Delia M. Turner wrote:
> Recently a r.s.f member asked the question, "How long does it take to
> recuperate from an injury or operation when you're a veteran fencer?"
> I'd add, "How do veterans (40-49, 50-59, 60+) train differently from
> fencers of other ages?" I'm going to look around and find what I can
> about the subject.
>
Excellent suggestion Delia, speaking of my experiences in the ages
54-59 the times have been like this:
Injuries
I'm speaking of not just a short strain but an something which
is aggravated), 3 weeks -6 months of down time. All of mine have been
elbow or shoulder related.
Surgery: elbow, 1+ years and still it is weak.
So it behooves me to try and fence smart.
Things I have found which "SEEM" to help:
physical therapy: almost as good as a personal trainer. Slow Methodical
way to gain back and hopefully restore. (For any in the San Francisco
East Bay area I have a physical therapist who is also a fencer and
has been trying to adapt her programs to something more specialized
for fencers).
Acupuncture: Can be very helpful, usually takes at least 3 visits to
determine although I have seen dramatic results in a single visit.
Deep tissue massage: I've found this to be particularly helpful when
combined with other techniques phys therapy/acupuncture/
chiropractic.
Chiropractic: Not as much success but if combined with deep tissue
massage can be quite helpful.
Acupressure: a technique that can be very useful at home when you
can't get an appointment to see a proper medical person. There is
a book by Bonnie Pruden "Pain Erasure"-I believe- that gives details
on various acupressure techniques.
Drugs: ( I generally stay away from these but)
Glucosomine (with or without Chondroitin): in general useful in a
maintenance program and in common use among veteran fencers
for aiding the joints - my case knees.
How can you tell if it's doing you
any good? Take it for 3-4 weeks and then stop for a couple of days.
Ibuprofen: takes the edge off of pain. There is a continuing debate as
to its usefulness in reducing inflammation (the usual result of an
aggravated injury). When I use it I am usually going for
anti-inflammatory relief and take anywhere from 8 - 12 of the 200 mg
tablets a day. I've been told this is reasonable until/unless it
starts giving you stomach problems. But I don't stay on it for more
than a few weeks or so at a time.
Arnica - a homeopathic remedy for pain that has been recommended to me
as working well in combination with ibuprofen. I found it useful
to help hold pain at bay when I went into a tournament with an
existing problem. Maybe the placebo effect?
Just an aside, I have found that both conventional and non conventional
(acupuncture,chiropractic, deep tissue massage) therapies to be helpful
at various times. But nothing seems to work all the time. So my approach
now is to pick the last thing that worked and try it and then if I
don't have a fix to move on to the next thing in the list. I have a
predilection for deep tissue massage. If it don't heal it at least feels
good and reducing the pain and feeling better are key in any case.
Training, Delia is right on about coaches trying to work you like you
are a 16 year old boy. It does one good to try but a major requirement
for a veteran is to know when to say NO and make it stick. When I was
fencing 4-5 nights a week and trying to train I don't believe I was
giving myself enough time to fully recuperate. So I've tried to back
off to 3 - 4 nights a week. I do daily training - actually just stopped
this morning to check my e-mail and started typing in this post.
Something that I've recently become more aware of it breaking training
into muscle groups and hand/eye coordination.
1. I try to do some hand/eye coordination work each day. This consists
of lunges and blade work on my dummy. Three or so sets of 10 each
of short, intermediate, and long lunges against the dummy at various
times during the day.
2. Daily 2 sets of footwork 6 minutes at a time with 1 minute rest
between. In ramping up to a major tournament I will increase this
to whatever I can sustain my interest to. I try to include fleching
as part of the foot work.(done to music, currently "tainted love" and
the "theme from the Sopranos")
3. I try to alternate work on the arm as distinct from work on the lower
body/legs on different days. This has to do with my still trying to
recover full functionality of the elbow after the surgery last year.
And from my readings, weight trainers recommend working a particular
muscle group hard and then resting it for a day. They conjecture that
working the muscle hard causes small micro tears which need time to
heal and rebuild and this in turn gives rise to building up the
muscle. Sounds good anyway to a lazy fellow like me who was trying
to do a major workout every day. For leg work I do my usual 2 six
minute sessions and then skip rope and a number of wind
sprints. Jogging seems to be more for endurance running, whereas
fencing is short, and more like intense sprints.
4. Stretches: VERY IMPORTANT. Didn't mean to leave it to the last, but
stretching very necessary, legs, ankles, back, arms, neck.
5. Pilates: a very in technique advocated by dancers originally
designed for boxers. Sounds really neat but uses a bunch of
specialized machines sort of like the things folks try to sell you
on late night tv. If you can separate out the chaff and hype there
may be something there.
I'll probably think of more things later. I left out describing my arm
work as that is dependent on weights, therabands, rubber hoses and is
very masochistic.
J.
Linear Mode
