Dog Brothers Public Forum

Adam's latest blog was.....a tad intense.

Quote from: 5RingsFitness on June 12, 2010, 04:04:33 PM

just finished 80 sets of vo2 snatches with a 16kg bell at 7 reps per set on the 15:15 protocol

grip, hip drive, and lung capacity all get taxed
though, since I have done this protocol a few times now, 80 sets is not that big of a stretch any more
barely get out of breath, not bragging, just saying that you adapt to whatever you do and if you minimize the stress levels, you adapt faster

40 minutes tops, 15 sq feet of space with enough overhead room for the weight at full lock out, and a moderate weight  and you are in business

if anyone is interested in the protocol I can give you the basics pretty quickly

once a week has been my pattern lately, with as much stick work and knife action as I can fit into my schedule

How long did it take you to work up to that? Also, did you get any HR measurements?

Well - as if the first time wasn't enough.....

January 31st (2010) and I popped the left Achilles.  Pretty much the same move - this time without armor on.  Knife sparring and moving very fast against an agile opponent (speedy Edwin Tam who likes his knives just fine).  And that just after having lectured my students on safety.

Nothing I would have changed - just leaping back out of the way.  And POP!

I had done this before so I knew what it was all over again.  And this time, I was really unhappy about it.  I had so many things lined up for the coming months - fire sword performances at the Winter Olympics, the Spring Tribal Gathering, into the second week of an 8 week mini-course on Harimau pencak silat.... I was seriously unhappy.

But - thanks to the benefits of a robust public health system (this is Canada we're talking about here), I was examined and in a hospital bed within 2 hours.  And I would have had surgery that afternoon if I hadn't stopped to each lunch before going to Emergency.  So I went in the next day - same reconstructive surgery (different surgeon though).  Back home.  Leg elevated, off painkillers in 24 hours again (this time they threw Oxycodone at me - what?!?!).  And back up that same damned mountain.

Here it is mid-May and I'm just out of the air cast again.  I made a point of training hard all through this period - I even finished the Harimau mini-course after delaying it for 3 weeks.  Kept my tone and now I've got another 6 months of stretching, strengthening, and getting back to where I was again.

So - what did I learn this time?

Well a few new things came up on this go'round - something some of you might want to consider:

First - "platelet rich plasma" treatments - too late for me to consider - but apparently there is a new treatment for tendon ruptures and the like which is being used by professional athletes.  Basically (pardon me if I don't get this exactly right), your own blood is drawn and then using a centrifuge the platelets are extracted along with the plasma.  Then the "platelet rich plasma" (PRP) is injected directly into the damaged site.

The results is analogically like using stem cells - recovery is accelerated dramatically by the presence of the necessary components and the benefits continue for some time after the initial injection.  The benefits are felt almost immediately (within 24 hours) and only one or two injections are needed.  Typical cost is around $500-700 per injection.  And no invasive surgery is required.

Sounds almost too good to be true - well, it certainly isn't available in Canada yet.  And it wouldn't have helped me probably with a full rupture.  But something to consider if you are faced with something similar - ask your doctor.

Second - after regularly I bombarding my surgeon with questions about using various regeneration techniques like pulsed electromagnetic stimulation (apparently not particularly effective), he gave me some thing to think about.  Not a recover but rather a possible explanation for why Achilles tend to rupture - and often affecting the other tendon within 2 years of the initial rupture in a significant percentage of cases.

He pointed at speculation that the calf muscle may be "late firing" under certain conditions.  That is, when stepping back, the calf muscle decelerates the body through the leg by applying force along the Achilles tendon as the ball of the foot makes contact and the heel starts to descend.  This deceleration normally takes place over the distance of about 3-4 inches in a fraction of a second.

Consider what would happen if the calf muscle was not activated early enough - the heel and body would be in free-fall until the muscle finally began its contraction (assuming the heel hasn't hit the ground yet).  Then, the muscle has to decelerate the body over a much shorter distance to bring the body to a halt.  Suddenly the forces required can be double, treble or quadruple normal - the stress upon the Achilles which anchors the calf spikes dramatically.  And if certain things happen to be true (such the presence of irritation due to tendonitis, or poorly designed shoes, or an unexpected unevenness in the terrain), a late firing can result in a rupture.

This late firing may be a product of age or nutrition or other aspect of health.  And it may be a rare but inevitable consequence of how the body's neurological system is constructed and operates - I'm not doctor myself so I can hardly comment.  But the prospects are a bit scary - if true (and that's a big IF), then it is ticking time bomb for a lot of us.  It only takes a tendency to late firing to conjunct with the right circumstances and POP! - you're living unhappiness like me.

More importantly, the big question is:  What does cause "late firing"?  And are there any ways to mitigate the possibility of injury?  Shoe design?  Nutrition?  Behavioral changes? 

It at least explains how someone stepping off a curb (as opposed to sparring or playing racquetball) can just as easily rupture the Achilles.  But it doesn't make me feel any better.


And now I start to wonder - even though I have now ruptured both tendons, and they seem thicker and more substantial than before the injuries (although my calf muscle is probably 70% of original strength), am I in any danger of re-rupturing either?  And is there anything I might want to avoid or consider?

..... well that's just one of life's mysteries, I suppose.  I hope I'm quite done with all this.  And there will be nothing more to add to this thread.

And if you are reading this because you have ruptured yours - you have my complete understanding - of all athletic injuries, it is certainly one of the most annoying.  Not life threatening.  Just irritating.  But it sure doesn't go away very quickly.  Keep working at it.