2011.09.07
I tore my ACL in February. Since then, I haven’t climbed and have lifted sporadically. I had my ACL surgery in March, so it’s been about 6 months since I climbed. I’ve lost noticeable muscle mass and gained fat mass. I now hover between 180 and 185 lbs. For perspective, 14 months ago, I was a relatively fit 165 lbs with more muscle mass.
Today, I climbed for the first time since about late January or early February. I climbed for 45 minutes. I only climbed that long because I took 2-5 minute breaks between bouldering attempts. I was surprised by my ability to still pull on smaller holds and that some of my technique was still there. Downsides were a left-footed toepull that stressed my knee, a lack of endurance (to be expected) and a lack of upper body technique (to be expected with the extra weight and lack of climbing).
Afterwards, I lifted for an hour and 15 minutes. I kept a slow pace…slower reps and longer breaks between sets. I find that this I’m able to lift more and heavier weights than when I drink a lot of caffeine (or no-xplode) beforehand and try and power through stuff.
- Squats: 20x45x1 (all my knee could handle)
- Bench Press: 20x45, 12x95, 8x135, 3x185
- Deadlift (hex bar): 20x45x1 (all my knee could handle)
- Ez-Bar Skull Crushers -> Press: 20x22.5, 12x42.5, 4x72.5 (this is probably slightly inaccurate.)
- Hamstring Curls: Attempted, but knee weakness and equipment not suited for it led to it not quite working out.
- “21s”: 22.5x10, 32.5x8, 52.5x6, 72.5x3
- Military Press (Behind-neck): 45x20, 65x12, 95x6
- Shrugs (hex bar): 45x20, 65x12, 135x8, 205x4
I feel like I’m forgetting something above….
I really liked the equipment here, which is uncommon. It’s old, heavy steel that’s been well worn. They have a hex bar, a thick-grip bar and a few other uncommon things that I like to have. It’s solid enough that I may not even put my weight set back together when I move out here to Boulder.
