More body and fitness improvments

Another update on a few years after lyme treatment.

Quick history: 2008 - 2014; most all of my muscles felt suck together, limited Range of motion, super tight tendons and injury scar tissues all over from 20 years of continuous bicycle and motorsports injuries not healing right from lyme. Being very stubborn and active minded, I functioned and competed with this for decades before. Good years and bad years until I just could not do it anymore. Plus Drs said nothing was wrong (sound familiar?). Major pain, lyme brain, fatigue and insomnia kept getting worse. Would no longer recover from physical activity, even basic day to day living stuff like walking in the grocery store. Repetitive motion injuries from everything it seemed. It was crazy.

Woke up 80% blind (it was very dark) in 2008, vision came back and I started down the "internet health hole" since regular Drs were no help at all.

Found LLMD , went 2013 to 2016. Did a lot of functional med stuff, not just "bug" eradication.

After LLMD- Killing the critters stopped progression and lessened some body tension but did not heal the scar tissue / adhesion injuries or loosen the tendons or unstick my nerves. Its like my insides were glued together- not kidding.

In 2014 I could not pedal a bike (I usually have around a dozen lol) more than 100 ft without issues the next morning and days after. Doing anything in the gym made major issues for days after. Gave up snowmobiles and dirtbikes (motor) in mid-2000's as I would feel allover pain weeks after from just an easy ride. All I could do was paddle a canoe a short distance and short hikes or snowshoe with a limp (slight limp 20 years). All this stuff was my life. Not only was this stuff a fun addiction, I could have opened a used trophy store from competing from 1979 to 2005. Without this living was mostly pointless, I was just wasting air..I need to do mobile things. My couch is not so much for relaxing, but more for power naps between the stuff above.

With my whole body "wrecked" .PT, "chiro", whatever new gimick I tried and paid for did not work with lyme. But I learned a lot , enough to do on my own PT work on myself eventually.

They were right about starting in the core and that took forever. But when outer limbs are messed up pulling on the core, this needs addressing to. So I did a little of both. My entire left side was worse than the right, even though Ive had speed impact injuries to both. My left sciatic nerve was stuck/entraped many places and still aggravates my left foot, but my left hamstring is way stronger than previous. My core muscles are now more balanced and stronger than ever in my 50 something years alive. I ve ben training on my fat bike summer and winter for three years because you use way more muscles than other bikes due to the weight, off road maneuvering and terrible handling/ balance of the massive tires. The truth: Physics overrules and delivers the crappy ride fat-bikes have. Every month the hip tension seemed to get more and more equal fading away with ...now.....no lower back tension! Last two weekends I did 10 and 12 mile offroad woods loops and felt a little winded (fatbikes do that), but muscularly strong during and days after........a first. This was fast pace, not just tooling around.

So, today I hopped on my trusty touring (skinny tire) roadbike (pedal) the first time in 2 years. Did a short 7 mile all out sprint as an all body endurance test, and my body worked better than ever. Going from fatbike to light, easy rolling roadbike is like cheating, but still, this was a surprise. My past gimpy left side was not noticeable at all. Ive "putzed" around on my cross bike a lot this spring, but thats more upright and casual body position - easy.

Other stuff-I did some major tree trimming (overhead shoulder work) for hours last sat. I was leery of doing this. No clicking or sore shoulders at all. Major gym sessions like crazy the last few months too.

Still need to work on my foot at the sciatic level (which is part leg muscle stuck to nerve). This is only bothersome on foot for a while, at least biking does not bother it.

I want a time machine, as my 40's and late 30's were stolen from me. At least I have a reason to wake up in the morning again.

Dont give up. Yes this healing can take a long time for some people. If something does not work after giving it time, change it up.

Nice, glad you'e doing better. I had to sell my bikes because I'm unable to ride them anymore. I've slowly been able to ramp up my walking to about 4 miles a day since starting the keto diet though which is very encouraging to me. It is possible. I went from not walking at all to 4 miles in just a couple months or more.

Four miles is pretty far for just your feet.

Walking a long ways on flat hard man-made surface is something my body just does not like. Its a repetitive motion thing, my body needs to move in a variety of ways. Plus both my feet have been injured so many times in many ways. But hiking on dirt.......much easier. Snowshoeing, despite the cold, feels awesome on the whole body, every step is unique. Gotta have some cool Northern nature to meander through through. Tick-less winter woods is always a plus too.

I'm looking forward to being able to hike again on vacation next month. My knees used to give me a lot of crap for the hard surfaces of streets/pavement too, thankfully they've built back some endurance/strength and I don't get inflamed anymore. Girlie,we're getting rid of all our tennis equipment unfortunately because I think tennis is out of the question for me too. Shame because I used be pretty good.

jb1994 said...
I'm looking forward to being able to hike again on vacation next month. My knees used to give me a lot of crap for the hard surfaces of streets/pavement too, thankfully they've built back some endurance/strength and I don't get inflamed anymore. Girlie,we're getting rid of all our tennis equipment unfortunately because I think tennis is out of the question for me too. Shame because I used be pretty good.

Awww - doesn't it suck?

I learned to play late...my husband who used to teach tennis - took me on and taught me. We didn't usually play games...just rallied. I loved it though...we would ride our bikes to the tennis court in the evening.

I just can't risk injuring my back - the pounding could be detrimental to my spine.

But - you know what? Life will be sweet once we're symptom free - with or without tennis!!!
(We can still watch it....did you see Nadal win the French open?)

jb1994 said...
I didn't even know the French open was on right now haha, I'm so out of it when it comes to sports. But I'm planning on being as active as I can once I have no symptoms for sure - it'll come!

It’s not on now - it was several weeks ago.
Wimbledon should be starting soon - or maybe it has already

Ive lost tract (long holiday)................this is my third or fourth day in a row riding my road bike. Went about 10 miles, had some steep low gear (or stand up) stuff too. Body feels very even tension-wise. Going to the gym, then riding again early this evening to see what happens the following days (!).

Went stand up paddle boarding too yesterday - which is obviously easy but good for shoulder testing, those things are pretty slow pushing a lot of water........my canoe is way faster with less effort LOL, cant stand and look in the water though in a canoe......

This isnt all a piece of cake though............still doing muscle work in weak areas to balance my body. No pain doesn't mean everything is strong and balanced, just means its way better vs before. Also doing new things at the gym so my body can be ready for anything (ha ha, I wish..) not just my usual sports/stuff.

I will be a little sore in a few days, prob no pain though.

Post Edited (astroman) : 7/7/2019 4:43:19 PM (GMT-6)