I had my last cancer treatment in early March. But, it was a surgery called a laparotomy, which entails a large incision in the abdomen and open (non-laparoscopic) surgery. While still in the hospital, I was already up and walking a lot. After my discharge from the hospital, I had to stay in NYC for a few days and I walked a lot on those days.
I got home and started walking on the treadmill while my wife did CrossFit. Within a month of surgery, I added some rowing, and two weeks after that, I slowly started getting back into CrossFit classes.
Even now, due to pain from scar tissue, some movements are still difficult - burpees, box jumps, rope jumping and running, plus kipping on a bar. But, I'm using some compression clothing to help with this, seeing a physical therapist, and using pain meds as needed to control the pain.
I've now been training, uninterrupted, since late April - almost 5 months. And things are finally starting to come around.
Last Friday, I finished off a deadlift workout with a single rep of 375. That's my heaviest deadlift in over 2 years. My lifetime PR of 440 was done 3 years ago.
Last night, I did a back squat at 295 - my heaviest back squat in 23 months. I think I might have been capable of doing 305 or 315. My lifetime PR of 375 was over 3 years ago.
I then ran a mile in 8:39. Not too fast, but my fastest in years.
I'm finally seeing some real progress and seeing my strength getting close to where it was.
I still have some things to get better at, but I'm encouraged by the progress.
On the downside, I haven't been doing any Olympic lifting. Well, a little bit, but more for volume than strength. We normally do Oly lifts on Tuesday, and I've been doing an Aerobic Capacity class that day instead.
Also, we've been doing back squats on Mondays and front squats on Fridays, but I'm opting to deadlift most Fridays. So, my front squat is lagging my back squat.
And, don't even ask about my bench press or strict press right now.
But, as long as I can train like I'm training now, all of these things will improve. It feels good to be on this side of the recovery and seeing real improvements from my training.
