Week 22 of Recovery : VMO is UP!

I could not contend my happiness! Finally, my VMO ( in short for vastus medialis oblique ) is showing some sign of existance!

In case you did not know where exactly this muscle is, I personally think picture speaks louder than words. Here you go.

Yes. A picture of Christiano Ronaldo would do the trick. All atheletes have them. Even some of the not-so-active people have them too. 

VMO's main function is to control knee extension while keeping the patellar at the right position. As a patient, myself, I come to understand that the VMO is actually responsible for the prevention of patellar femoral pain. 

I may not be an orthopedic expert or even a physiotherapist. But, believe me, this is the most layman way of explaining. I wish I took a photo of my non-exist VMO and VL ( short for vastus lateralis ) 10 months ago to have this all recorded down. But, I did not. I shall take a video or a photo of my current progress though.

Joey was glad that my VMO is finally popping out. 10 long months of work and it paid off. Now is my mission to keep it popping out. The more popping-out it is, it means the stronger it gets and that means the tension pain while doing IRQ will also reduce. 

Talking about IRQ, there is also great progress while doing it this week. I was able to bear 0.91 kg of weight. Both knees have very different capabilities. While the right knee had the weight on the ankle, the left had to start off with the weight below the knee cap. At the count of 20s onwards, I slowly adjust the weight to the shin and eventually to my left ankle. There were still pain on both knees. But, tolerable. 

The type of exercises I did was these :-

For the exercise above, I have yet to be able to achieve the single leg bending. There are more to be done in order to reach that stage. I did a repetition of 50.

I can occasionally do a full wall squat with the help of the gym ball. What I intend to achieve now is consistency in terms of full 45 degree bending. Depending on my situation on the day itself, a minimum of 30 repetition is required and if I am in good shape, it will be 50.

I did this one during yesterday's session of physiotherapy. A repetition of 500 quick contraction followed by repetition of 30 with each repetition I need to hold for 10 seconds.

Planking, on the other hand, is not that fun. I sensed myself having weight gain. I brought this to the therapists and the senior therapist was wondering if it was weight gain or muscle gain. Good question. I do not know.

Planking Progress at Week 21 of Recovery

My physiotherapists know I love to plank. And the reason why I love to do it is that I want to regain the core muscles around my abs. I may need a very long period of time to regain the beautiful athletic abs I used to have many years back. But, the fact that I can trim down the belly, that would be the best feeling ever. 

I started planking at week 14 of my recovery with both my legs apart while planking. And now that week 21, I can plank with both legs together. 

When I first started planking at week 14, I could only hold for about 22 seconds or so. I slowly build up the strength of my muscles especially muscles around the quadriceps and abs by doing 2 planks which I hold for 30 seconds at minimum twice every time I did. I rest for 30 seconds before resume another round of plank.

As time passes, I increased the time for 15 seconds till it reaches 60 seconds. Now I can plank twice and hold for a minute. I set a goal for myself to achieve and my current target is to do 3 planks by holding a minute with a break of 30 seconds in between. 

There are secrets in holding a plank long enough to achieve that 60 seconds record. And here are my secrets which I hope can be of help :-

1.   To breath in and out while holding a plank - Never ever stop breathing when you are holding your plank. You will need all the oxygen you can get to have it ' energize ' your body. Fresh air helps holding a plank a long way.

2.   Keep your focus clear - Focuses on breaking that record you set the last time. Be the best that you can possibly be!

3.   Tighten up all muscles before lifting up your entire body - To always ' tell ' your muscles to be prepared for ' battle '. God created our body so that we can have excellent mobility. And He created our body to work in unity. 

4.  Keep the arms the same width as your shoulder - Keeping it the same width as the shoulder ensures longer period in holding the plank. 

5.   Hands clasp together - It works well for me when I have both my hands near to each other or clasp together. It helps me to hold my plank longer. 

The photo above gives an overview of the correct way of planking. And I do hope this is the most layman way of telling people of how it should be done.

I still have a long way in achieving the result I want. But, I believe it is possible to achieve.

Week 16 ( Coming to 17 ) : Planks to Ease Back Pain

Planks are well known to strengthen the core muscles and working out your abs. That are the beauty of it. No matter how beautiful the outcome it may sound, the working out is really something. I pretty much like to plank.

And in my case, I do not only plank for fun. I plank for 2 solid reasons.

Reason number 1 is that I need to ease my lower back pain. The many months of lying down with just that one position because I needed to elevate my knees to control swelling and also prevent shocking-midnight knee-locks has taken its toll on my back. I still suffer the pain and with planking, it helps a long long way.

Reason number 2 is that I want to have a strong and trimmer abs. I know, I know. You have seen enough of my sinful food consumption. Honestly, this would be a heck load of work to be done. But, if that is what the heart desires, by all means give it a shot and be patient and also disciplined about it.

I went online and watch some videos and also did a little bit of reading on abs workout and planking techniques.

In case you did not know, there are really a variety of planking techniques. And I am to share that in my coming blog post.

Week 14 : Knee Muscles Strengthening Exercise with Cones

This exercise aims to improve mobility of the knee, ankle and hip muscles. Seems like easy cheesy, eh? Not really. While one leg extended to the front, the furthest possible, the one behind has to bend to assist the extended leg to achieve full extension. The challenge here is the one which is required to bend. With my current condition, locking my knees to a certain angle is not an easy task. But, this is the aim. And this is my next hurdle.

Week 14 : Finally Able to Plank!

Yes, you read the subject right. I can plank already! Target met! May not be a perfect plank. But, heck! I did it!

Week 13 : Up One Notch

My physiotherapy session has been upgraded. Tonight I did 4 types of exercises. Before this, means between week 3 to week 12, I would have between 5 to 8 types of exercises to complete. Exercises given are specific depending on one's progress.

 Each session of physiotherapy, I will be assessed by therapist who is assigned to treat me for the day. Some patients prefer to stick with one therapist. I, on the other hand, is alright to have any therapist who is assigned to me because each therapist has their own method in treating you. With this, you get to have different ' flavour '. Yes, I am making this sound like a recipe of some sort. But, you get my point.

Believe me, it could not get any better. As a matter of fact, it is better than I thought. In other words, challenging. Looks as though you were learning waltz steps here. According to my physiotherapist, I will get better in my second attempt and I believe that too. Somehow I need to figure out how to get this right.


Next up was stepping up and down the step board. Stepping forward-up is not too much of an issue for me at this point especially my right knee. But, it does hut for the left. Nevertheless, it is still manageable. At week 13, I have basically endured quite a bit of unexpected moves due to imbalances. Even though I have managed to walk as normal as I can, there are still some obvious weak knees control going on. I will limp or relying to one side of the leg, depending on the strength of the knees. As both knees have different level of strength and capabilities at this point of time, I will have to make use of whatever I have and then slowly perfecting it. Perfecting it means having both knees to do the same moves and also having the same strength and capabilities like normal people do.