The Zombie may be Alive!

I feel it's finally time to join you good folks again. I'm slowly coming out of this funk I've been in for nearly a year because of another injury. This injury was a direct result of my training, on top of years of abuse doing the fun things we do. My shoulders are pretty much toast, and apparently have been for some time. I didn't realize it, although I went to several doctors over the past ten years complaining of pain and got cortisone shots which helped but the pain always returned. I can look back and wonder now if my problems getting to some really nice weights on my bench didn't have something to do with my screwed up shoulders. Or that could just be an excuse.

Although I checked in on some of your logs to see what y'all were doing, it just kinda depressed me and I just stopped posting. Many of the guys from a year ago are still here and lots of newer faces. The logs I've read, folks are doing really well. I want to use this to  move me back in the right direction with my training.

Back to the shoulder for a moment. I was training pretty hard through the pain for some time when I felt something bad during some close grip pressing. I couldn't bench anymore for the pain but kept doing everything else including shoulder work. Canceled a planned meet last Summer, and finally saw the doctor in September I think it was. MRI showed damage that required repair, so, I have to schedule another surgery. 

Stopped lifting when my gym membership ran out but continued to drag my sled and play with my yard toys some of you may remember. I was getting fat though and it wasn't pretty. I had some shit to deal with and finally scheduled the surgery for April 15. Pretty much took the entire Winter off. 

Now I was told that arthroscopic surgery is less invasive and won't hurt so much, with a quicker recovery time. I cannot imagine what this would have been like had the doctor had to open up the shoulder. He did tell me that essentially he did as much as he could have without opening the shoulder up. I didn't bother to remember all of the names of the various tendons and ligaments in the shoulder that were repaired. I do remember torn rotators cuff, the cartilage lining the socket is gone, and two torn ligaments one nearly clear through.

Took a month and a half off work, and when I get back I'm finally getting on the day shift. I bought a bike while off work, a used Nishiki Pueblo. I like it, I now get several rides in each week. Doc said I wouldn't be lifting for three to four months, so, after two months I started getting the yard toys out. First the tire sled, then the small stones to carry, and riding the bike. 

It's been four months now and I'm playing with my flipping tire and heavy farmers with buckets full of rocks. Last week I actually picked up the 120lb stone for a trip around the yard. I had a bit of a set back at work this week and have been in some pain so I've kind taken a step back for a few days. 

I've got some new photos to post but I'm gonna go watch the Lions lose now.     


shoulder

Really good to hear from you and glad you made it back. I’ve mentioned your training methods several times in here. So, are you going to start going back to the gym or just keep up the yard work for a while?

Welcome back- heal up and tear shit up.

Great to see you posting again DZ, love to hear about the yard toys again

hey - it’s good to see you posting again! did you ever get that awesome tree tat on your back finished?

The yard toys were the first thing I thought of when I saw you were back. Good to hear from you again.

Damn glad to see you back DZ.

I had similar surgery in May. Complete tear and retraction of the posterior rotator cuff + subacromial decompression. We can share stories.

Welcome back DZ. I really missed your input and cant wait to follow your training and recovery.

Braawwwwnnnnnssss!

Welcome back. Hopefully, that’s the last problem you’ll have with that shoulder.

[quote]hel320 wrote:
Really good to hear from you and glad you made it back. I’ve mentioned your training methods several times in here. So, are you going to start going back to the gym or just keep up the yard work for a while? [/quote]

 Thanks hel, and thanks to everyone! This is exactly why I needed to get back on here with you folks, the support is awesome. We kinda understand what each other is going through as aging athletes, shall we say. 

  I'm glad you all enjoy my yard toys. There's something about being outdoors for me, maybe some of you can relate to, I just love it. I've hiked up most of the mountains in the LA area, I used to do some climbing at Joshua Tree out in the desert. I was a caver in SE Missouri in college, when I attended SIU. And now I carry weird things around the yard and flip tires. I've got several ideas I want to work on to add some things to what I do outdoors. My weights are all out side right now. They got kicked out when we started to replace the flooring in the house. Starting to get some rust, even in the carport, but I was dead lifting in the driveway the other day. And to your question hel, I'm going to stay at home for now. There's not a lot I can't figure out how to do at home that I can do at the gym. Benching is out for now,and I have no issues with being out doors in the Winter.

  The last time I saw my orthopedist he said if I continue to bench press heavy weights he will be replacing my shoulder next. He didn't say I couldn't eventually do some bench work again, just heavy weight. I'm going to heed that advice for now, he's an athlete himself, a competitive skier at 60 years old.

  So last fall I made a tire sled, and I've been dragging that thing around the neighborhood, and at a track by the ball fields. I've collected a few more rocks, some really big ones too, a lot bigger than the 120 but I don't know how much exactly. I got those before the surgery. I just last week picked up the 120 for the first time in a long time. With the support of the members here, I will effort to be more consistent and begin posting the workouts. I haven't been able to pick up the cinder blocks yet, so I've filled two cat litter buckets with stones and have added  to them as I've become stronger.

 Now for some info that has been kind of startling to me, I now weigh about 185. I stayed pretty heavy last Winter even though I knew I was adding fat to the frame and most likely losing muscle. As soon as I got back to work, and working my ass off in my new department by the way, I started to lose the fat. I'm in no way lean now, but as long as I'm burning it off with what I'm doing I'm going to keep at it. And begin to try to get my old strength back without getting fat again. 

 I think I would love to do some more competitions, but that's a long way off right now. I've got a couple new photos to share, so I'll stop rambling and post 'em. 

[quote]kpsnap wrote:
I had similar surgery in May. Complete tear and retraction of the posterior rotator cuff + subacromial decompression. We can share stories.[/quote]

I read some of your log and noticed you were recovering from this also. I’ll be following your progress closely. I guess I was pretty naive,I did not expect it to hurt as much as it did. Did you have one of those pain pumps? It was a catheter stuck into my neck which fed in a supply of pain killer when I squeezed the little ball. After the surgery meds wore off, I was in agony, that thing was pretty worthless. I also had compression therapy for a week. It’s a machine hooked up to an inflatable sleeve, I guess you could call it, that fit over the shoulder and deltoids. Now that felt great! It was a cold compress basically, sucker made me fall asleep.

[quote]soldog wrote:
hey - it’s good to see you posting again! did you ever get that awesome tree tat on your back finished?[/quote]

I forgot I posted a picture of that! Not yet doggie, I’ve had some work done but not yet finished. Lot of color filled in but not yet complete. I haven’t seen my artist for several months. I hope to get back to her studio again soon.


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This is the first sled I made. Good workouts when I added weights to it, but wanted something a little bigger, so I got a big honkin’ mud truck tire. That thing may be too much, it kept flipping over till I moved the eye bolts forward a little bit and added weight to the back. I may go get something in between this weekend.


Heading to the Kal-Haven bike trail with my daughter.


Mud tire

Nice toys!