Rehab the ab

'Rehab the ab' is what Dr. Hoadley essentially said. Hoadley claims a specialization in this area. After an exam, he did not feel my case was serious. I did forget to ask him a few questions. Specifically, I wanted to ask if there is a possibility of pain due to soft tissue damage beneath the muscle dome in the lower ab. I also forgot to mention that the pain seems far greater during split leg activity, like laying on my back doing a running (bicycling) motion with my legs. Dr. Hoadley gave me a prescription for physical therapy and a sheet of his protocol that would take someone with advanced sports rehab to decipher. It has elements of cardio, range of movement/flexibility, and strength. He also suggested an additional 4-6 weeks off from running.

During the exam Dr. Hoadley applied pressure to the connecting points of the muscles at the pelvis and none were exceptionally painful. There is some pain on the left side and just above the pubis, but some of the pain seems deeper. Like near my bladder or something. Some sports hernia sufferers complain of spermatic cord pain. I wonder if that is what I'm feeling? It's weird. Sometimes just a sudden quick movement like reacting to the phone ringing will cause more pain than doing a sit up. I also feel a little pain from the bottom of my pelvis as well (under the testes).

I'll get another chance to ask questions when I see Dr. Rummo, a sports medicine guy at Vanderbilt on Thurs. He's team physician for the local NHL team, the Nashville Predators. Hockey is a sport where they see a lot of sports hernias.

I'm pissed off at this Core-X company.... since I ordered the Core-X Rehab program last Monday, never got a confirmation email, sent an email requesting confirmation to their customer service, called 3 times and left messages with no response. It's probably one guy who is running the thing, has just gotten behind. Very unprofessional.

I did some resistance band work the other day and wow, my hip flexors are sore. I took quite a different approach. Different because: 1) I'm using lower resistance 2) slow controlled movements feeling the negative (instead of explosive), and 3) consciously keeping the abs tight throughout, 4) 20-30 reps instead of 45-60. It really makes the ab feel better. As J.B. said, I need to also start doing glute work, squats.

I also polished my wood floor in my foyer and have been able to create a very functional slide board... (a therapy that Mike Boyle recommended). Here is a vid of a slide board.

Well, today is the start of the holiday weekend and it's nearly 100º today. I'm a pig ...weigh 151 lbs. The more I eat, the more I want to eat. The less I exercise, the less I want to. I must start doing something. Perhaps Stairmaster? Biking? Elliptical? One thing I really must do is start a healthy regular diet and exercise, and also start practicing guitar... that's what I'm supposed to be doing with concerts coming up.

I'm looking forward to seeing the result of the 200m Final at the Worlds. In the semis - Bolt ran 20.31 without trying. Lemaitre ran 20.17 and tried like hell, his season best. Dix ran 20.37 and let up. Sorry to see Shawn Merrit beaten at the tape in the 400m final. It was close.

As a testament to how slow I am, the first 200m split in the men's 800m world final- 23.81 is way faster than I've run a 200m this year.