Injury status 11/01/09

An annoyingly familiar blog theme / title.

So, shoulder tendon impingment again.

Firstly I went to see Ozzy on Thu. Possibly the most brutal session he's given me, I was out of breath afterwards. It turns out the impingment is this time heavily related to the muscles and tautness beneath my shoulder blade (last time it was further up). After 10 minutes of torture down there it was noticably stronger in his tests. He seems fairly positive about the whole thing, and about my familiarity with dealing with injures (LOL, I don't really want to be that familiar!). I felt a bit more positive to feel how much of an effect loosening my back could have.

Secondly, and since then, I worked out how I did it this time. The evening it came on, I'd been to Cratcliffe in the day. I'd done a little warming up at the warm sheltered side, then spent a while on that slab in the faint but Arctic breeze. Straight after that I'd spent the rest of the evening sitting in the car/pub/in front of computer, scarcely moving. A recipe for stiffening up, at least. BUT I'd forgotten that as part of the so-called "warm-up", Captain Loggstable and I had been doing this slab eliminate with a ridiculous left arm palm-down press on a slopey smear, eventually pretty much taking all one's weight on the locked left arm. Not the sort of motion that specifically causes a problem, but one that would be putting a lot of general strain on the shoulder joint. Didn't feel anything at the time, but take that, add a garnish of deep freeze immediately after, and serve sitting on my arse for 6 hours and it's hardly surprising something went wrong somewhere.

So I'm learning the value of warming down, active rest, and staying loose. Hmph.

At the moment it is a bit sore when I move it in certain orientations, and feels fairly weak overall. I haven't been climbing although I've been for a few strolls. A couple of poor night's sleep has made my back tight, and I'm working on that with some stretching. And today, I managed a 36 minute run with some gentle but distinct hills in. Which I'm pleased with. Onwards with recovery...