Pain, surgery, and athletics

For the last 5 months I have been living with pain and only for the last 3 months have I been stepping back at the gym- at least with overhead movements. Ironically, pain increased drastically with me doing this. Also, unfortunately those are the movements I need to work on most. I've been blessed with some strong legs and a decent booty, but my chest and arms are the weakest parts of my body. Consequently, I am strong at lifts that are are hip-explosive and utilize leg strength. Think cleans, deadlifts (I have a strong grip), thrusters, squats. 

While the pain in my shoulder and arm at first didn't quite stop me from hitting WODs, I soon started noticing loss of strength on my left side. At first, I explained it with being right-handed, and simply considered my left side less strong. Kind of BS, if I consider how I did extra heavy left-hand curls and focused on using my left more in training. It did not help.

Muscle weakness also caused me to not hit any more maxes and I began to stagnate and even regress. Then with my EMG and MRI results, and conversations with my doctors and PTs, I ended the cycle of denial and stopped through the pain.

Light-weight back squats, front squats, pistols, step ups, one armed curls, one armed pullups and push-ups, leg raises, one armed planks, lunges... Yep, basically lower body movements are ok, but nothing over head. Even TGUs on the left shall be avoided. The last PR in my records book was a 210# FS PR about a month ago. Since, I had to take more loads off the bar.

Focus on form. Focus on core. Focus on legs. But I it is very frustrating to feel like I am losing all my strength and fall bac behind everyone else at the gym.


So, I was seeking out data and stories about athletes returning to sports with and without back surgery.

Here are some if my finds


http://www.back-surgery.com/athletes-spine-surgery/

http://www.medicaldaily.com/pros-and-complications-microdiscectomy-and-why-tiger-woods-missing-masters-back-surgery-273900 (this one mentions Tiger Woods, who had back surgery)


http://www.michaelgleibermd.com/blog/74-professional-athletes-undergoing-cervical-spine-surgery.html (this one has short videos explaining different procedures and mentions Peyton Manning who had cervical spine procedures)


http://www.readingneckandspine.com/return-to-play-after-anterior-cervical-discectomy.html (nice read, written by a fellowship-trained orthopedic spinal surgeon named Setphen Banco (MD), citing studies and using Manning as an example as well)

http://www.orthogate.org/patient-education/cervical-spine/cervical-discectomy.html (summary)



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Today I did the following at the gym, just to keep working a bit - all very slow and controlled - watching my pain level.



1k light row set to resistance 3 for warm-up followed by some easy stretching

40/40 GHD

10rds 5-10sec Ring holds alternating high and low 

5-5-5-5 ring rows 

Working up to heavy FS

5-4-4-3-3-3-2-2-1-1-1

35-65-85-105-115-125-135-145-155-165-175 (which is 35# below my 1RM)

4 rounds Untimed

250m row

20 alternating pistols 

20 alternating curls with 25#right/15#left DB

20 alternating step ups with 10#DB on each shoulder 

GERMANY is WELTMEISTER

Wir sind Weltmeister. After years of hard work, smart coaching, physical and mental training, Germany has finally made it: Winning the FIFA World Cup. Athletes and fans alike know how good winning can feel. Endorphines basically replace adrenaline or couple up, I guess. I am not an expert on hormones, but the emotions I felt when Götze shot that one and only goal during the second half of overtime, were intense. I made my dogs go crazy as I screamed "Jaaaaaa!" and jumped off of my chair. Unbelievable. Simply wunderbar.
My posture will be fixed for at least the next couple of days, as I carry myself with an extra touch of pride...

But, at the other end, we all were shocked to see Kramer go down, keep playing, but then a bit later - surprisingly still walking - going off the field. Head injuries are not uncommon in soccer or any other contact sports for that matter. I hope that 23 year old Christoph will only have suffered a concussion as the TZ reported, but I also hope they will take x-rays of his neck. Just in case. Pereira (player for Uruguay) was knocked out during their game against England. Although he was unconscious, he kept playing. According to sources such as die Zeit, FIFPro is calling for "more" head protection. That's great, but they will keep happening, so discussing the measures that should be taken during a game, seems just as important to me. I'm sure FIFPro is considering that as well, but I am just saying. 
 
It certainly reminded me of my own spinal problems, the pain, and the thoughts of recovery,and fear of being able to perform at the gym again the way one did pre-injury. I sure am no star soccer player, but it does not matter who you are and it does not matter why you got injured in the first place. It is important, however, to address the cause and to be proactive and optimistic about recovery. My body is telling me with the pain it sends down my arm, that I have to do something. Change something. And I am. Never have I been more focussed on form and core strength. Maybe this will play out in my advantage in the long run, even if it will take me longer to get back to where I was pre-injury.

Tomorrow, I will see another specialist to get a second opinion on surgery and all. 
For now, I am happy to be Weltmeister and hope the best for all head-injured players of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which has been one of the best I've seen - not only because we made it.

By the way, if you haven't read my "About me" blurb: I am German. 

Gute Nacht - tonight without narcotics! Woohoo!

Back to Blogging about Crossfit

I am back. Over a year later, I decided to really do a blog :)

Long story short, CrossFit changed my life. For the better. I am likely to write more about how and why in other posts. So here are my reasons, why I decided to blog about my experience as a female crossfitter.

First of all, I am a writer. I just finished my dissertation and should be drafting proposals for conferences and publications, however, life got in the way and the only form of typing I can do currently is using my iPhone. I guess, I could try writing proposals with my iPhone, but honestly - and despite the fact that it's pretty much impossible - I don't even have the mental space for that right now.

Brings me to the second reason. I want to share my current journey of being an injured crossfitter who was just getting stronger than ever, dreaming and working towards making it to Regionals in 2015. I'm not saying this dream is crushed, because that's not how my competitive brain works, but I have encountered obstacles that need some more care and caution than just doing some extra credit work at the gym.

I have been diagnosed with a C5/C6 disk herniation, cervical radiculopathy, and foraminal cervical stenosis and as a consequence - my muscles trying to work around this - a kyphotic deformation of my neck vertebrae (loss of cervical lordosis). To sum up

My symptoms: numbness and tingling down my left arm into my thumb, pain in my wrist, elbow, shoulder, tri and biceps, loss of range god motion, grip strength, reflexes, and motor skills. And some neck and back pain. But that's nothing compared to the pain felt in my shoulder and arm. Luckily NO headaches!

While analyzing the causes of my neck problems, I can go far back into my childhood. I was dropped and injured my neck as a toddler, then injured my neck jumping rope (yes, jumping rope) in 4th grade, and passed out one time cleaning up my room ( trying to get my head under the bed) while in high school. I also suffered several whiplash accidents (two during horseback riding, two during snowboarding and two in car accidents). Rest was the prescribed treatment for all of these incidents. I don't think ever had they taken X-rays. All this occurred while still back in Germany.

At any rate, the first time it really became an issue - besides episodes of stiff neck every now and then - was when I became more and more active at CrossFit. Note, that sitting in front of the computer with suboptimal posture for the majority of hours per day added to my already harmed neck.

So, to keep it rather short today, I will follow up soon to let you all know how it all got worse, what I have been trying to "heal" it and what will be ahead on my road to recovery, and on my path to becoming a competitive CrossFitter.

In the meantime, let's cheer for Germany to win the World Cup today!

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"People will keep saying something is impossible until someone shows them that it is possible."