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I sometimes wonder if being injured isn’t a good thing. Why? Well, motivation i harder to come by when I am injured. The worrying and the pain takes mental energy to manage. Energy that is needed to re-tool my 
exercise regime to incorporate things that spare my shoulder. Being injured probably makes me tougher, providing I don’t let it get to me! Ha!
I went for a run tonight in the moonlight. The firefly’s are out. It was good to tear along the trails in the dark.
I went to physio. My shoulder was taped all week and I did my stretches and exercises religiously.
It actually might have, sort have, could have felt a bit better today. Ellen used ultrasound, stretched it out and then did some acupuncture. My first time ever. Four needles. One at the wrist, one at the fore arm and two in the shoulder.
I’d tell you if it felt better but Ellen taped it up again so it’s hard to tell.
Onward…
I know that I am injured. Heck the tape on my shoulder is so tight that what little flesh I have is bulging over the edges. Is it getting better? Who knows.
So Aidan and I engage in random bouts of BJJ in the kitchen. Ceramic tiles, hot stove, lots of corners…PERFECT.
I keep my elbows in and baby my shoulder. I use a lot of leverage, mostly on his arms and wrists to torque his arms away from his body and then take him down to finish with arm bars on the ceramic. I think he taps because the floor is so hard.
Careful John CAREFUL.
Any how, I AM trying to get non BJJ stuff off this blog and over to….
Haven’t been to BJJ since my shoulder injury. Was at physio today and they tried to convince me to do acupuncture. 
I’m a needle-phobe so I’ll think about it for next time. Ellen taped the heck out of my shoulder to get it better aligned.
I’ll take Aidan to class tonight.
Onward…
I’m going to move this blog towards a focus on BJJ and less on daily musings.
Daily musings, such as they are will be moved here.
Last night at Martial Arts Planet I watched Aidan work on side control in the No-Gi class. A transition to harvesting the near side arm. I spent most of the class on the side lines stretching and gently manipulating my shoulder.
Tonight, hopefully some in-line skating. I go back to physio on Thursday. No appreciable improvement so far.
Ran as planned. Heart rate told me I’m tired, or badly fueled, or both.
We had roast beef for dinner with my mum’s yorkshire pudding. I always have to call to get the recipe. Annette was the genius behind getting the roast right. IT WAS GOOD!
The big news from the weekend…Annette bought a mountain bike. A Norco LRT. Nice. We went out yesterday and it’s a perfect fit which is nice because sizing bikes for women can be tricky. The ride included a mandatory stop at Starbucks. Of course.
Bedtime. Ice the shoulder, brush my teeth and crash early.
I’m icing my shoulder between rowing and a run. I somehow found a way to row that positions the humerus correctly in the socket and felt no pain for 10,000 m and maybe 500 cal. Fairly easy pace. Max heart rate 174.
I’ll keep the ice on until just short of frostbite and then run.
The boys are just chilling…
Getting my head straight is a life long pursuit. Truly. I followed a link from Mark Twight (twitter) and stumbled on Rob Fusco’s site.
I like this post and the concept that ultimately, we only answer to ourselves.
“It’s not me versus you, it’s me versus me. You’re just in my way.”
“The only person in your head when you train should be you. It should make little difference whether you’re surrounded by dozens of people in a well-mirrored, well-lit “fitness club” or you’re completely alone in a small, filthy basement lit by one lightbulb. These factors are irrelevant. Your degree of effort should be exactly the same because it’s no one else’s destiny in your hands but yours. Sink or swim, fuckers. Your days of being mothered and fathered are OVER. The universe doesn’t give a fuck about anyone.
By my reckoning, the real advancement occurs not on my clipboard in numbers and times, and not in the values displaced on that day, but instead it manifests in the form of a true and honest fight with YOURSELF to reach a little deeper than you did the day before that, and the day before that. This ongoing effort in earnest changes the look in your eyes. Swallow the pill. Examine and judge your so-called peers. Count how many others quietly carry that driven, determined spinal strength in their eyes. Count how many take a real inventory of their weaknesses and really do what it takes to shore things up. You know how many I can count?”
This is just part of Rob’s article. I cut and pasted according to what caught my eye, not yours, so go to his site if you are interested.
I’m going downstairs to row.
Hard to say. I spoke at length with the physiotherapist to try and better understand what they hope to achieve with the stretches and exercises they have prescribed.
The idea, if I understand correctly, is to strengthen neglected muscles and to thus reposition the humerus in its socket. There is perhaps some logic therein. I do a very specific and repetitive type of exercise and thus lats and pecs (the push pull that I need for BJJ) have been over-emphasized, possibly contributing to the position of the bone head.
I rowed 5k today. Positioned my shoulder such that I didn’t feel pain, though now it is tender. I’ll run after dark if I have the will.
It is tough to re-tool my exercise regime. Habit is comfort and likely the reason I am injured. I need to focus on balance now. More core work to balance up the muscles I have developed with ones I haven’t. Maybe there’s a reason Gym Jones works shoulder flexibility and strength from time to time and a reason I don’t like to do the same. Often times it is the things one hates that one should be doing most urgently.
Live and learn. If I had been doing nothing I wouldn’t be injured. Not much of an alternative really.
Beautiful day.
