The laryngitis seemed to be the result of nerve damage to the right vocal cord, caused by a virus I picked up in either the Los Angeles or Portland airports.  What appears to be simple cold or flu or whatever can seem fairly benign but can cause a lot of damage, to which my vocal cord paralysis is testimony.  I won’t shy away from flying or other crowded public spaces but I will try to remember to wash hands often, use hand sanitizer, and try to never touch my face with my hands unless I have done so.

I’m not back to 100% yet.  The voice gets tired when I use it a lot, so like any muscle I’ll need to build up it’s strength.  While it seems to be able to move into the “closed” position to speak, it is not yet completely able to move to the “open” position, necessary for maximum oxygen uptake during exercise.  That’s going to take a little time to re-learn after the paralysis.  I will continue with voice exercises and acupuncture to continue to stimulate the neural connection.  I will also resume my exercise regime, albeit slowly.

I did my first bona-fide home workout on Tuesday and am just now able to bend over again without my hamstrings screaming at me.  I did about an hour of stretching, then deadlifts, kettlebell squats and swings, and some upper body and core stuff.  As soon as I start to get a bit metabolic I experience the sensation of being gently strangled due to the vocal cord not completely opening.  By taking my time and stepping through the workout, I made it through.  Not without puking, but what the hell was I expecting?

Warm ups were an absolute bitch.

• Overhead Lunges
• Side Lunges
• Inchworms with Pushups
• Overhead squats
• Plank to pushup

Then we got on with the workout:

#1, 4 sets of:

Trap Bar Deadlift 225lbs x 4, farmers’ walk the down floor, turn & walk back, then 4 more deadlifts.

#2, 4 sets of:

8 x 16 kg KB one arm swings, straight to

8 x 16kg KB x clean and press, straight to

8 x 16kb KB Squats

#3, 3 sets of:

• 10 x pushups with side-kick
• 10 x bodyweight rows on TRX
• 10 x Burpees with jump
• 10 x Dive-bomber pushups
• 10 x Jumping Lunges (per leg)

DOMS is just starting to get really good.  I anticipate being very sore in the morning.  Heaven help me, but I love that trap-bar.

A couple of weeks ago, I felt that my grip had recovered sufficiently that I would be able to resume.  What was missing was my stamina!  30 sets (15 minutes) and I was toast.  Today’s attempt went much better, thankyouverrymuch.  Back to where I started in August:

Viking Warrior Conditioning

I’m shooting for at least two VWC sessions each week, and build this back up to 80 sets.  I’m also going to dig out my heart rate monitor, just because I like posting a graph or two to show you how damn hard I’m working!

I really did go full-out on Wednesday.  I did strenuous stuff that I hadn’t done in months, and the soreness that I felt on Thursday (just startin’, ain’t so bad, let’s go dancing), Friday (OMG WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH MY ARMS BECAUSE I CAN’T RAISE THEM ABOVE MY HEAD), Saturday (with an oftentimes lackluster attendance at a party), and now Sunday (I can comb my hair without discomfort!), was truly exquisite.  Endorphines, meet Ibuprofen, I gotta go, I’ll call you on Monday.

I probably managed to shoot myself in the foot, trying to prepare for a session with Luka at Hocevar Performance on Tuesday with a hardass workout like that, but what the hell.  Felt great, and it was great to feel stuff get sore that hadn’t in months due to injury and the interference of life.

Now, I’m ready.  I’ll do some cardio, hill sprint, kb swing stuff tomorrow as a tuneup to Tuesday.  Then I’ll head to the temple and let the man whip my ass.

Can’t wait!

Thanks for the early Father’s Day present, honey.  Better than you know.

Added incentive: Terri announced that for Fathers’ Day I am being given two private sessions with Luka Hocevar at his gym in Renton.  I haven’t been to Luka’s house-of-he-man-hurtin’ in a few months, so this is a special gift indeed.  After the last couple of months concentrating on just kettlebell swings, my overall strength needs some work.

I set out to do one of the workouts Luka gave me last year, featuring Escalating Density sets of exercises.  Silly boy changed his warmup routine, however, and did the warmups from “Enter the Kettlebell” after some lunges, RDL’s, and overhead squats.  So add in 4 sets of Hindu (dive-bomber) pushups, wall squats, and halos.  Oops, now on the the workout that prominently features pushups!

4 Sets of:

8 reps of 2 x 20kg front squats

8 negative chinups

Escalating Density Training Set #1: 10 minutes

• 10 x 28kg Kettlebell Swings
• 10  pushups

I did 8 sets in the allotted time, a far cry from last fall when I did 11!  The pushups were especially hard after warming up with those dang Hindu pu’s.  Always look to where you are headed before you start improvising with your warmup!

Escalating Density Training Set #2: 10 minutes

• 6 x 16kg kettlebell reverse lunge
• 8 x 24kg kettlebell 1 arm rows

7 sets, but last time it was 8.

I started to stiffen up after 2 hrs. last night, so standing up tomorrow when I wake should be pretty interesting.

I tried to pick up where I left off: 15:15 protocol, 7 cadence, 16 kg.  I felt pretty good, but the grip started to fade after 15 minutes (the goal is 40).  Not great, but a good first attempt.  The left forearm took a bit of a beating due to form.  I just wasn’t very smooth on the weak side.  Give it time, John.  The bruise should make a pretty good photo tomorrow, so stay tuned.

1 minute of nonstop kb swings, with each of the following bells:

• 40kg
• 32kg
• 28kg
• 24kg
• 20kg
• 16kg
• 12kg

That sure got the heart pumping!

I’m happy, especially given the fact that I haven’t done any Escalating Density Training since November!

• Overhead double kettlebell presses, 2 x 16kg
• Bent-over kettlebell rows, 2 x 16kg
• Double kettlebell squats, 2 x 16kg

That was all it took, and after 25 minutes I was pretty well cooked.  Had trouble getting out of a chair after dinner, and mounting the stairs to go to bed.  I was still pretty sore this morning, so I chalked today up to recovery, and will get back on the diet of iron tomorrow.

I decided to dust off my “Luka” workouts that he set me up with last year at Hocevar Performance.  Because this was the first workout of this kind in several months, and because of the emotionally draining weekend prior, I opted for the one workout that didn’t involve a stopwatch.  I thought it would be best if I went by feel, rather than by the clock.

Workout “B”:

Warm up:

• Front Lunges
• Side Lunges
• Inchworms
• Romanian Deadlifts
• Overhead squats with pole

I knew I would be down on reps and weight in a few spots, and between my fatigue factor and the 30 mph headwind, I only did 1/2 the sprints as I had done previously.  I felt good (and tired) at the end but I didn’t manage to hurt myself.

As I looked to post this workout this morning, I found that the last time I did this workout was 11/21, and instead of bodyweight rows I had been doing blast-strap scarecrows (which I labeled as “deceptively hard”).  This was actually the workout where I managed to pinch a nerve doing those same scarecrows, rearranging my life for 5+ months.

I am glad I did the rows last night, instead.