Today I started to find the limits of where you get to in recovery from surgery for a tibial plateau fracture.

As on many Sundays, the day began with a swim at Balmoral. I didn’t feel too bad after the swim yesterday and had a reasonable night’s sleep. That means I only woke up three or four times. That is a reasonable night’s sleep for me at present.

It was only a 1 km race and I waited till virtually everybody else had left and tagged along at the back of the field. I didn’t want to enter the race proper, as I was concerned about kicking people in the face with a flippers. I hate this when it happens to me so didn’t want to inflict it on other club members. I got round easily enough and at least I felt like I was participating again.

At lunchtime I attended my good friend and client David Ingham’s 70th birthday party at Manly Skiff club. I wasn’t able to get away until after 3 PM and had to rush to Virgin gym at French’s Forest to get the weekend’s gym session in. I would have preferred to stay at David’s function at in much pain and the company was agreeable. Nevertheless,  I had made the commitment to myslef all those months ago and that is why discipline and determination are so important in recovery.

I did the standard warm-up on the bike: ………..5 mins on resistance 9, 10, 11,  12 and  13 – about 27 minutes all told. Sprinted to 100rpm, five times on levels 10, 11, 12  and 13. Struggled at level 13. Sweating like a pig as the gym seemed very warm and very tired at the end of this session. Interestingly, my heart rate got up to 142 bpm during the last five minutes. I can’t ever remember my heart rate getting this high, in nay form of exercise. I guess that means people with any sort of heart condition have to to be very careful about this type of graduated resistance exercise routine on a bicycle involving sprints. If you have a heart condition don’t do it. 

Also of interest, I burnt only 300 cal of energy during the session on the bike. By way of comparison, two standard glasses of red or white wine (175ml) with 13% ABV would contain about 320 calories which is similar to a slice of Madeira cake. All that exercise on the bike would have only made up for two glasses of wine or a slice of cake. I’m not doing this exercise to lose weight, but it’s enlightening how hard you have to work to shift even a little of the energy produced by eating the wrong sort of food.

The rest of the session was:

Leg Extension…………….10 reps x 30kg x 2 sets     both legs

Adductor……………………10 x 40kgs

Adductor……………………10 x 45kgs

Leg Curl …………………..10 x 35kg x 2  both legs

Leg Press………………….10 reps x 50kg x 2  both legs  warm up

Leg Press………………….10 reps x 60kg        both legs

Leg Press………………….10 reps x 70kg         both legs

Leg Press………………….10 reps x 80kg x 2  both legs

And that was at for the day. It wasn’t a very big session but I couldn’t do any more. I’m feeling really tired. I don’t know if it’s work and the long process of rehabilitation or the neck pain and a lack of sleep, but I would love a holiday and a break for a while from this endless routine. I am reaching my limits. Maybe that’s what an increasing resistance exercise programme will ultimately do.