2024 - 07 - 01

Three weeks ago I was in a wheel chair with a torn meniscus and severe MCL sprain in my right knee — the popping, cracking, and tearing sounds were gross. Even gearing towards rehab and mobility, my ability to train was limited, so I shifted to training what I could; including dry fire (pew pew) practice and completing a Certified Conditioning Coach program.

Summary:

Week three of my rehab program has added resistance bands to my mobility routine, making it more of a strength program with a heavy emphasis on stabilization (it hurts). However, I was able to drill a little more and even snuck in some very light rolling on Saturday!

Given my current rate of progress, I’ve decided to hold off on peptide therapy. I don’t have reservations about ethics or efficacy, I just don’t have a control measure (a good thing?) to compare the results to. Additionally, I’ve renewed a commitment to reduce my drinking (alcohol) for at least 30 days. There were a lot of factors involved with this, but I also didn’t want to waste money on peptides if my nutritional foundation was less than stellar.

Next week I’ll drop a BJJ / Training Journal template the you can download for free. However, as I’ve crushed 15+ hours of material from Joel’s conditioning course in ~5 days, there have already been some updates and changes to my own training journals and logs.

Of course, you can learn about the specifics below! Also, keep an eye on the chats page for any and all updates to this site.

Overview:

• 6-Month Goal: Compete as a black belt in 2024.
• 8-Week Objective: Rehabilitate right knee.
• Weekly Intention: Keep showing up, work what fitness (upper body) and drilling I can.

Assessment:

Habit Tracker:

Performance Metrics:

Reflection:

• What worked well: I narrowed the list of rehab exercises to those that were specific to or most challenging for my injury, and added resistance bands to them. Not only has that been great for helping force / encourage the range of motion, but it’s great for building stability in both the working and non-working limb. While I was at it, I also added some upper body movements (see video below).

• Where do I need to improve: This was not a good week for the “habits” I’m trying to build overall. For some of them, the morning ones, it was. To me this points towards “trying to change too many things at once” and also “getting the important things done early.”

• Lessons learned:

  • What do I need to do more of: Mobility. It’s been too easy to neglect necessary training volume under the guise of “wall my knee hurts so I guess I won’d do much.” I need to remember that I’ve got other limbs that need worked on too!
  • What do I need to do less of: Less drinking alcohol. I’ll be going on a 30-day dry spell (starting yesterday). Coffee (!) may also be out. This was encouraged by careful consideration before starting a course of BPC-157 and TB-500 peptides. They’re not cheap, so I didn’t want to waste them if I wasn’t taking care of more foundational parts of my recovery first.
  • What do I need to continue: Walking. Something I’ve tried to emphasize this week is walking more. Since starting to work from home, and especially since being injured, my total daily activity has taken a sharp decline. So, while I can’t get back on the mats at full speed, I can at least take dogs on a few more laps around the block.

• Injury / Illness / PR: This entire post!

Session Details & Extras:

Last Week’s Mobility Program:

Instructionals I’ve Been Studying:

Matches I’ve Been Studying: