A return to wreckage, get a grip

Last week was technically my first workout with SFF since my surgery, but it felt like today was my first REAL workout. Last week we were still careful, gentle, easy. I mean, as easy as SFF ever is that is.

This week I managed to add extra pain to my workout without really meaning to. Whoops.

So as it happens, SFF was going to be about 15 minutes late to the workout. No problem, we just shifted it, but I decided I would get in 15 minutes early and warm up. Traffic being absolutely nothing I actually ended up being 25 minutes early. I ran… erm, I mean WALKED quickly on the treadmill (aren’t allowed to run yet, anyone seeing me run was seeing things) for about a mile, then did around 5 minutes of jump rope. Did some stretches. Then decided, what the hell, I’ll just do some kettle bell swings, 60 of them. 3 sets of 20. Sure, why not. And then, just for chuckles, I did 60 wall balls (4 sets of 15) with an 8lb ball. Fun right?

So that was prior to the workout. SFF arrived as I was finishing my wall balls and laughed since she had already planned on me doing 60 that day, so hey let’s replace it with a different movement. BONUS!

We started with 10 burpees, but since the ankle is still maybe a little vulnerable to shearing forces, we just stepped it back (instead of the thrust and jumping). Easy enough.

Then I did 15 inverted pullups with my heels on a bosu. Grip strength was an issue here, as the bar kept trying to spin in my hands.

We moved to step-ups on a 2ft platform with a 20lb weight in each hand. 20 total, 10 each leg. This was brutal and I could only do 10 at a time before feeling like I would ralph up breakfast. Ouch.

The final movement of the series was to do 25 hanging straight-leg raises. Grip strength again really hit me here. In this first run through I was able to do 10 then 15, but later I had to do 5 at a time before my grip failed me.

Then we went through and did 2 more rounds of all of the movements.

It feels great to be in the gym again and pushing hard. I definitely feel like I’ve fallen behind but if the last year has taught me anything, it’s that consistent hard work pays back in fitness and function. I figure in a month or two I’ll be stronger and faster than I was a month ago. Which is good, since there’s courses to run an tris to do.

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