Alternate For Time:
5-4-3-2-1 Clean and Jerk @ 85%
25-20-15-10-5 Pull Ups
Today is my 32nd birthday and it is exactly 3 months from my latissimus reattachment surgery. For those of you who aren't familiar with anatomy, the lat is essentially your pull up muscle. My goal from even before I had the surgery performed was to be able to do an unassisted pull up by my birthday and I got it on New Years Eve, two days ahead of schedule.
Although the look on my face would tell you this was painful, there really was only very slight discomfort. It was more my own fear and anticipation of being ready to let go incase something did start to hurt that caused me to make the face. Nothing would be better than to have not suffered this injury in the first place, but since that isn't an option, this is the best birthday present I could have given myself. This was all accomplished through normal stretching, and scaled CrossFit with no physical therapist supervision.
Functional movements are the best physical therapy when scaled correctly and done at the correct intensity. Although I have a long ways left to go until I am back up over 50 pull ups and 10 muscle ups, I credit CrossFit training with my ability to stay strong and fit and to recover so quickly from such a catastrophic injury. No excuses and no days off.
