles due to the shade. And it felt better at the finish than at the start.

Knee: it was ok. Some tingles in the glute, but that is about it.

Afterward: 192.5 (after finishing the bottle of water I stared on my walk), no shoes, no shirt.

Immediately I thought:

1. “too heavy for a walking marathon; I need to get to 185”
2. “too light to ever get 300 deadlifting at my age”

Yes, I’ve done my best running at 185, and my best “bodyweight ratio” lifting at 225. So I am at a perfect weight to suck at both.

This is the first time I’ve stepped on the scale since the pandemic began.

keeping cool

Nice weather..thank goodness, as our AC just went down for the count.

Workout notes: deadlift and walk; walk was only 4 miles (to and from Dozer; about 1:08) but I did deadlifts first, after glute warm ups:

10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 217, 5 x 233 (45, 25, 22, 2.75) which isn’t that bad of a session, though my right knee felt it much later. I tried to keep “in my knees)
Trap bar, of course. And I had a few reps left in each set.