Saturday, August 29

Injured Reserve Prt 3

So the healing continues... It has been five weeks now since my crash and the last week in particular has been very encouraging. Last weekend I went climbing outside for the first time in four weeks which felt amazing. We went to Staunton State Park - the Dungeon - a very en vogue area these past years especially because it's completely doable in the summer months. After a slow warm up I flashed 'Intolerance Test' 13a, 'Branching Out' 12d, 'If and Only If' 13a and 'No Excuse' 13b. All were awesome, very fun routes! This crag was perfect because I felt like for the most part I could climb very statically and cautiously. Most routes are quite juggy and full of resting positions, with smaller holds defining short cruxes. Perfect for me because my fingers actually feel quite strong it is just hard, dynamic movement that was scary / weak.




Throughout the week since then I started allowing myself to use the Moonboard again - starting with only V4 or V5 on the first day, and gradually working up to V8/9 more recently. Because I am trying hard to keep my shoulder engaged I don't quite have the full reach on my left side yet and the whole shoulder area gets pretty damn tired after an hour session. I have been mixing this with also slowly re-introducing one arm hangs on the left side. About 10 days ago it felt too aggressive to hang one arm with my injured shoulder but slowly with the use of stretchy bands as aid I got back to body weight on rings, and then body weight on a 30mm hold and eventually 2 days ago a 20mm hold! This is quite good as my 'hard' hangs are usually on a 17mm, so, pretty close to where I was before.

In between the gym sessions I have been staying the course with my PT, foam rolling like crazy and starting to re-introduce some overhead range of motion stuff. I am also using a heat pad, still taping, sleeping 9 hr a night and avoiding all alcohol. Like I said in a previous post, I am taking the injury as seriously as I would a hard project, and I am so grateful to say that it is working! At this point I feel as though my shoulder is around 85 ish % strength. And the other thing that rules is that the shoulder feels quite normal in every day stuff now too. Usually it is quite tired on rest days but where it was always feeling a little weird some weeks ago, now it is feeling close to normal all day.

I assume that the final 15% to full recovery will take some time yet, but my primary aim was to have a good shot at a big fall season and that is seeming totally possible, so I am stoked. Wish me luck!!