Progress

Consistency has been lacking. June was my last update, which was nearly six months ago. I’m pretty disappointed in myself on keeping up, and making progress whether or not I’m posting.

I’ve yo-yo’d for the last few months between a couple extra lbs of muscle, and a couple of extra lbs of fat. Both directions. Ultimately, almost no change in the last year.

Crossfit has been really good, I’m definitely feeling more athletic doing it. That said, I hit a Crossfit Competition early October, and a Spartan Super right after, and neither made me feel great about how my fitness is progressing. I also got blood work back again, and my testosterone levels dropped even further. A piece of me wants to blame everything on that, but my diet has also been pretty hit or miss, hence the yo-yo action, I think. Either way, I’m still working with the docs to try to get that fixed up so I can knock it off my list of excuses.

Sauna has been bordering on non-existent, partly due to the absolute lack of improvement anywhere on doing the long sessions. May have been too short of a time period, I’ll get back on that horse soon.

The low T and the lack of results on fat loss, muscle gain, running speed, and strength really put me into a funk. I know that’s a bit of a bummer to end on, but that’s where I am. Going forward, I’m going to focus more on fat loss than anything to see if that let’s me improve gymnastics, testosterone, and running. If that works, then I can get back to trying to lift more and build more muscle.

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Big 3 Lifts

Bench: 245

Squat: 305

Deadlift: 385

Program

CrossFit at CFA + Random Accessory Work & Cardio

I’ve really enjoyed CrossFit, and plan on chasing it for a long time. My gymnastics are still lacking, but I’m very slowly getting better. It definitely feels like it’s making me more robust, and a better (would be) athlete.

‍Injuries

Left Foot (Plantar Fasciitis)

FINALLY FIXED, or close enough that I’m happy. So, there’s a few factors at play, I’ll add context between each that I think finally healed this up about a year after initial outbreak.

Hoka Bondi Shoes

I found some articles online saying these helped, so I grabbed a pair. It definitely improved the day-to-day pain with all the extra cushioning and what not. This was back in late June/Early July and the improvements were pretty noticeable fairly quickly.

Always Wearing Shoes

Along with the Hokas, I stopped walking barefoot, ever. The biggest piece of this was showering. I think it helped wearing some very padded sandals to the shower for a month or two.

Physical Therapy

I went back to InPower PT to see Evan. To be honest, I was already feeling pretty good, but I’d also promised myself if it hit the one year mark, I’d see a professional. We did some additional foot strengthening exercises, and some dry needling on the plantar itself. It’s hard to say if this is what pushed me over the edge into recovered or not, but I’d highly recommend seeing the PT the moment you’re hurting. I think the intentional care and dry needling helped even though I was on the mend already.

Left Wrist/Left Finger‍

This was healed up, but I’ve re-hurt that left wrist semi-recently (spartan race, I think). It’s not bad, but it’s definitely annoying.

The left finger took about six weeks. I laid off the pullups to an extent, but not 100%. More than anything, I think it was timing.

Lower Abdominal

A new injury of some kind. I think it came from some egregious coughing fits after the Crossfit Comp, but definitely before the Spartan Race. Sharp pain almost where my hip flexors meet my lower abs. I was really concerned about a hernia, but there’s no bump, and it really only hurts when I have abdominal engagement in a slightly twisted position. Or cough.

I’ve been seeing the PT (two sessions now) on what it could be and they’ve lightly ruled out a hernia as well, though I haven’t technically been CT’d or X-ray’d. That said, it does seem to be improving over the last two weeks, so unless it gets worse, I’ll probably keep going with what I’m doing.‍

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