I know I haven't updated my journal for a while so here goes. If anyone is actually reading this, leave me some comments below :-)
LEG
Leg rehab is going slowly. I'm sore as hell so I've been very careful, icing a lot, and not doing too much in terms of rehab. As long as things dont' waste away, I'm keen to get the swelling down before attempting more aggressive rehab. So far, I haven't had any of the pain I had prior to surgery 5 weeks ago, so it's looking promising.
SHOULDER
I followed the shoulder rehab programme set out by the personal trainer @ gym, but I don't feel it was helping - if anything it was making the pain worse. So, I went and saw a physiotherapist, who said the following:
- Both of my shoulders are rolling forward slightly;
- The right shoulder is coming 'up' when doing certain movements (the middle back muscles should be pulling it down, but they're not);
- My lats are imbalanced (left lat starts lower but is smaller at the top; right lat has a higher insertion point but is wider at the top. I'll upload some pics).
The planned solution to the problems are as follows:
Shoulders Rolling Forward
- Strengthen the lats, with an aim of 'pulling back' the shoulders;
- Strengthen the rear delts
- Keep stretching my chest and front delts to stop them pulling my shoulders forward;
- Paying attention to posture
Right shoulder not being held in place properly
- Lots of strange exercises with rubber bands;
- Some stuff I've invented in the gym which feels like it hits the same muscles (I'll upload pictures);
- Again, paying attention to posture
So far all is going to plan, I'm going to add the various exercises to my Journal (with photos), and start logging them here. I haven't been logging them since in all honesty things are really hectic, and my computer-time at home has been spent updating MuscleJournal's software and fixing bugs.
MuscleJournal
I think things are going well? What do you guys think? I haven't had much feedback, but by the same token, lots of you guys are logging in several times a week to track your progress, so you must think it's OK!
I have lots of things I plan to do over the coming weeks, but most important initially is sorting out the few remaining bugs with the software. I know there are some problems, but unfortunately I have a 9-5 job and a life, so this is just something I do for fun - I can't spend as much time as I'd like maintaining the site. It's definately getting closer to how I'd like it to be.
The site is to be shifted to a dedicated server, but to do this I need to change the database backend from Microsoft SQL Server to MySQL. The reason is, currently I have a shared SQL Server license, but a dedicated one will cost about £1500, which is far too much. Changing the database is a little complicated, as I need to change a fair bit of the data-access code, along with a whole bunch of stored procedures (this wont mean anything to non-programmers!). If anyone works in IT and wants to sell me a SQL Server 2000 Production License (only for 1 CPU) at a nominal fee, I would be eternally grateful!
Once we're on a dedicated server, we can handle a lot more users (several thousand members by my estimation). I'd love to see more people using the site. If you have any friends that you think would like MJ, please tell them about it! Similarly, if you frequent any fitness / weightlifting forums, spread the word. I'd really appreciate it.
Ok, I've typed enough now. If anyone actually read this, leave me a comment, I'll appreciate it :-)
Hope you're all having a good bank holiday weekend.
Best wishes to all,
Jim
