Dear Diary,
when the therapist does my leg flexing, he has to lean on it full force to make my leg bend.
The one in the pic is at the end-stage of flexion, whereas I am closer to 90-100 degree angle with him leaning into my leg with his full body and shoulder.
He is not a small guy, but I guess years of treadmill still count even with atrophied muscles, and I successfully push him away (not on purpose, as a reflex).
So on Friday during therapy I did some Wim Hof breathing to turn off pain and tension. This was a mistake.
My muscles relaxed so much that I gave no resistance at all, and he felt it give, so he took the opportunity to lean into it.
I have never felt such pain. It shot all the way from my stiff quad into the back of my glute and shot up my back, as if some nerve had been pulled out of my body by force, like an anchored rope. I was shaking for 20 minutes after it.
It does seem like this literal “breakthrough” was beneficial though, since I gained a few new degrees of flexion the next week.
I also did some research into Kinesio tape, which they stuck to my knee to help during the weekend.
The TLDR is, it does nothing.
There is not a single study supporting any benefits, and its popularity is almost entirely due to some athletes wearing it at the Olympics.
I feel conflicted about it, knowing now that it is snake-oil.
What should I think about a clinic which uses it? But then again… just because I know it is placebo and has no effect on me, does not mean it is not beneficial to others so I guess… fine?
There is some other ooey-wooey stuff that happens there, like acupressure and acupuncture. I do not think those do much either, but in the general sea of nonsense there is certainly some benefit. Nothing like real resistance exercises and manual flexion really.
In general, I am kind of in the worst period of the recovery - the pain is constant, and even though I have mobility and can walk for hours and carry heavy things, not being able to get rid of the pain through any painkillers I have is pretty distracting, especially when it won’t let me sleep all night.
The Wim Hof breathing helps a lot for momentary relief, but only lasts for like 30 minutes before phasing out again.
Nutrition
Not exactly eating super healthy yet, but eating a bit less. I also got a new batch of Mana, so will try to switch to meal replacements again starting with next week (24th onwards).
Habits
I maintain the regular habits of Wim Hof, cold showers, Kinetec when possible, but I prioritize sleep when I can - even mid-day naps - every little bit helps the healing process.
I am now at 2 minutes of cold showers, final stretch of cold plunge preparation. However, interestingly, my breath retention average has gone down significantly over time.
I originally attributed this to stale air / closed windows, but the improvement was only marginal when I aired my place out before breathing. I also figured it might be the fact that I sped up the breathing (there is a “fast” mode in the app) so I retain less oxygen because I breathe faster, but returning to “normal” also didn’t do much. In the coming days, I will experiment with open windows and normal mode, see if that makes a difference, but there is another theory - what if the early success was attributable to regular hyperbaric chamber treatments? 🤔