Breaking Rules & Kicking Butt
I got the results of my MRI. My doctor thinks it may be a stress fracture of one of my ribs. Apparently, this is an extremely rare injury that is usually seen with pitchers and elite rowers. And perhaps moms of 2-year-olds? The treatment is simple, really. Don’t use my right arm more than necessary for the next 6-8 weeks and all should be well.
That night after my doctor appointment, I pondered whether what she was seeing on the MRI was a stress fracture or if it might have been the end result of my fractured back when I was 16. It’s along my spine, and I guess the whiteness of the MRI shows that something’s not quite right there. I know I should call my doctor to clarify, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
In the meantime, I’m breaking rules. I signed up for a BodySculpt program at a local martial arts gym. It’s five days a week of butt kicking. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we do some sort of aerobic activity – kickboxing, stick fighting, etc. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we do strength training. It’s an 8-week program, and I’m really curious to see what I’ll get out of it.
I am being relatively gentle with my right arm. I’m doing a bit more shadow boxing and such, but I’ll be honest. The cardio part of the program, even with jabs and sticks and stuff, hasn’t caused me any discomfort. The strength training, however, hurts a bit more. I think I’ll just have to modify a little bit here and there to make sure I don’t exacerbate whatever is wrong.
The big drawback of the program is that class is at 6:30am. I’m getting up at 5:30am every morning to allow enough time to get a little breakfast and get myself to class. I’m also not getting home from rehearsal until 10:30pm, so it’s causing be a bit of discomfort since I’m tending to get to sleep by 11:30. I’m so very tired! I’m hoping to work out my schedule so I fit in a nap every day. That’s the only way I think I’ll make it.
This morning, I thought about withdrawing. I figured, “Hey, my back can’t handle this.” Then, I realized my back wasn’t actually causing me any problems. I was just feeling tired and looking for a reason to bail. Short of my doctor telling me to get out or any obvious pain coming from the experience, I don’t think I can or should use my back as an excuse. I can work with it, but I think I’ll harm myself more by remaining stagnant at this point.
This morning was our fit test. We’ll do another test at 4 weeks and a third one at 8 weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing my progress. I’ll share my measurements when I get them this weekend. Until then, here are my fit test results. I think these are all counts for 1 minute.
Triple-Kicks (kick bag sideways-tap foot down-kick bag sideways-tap foot down-kick bag sideways-switch): 20
Skip Knees (think running man with knees going into a standing bag): 70
Push-ups: 0 (to be fair, these had to be straight leg, all the way down and up. Lots of room to improve!)
Sit-ups: 24
I’ll check back in 4 weeks from now when we do our next test.