Ending the long back pain saga with ... spinal stenosis surgery (and CrossFit)

Over the years I've done periodic personal medical and exercise posts. It's mostly a way for me to take stock and think, but I'm a (retired) GP doc and I think there's value in seeing these things from both a medical and personal perspective.

I'm 66 now so I expect to do these less -- unless there's something to share that might be useful to others. Why less? Because most don't need to know what oldness is like.

This 2025 update will more-or-less conclude two related things I've written about over 20 years or so -- back issues and CrossFit/exercise.

I have shared my back journey over past decades through several posts, but the history predates the internet. It began, very clearly, with hyperextension of my lower back when body surfing on Huntington Beach Los Angeles. I didn't have neurologic problems, and over weeks the acute pain went away, but after that and for the next 40 years I'd run into periodic back pain episodes that I managed with early activity and exercise. Some, I can honestly say, were very painful. I learned a lot about the sequence of cold packs, early mobilization and the typical 1 week recovery cycle.

Most of the time, as long as I kept up with exercise [6], the back pain wasn't a big factor in my life - but the frequency was increasing from "every 8 months for 3-5 days to every 4 months lasting 14-21 days"

I assumed, as was common in those days in the absence of neurologic signs, that the root cause was soft tissue injury. In 2025 I learned otherwise.

In July of 2008 I traveled home from a family trip lying on the floor or our van after my one and only ambulance to ED back pain episode. It was time to actually see a physician about the problem. My next step was an intense strengthening program pioneered by Minnesota's Physician's Back and Neck Clinic [7]

That program worked great when I kept up with it on their machines, but motivation was a challenge. By 2013 my acute pain episode routine was getting pretty extreme. I needed to do something different to maintain strength.

So ... in 2013 I started CrossFit Saint Paul. CrossFit was still relatively new then, CFSP had only launched a few years before. Gray hair was rare and a 54yo was still a bit of a novelty. I remember lots of young big strong people and very rude music lyrics. I'm still at it 13 years later [1]; there are now many 50+ and the music seems mellower.

That began a second interval of relative back peace. The first was 5y from 2008 to 2013, this interval went from 2013 to about 2024, though as I aged further my strength more or less peaked about 2019 (age 59-60) and I put together my 30y plan to exit [2]. My peculiarly aggressive familial osteoarthritis was manifesting.

Even back in 2015 though I was having periodic acute pain episodes after doing deadlifts. I managed these with Roman Chair back extensions and "Romanian Deadlifts". My posterior chain got real strong -- and I did lighter deadlifts. Also in 2015 I was having a "butt ache" that I treated as piriformis syndrome (it was discogenic). 

And so it continued - generally pretty well with setbacks and recoveries. In 2020 I had what felt like an L5/S1 prophylaxis with a mild foot drop that slowly resolved over 6-8 months. (I actually forgot about this until rereading an old post.) By 2021 my prophylactic back exercise routine had reached another level of (successful) extreme.

In retrospect I was coming to the end of this phase of the spine story. I was relying more and more on my muscles to keep my lower spine motion limited. At one point I had an acute exacerbation episode picking up a 10lb weight, even as my back squat was in the mid 200s [3].

In the winter of 2023 I hit the wall. In the space of a few months I was unable to stand upright -- even as I rearranged my left knee in a snow bike episode at night over a frozen creek. I developed 'pins and needles' in my feet. I had my first MRI,  it was so awful my primary care doc sent me a condolence email. 

I was unable to do even basic PT. Spinal steroid injections had no effect. I attended my daughter's college grad riding my mountain bike because, although I couldn't walk, I could still ride [5]. My ortho team physiatrist predicted a fusion. I walked into my surgical consultation bent over for stenosis relief. 

My surgeon took one look and told me spinal stenosis surgery was coming. In June of 2024 my orthopedic surgeon did the following:

1. Right L3-4 and L4-5 laminotomy.

2. Bilateral L3-4 and L4-5 medial facetectomies and bilateral lateral recess decompression. 

3. Right L3-4 partial discectomy.

4. Bilateral L3, L4 and L5 foraminotomies.

I had come to the end of a long road. I went into surgery hoping to be able to walk again. A surgery that took hours longer than expected because there was stuff in there so old the MRI didn't show it.

And ... it worked. The surgery actually worked. I could stand and walk immediately. I'd purchased walkers and toilets lifts and canes in anticipation of a painful recovery - I used one tylenol (I didn't really need it) and returned all the equipment unopened. As soon as I was permitted I was walking 5-10 miles a day. Then I was allowed to bicycle. And ... I was permitted to return to CrossFit 3 months post surgery, albeit without deadlifts [4].

It's been over a year since that surgery. I still lift 10lb weights the way I lift 100lb weights, but I'm not sure that's necessary now. I don't do my 2021 extreme prophylactic exercises, I do only "normal" posterior chain work. I don't do deadlifts or even RDLs, I use a hex bar and do squat-deadlifts that are much more like front squats than deadlifts (limited hinge). My one rep max are all down about 10-15% but they are slowly going up. Since resuming CrossFit I've recapitulated my early history there -- starting out dropping 10-14 lbs then very slowly building back up. (I'm 66. The muscle mitochrondria are half dead. Slow.)

My corrosive familial osteoarthritis continues. I am now being evaluated for cervical spine compression despite never having any history of neck issues (the MRI is awful of course). I suspect I have another, even scarier, spine surgery ahead - preferably years ahead but it might be sooner. This time I'm entering the surgical pathway earlier, my one regret of my back surgery is that it was delayed while I had to walk through the insurance mandated pre-surgical protocols. I wonder if I'd have less residual neuropathy if that delay had been less.

What lessons could I share if someone were to ask (nobody does) about this journey? I'd summarize them as ...

• Surgery has improved over time. Sometimes it's technology driven (laparoscopy, imaging, robotic surgery), sometimes it's learning what works and doesn't, sometimes it's small incremental improvements. For many surgeries the first shot is the best shot - so make it a good one. There's benefit from delaying surgery -- in my case for 45 years.
• The spine is weird. The surgical/nonsurgical physical exam techniques I was taught 40y ago are not very reliable. In retrospect I would have benefited from 2024 surgery in 1981 -- but the surgery of 1981 was relatively crude. I'm glad I avoided it.
• A strong posterior chain and good technique can compensate for big anatomic problems for a surprisingly long time.
• If you do have a 'surgical back' in America you are going to have to jump through some hoops before insurance will pay. It's best to get into a system early so the clock starts ticking - even if surgery may be delayed for months or (ideally) years.
• If you need back surgery it really helps to be in very good physical condition. I lost a lot of strength from November 2023 to June 2024 but I was still probably the fittest old patient my surgeon had.

If I do get to neck surgery I'll probably do a post on what happens then. I also expect to run into new lumber problems as the bones continue their journey to the grave. I am a bit bored with the topic though, so probably not a lot of blog posts. This one will have to do for a while.

PS. I mentioned that even as the spinal stenosis was manifesting I also deranged my knee in a snow bike accident. For a while I thought that was the bigger problem, though it soon became incidental. I tore everything but the lateral collateral but, given age and the fact that I looked like I was going to die soon, the surgeon did not recommend surgery. I think being unable to do anything but bicycle for 6 months was quite good for that knee. My tibia is now loosely connected to my femus but I can still do my usual things including full squats. Happily I'm not a basketball player! Once again, all those leg exercises came in handy.

- fn -

[1] From 2013: "Will I still be doing CrossFit at 64? It seems unlikely, but it's not impossible. I'll let you know." That choice of age was prescient. It's a year-to-year thing now.

[2] I wrote that in 2014 and, damn, it has been pretty accurate.

[3] That's nothing for a power lifter, but for non-comp CrossFit it's not bad for my age.

[4] Did my surgeon understand what he was permitting? I kind of doubt it honestly.

[5] In order to sustain my reputation for bloody mindedness I did our annual mountain bike trek to Bentonville Arkansas 3 months before my spine surgery -- even though I could not walk. I did avoid the black trails.

[6] In 2009 the role of exercise in managing back pain was still somewhat novel, in 2004 back pain was described as untreatable.

[7] I don't think there's anything quite like PNBC any more. They were profiled in the New Yorker back in 2002.

Geriatric CrossFit Tips - 2025 Update

It's been over 12 years since I started CrossFit at 53 and three years since I wrote my previous Geriatric CrossFit tips. Since that last post I've aged as one does -- and been through a very helpful back surgery. More about that later sometime. Suffice to say my personal best lifts are probably all behind me now.

Here are my tips updated for age 66:

1. I do my own warmup before the group warmup; it takes about 30 min. It starts with a 15 minute bike ride to the box, then a mix of PT exercises, static holds, and general barbell work off the rack including back/front squat and strict press/handstand hold.
2. Old muscles take a while to activate and tire quickly.  So adjust reps accordingly. (Perhaps the dying mitochondria?)
3. You need to go at least 3 times a week to be able to do things safely, but 5 times is too much at my age. Joints and muscles take longer to recover.  I think I'll be 4 times in winter and 3 times in bike season.
4. If you are an active retired person you now have time to overtrain. Which is a real thing that I have experienced.
5. If you are doing CF at 66 you are probably very good about physical therapy. I do a lot of informal PT based on past experience and online refs.
6. Forget about those old Personal Records. They are dust in the wind. I used to sometimes do "Men's Rx" WODs now I sometimes do "Women's Rx".
7. I don't do 100% any more; 80-90% is fine. My goal is that I can always do another round. I do a lot of bicycling, so I have no guilt about scaling the cardio so I can focus on lifts and gymnastics. That 10-20% buffer is helpful for avoiding injury.

CrossFit in my 65th year: Act II

It wasn't a pretty lift. My butt came up but my chest was slower. The depth was marginal. But on Jan 2 2024, into my 65th year, I more-or-less equaled my back squat from two years ago. Even so, it was 10 lbs less than my "lifetime" best set when I was just 60.

And that was the end of Act I of my CrossFit journey. After 10 years, starting when I was a kid of 54, I've archived all my lifts and numbers. I'm a blank slate now, setting new numbers for the next few years.

Seeing my MRI helped me face the truth of oldness. I had squashed a disc (not my first) during some warmups 6 weeks before, and with persistent L4 numbness I decided it was time to get my first images. Forty-four years after some poor body surfing choices, and a bit of living, that spine looks ugly. 

Even I had to admit the obvious; I'm not going to set any more personal lifetime bests. Of course I only got them in my 60s because I started late! Also, no more standing on my head for handstand push-ups. That cervical spine ain't so great and cervical nerve problems are real bad.

It's not impossible that I'll figure out a way to do a ring mucle-up before I die, but I'm fine if I don't. It's a relief to start fresh.

Act II came a lot later than I'd expected when I started, but I never thought I'd be doing my big lifts at 85. I'm a physician, I know how it goes.

I think I'll be able to clear the bilateral L4 fragments with some physio and staying under 200 lbs of axial loading for a month or two (easy, just do more reps). For $30 a year I'm using the machines at my the community center. Emily and I make a date of it! CrossFit used to look down on that nautilus-type equipment but we're all older and more pragmatic now.  I can get a good leg workout there without loading the spine.

I think I'll clear the disk fragments in another 4-6 weeks; I'll be getting a physical therapy plan in a week or two. I figure machine lat pull-downs with some programmed flexion will combine a bit of traction and fragment smushing. If physio doesn't work there's always (ugh) surgery. Physicians generally avoid surgeons, but they do have their uses.

Act I is done. Act II has started. I'll figure out Act III if I get to to it.

High calorie foods to prevent exercise/training associated weight loss

When I retired I stopped eating high calorie restaurant/cafeteria lunches and took my exercise addiction to another (not all that healthy) level. I started dropping from my target weight to being too slender. To maintain muscle in an old person an extra 1-2% body fat about the 30yo "ideal" is a good idea.

I asked friends, some with similar vices or serious athletic backgrounds, for advice on calorie sources. Here's the current list ...

• Snickers bars
• Chocolate bars
• Whole fat organic Greek yogurt
• Sports drinks
• Peanut butter everything including peanut butter monster trail mix
• Almond butter
• Avocado things
• Baby bel cheese, 
• Nuts: macadamia, cashews, Tahini
• Ice cream (cheap)
• Peanut butter granola

Tips for the geriatric CrossFit addict (Update: a parallel essay by ChatGPT 4)

My 10 year CrossFit anniversary is two months away. A few months after I started as an old man of 53 I wrote:

... I now do CrossFit twice a week; that's about as much as I have been able to safely handle ... physically I perform and feel more like I did at 44 than at 54. That's a big difference; if I feel at 62 the way I was at 52 I'll be content...  At 54 I'm into managed-decline rather than improvement ... Will I still be doing CrossFit at 64? It seems unlikely, but it's not impossible ... I  rather doubt I'll be doing "Murph" in this life ...

Almost 10 years later I don't go twice a week, I go four or five times a week. I am better and stronger at all CrossFit things now than I was at 53. I didn't do "managed decline", I improved in most things until I was about 60 to 61; I set a lifetime record for my front squat at 63. Barring a surprising injury I'll probably be doing CrossFit at 64. I've done Murph many times, albeit not with a weighted vest.

I've run into a few issues along the way. I inherited my mother's arthritis; my left wrist now limits my bench press and I now do pushups off a dumbbell rather than the floor (aka "true pushups").  I squashed a lumbar disc and even though the minor foot drop went away (took 2 years but they aren't supposed to resolve so I'm happy) I now limit my lifts to under 250 lbs. I've seen a physical therapist a few times over the years and I developed a somewhat extreme back maintenance program. On the other hand my body has bounced up from a few mountain bike crashes and my back has been much better than it was from 1980 to 2009.

In other words, I've been successful so far at geriatric CrossFit. Here's what I do to get by: (I'm a puny guy by the way, my lifetime best lifts are warmups for many men and women in their 40s and well beyond.)

1. I lift 10 lb weights carefully. That's because I once injured my back carelessly lifting a 10 lb weight! Olds get hurt taking plates off the barbell -- because they don't pay attention to such a small weight.
2. I substitute reps for weight. My current weight cap is about 250 lbs, so rather than try a 300 lb deadlift I'll do several reps at 245. If my arthritic wrist is limiting my bench press I'll find a weight I can lift with wrist comfort and stability and then do reps until I fail. I miss the fun of the 1 rep max but they don't build functional strength so subbing reps isn't all bad.
3. I've become an amateur physical therapist (it helps to be a physician). With my experience and some online resources I can treat most overuse issues myself. If I'm not succeeding I see a professional.
4. I generally follow a blend of the Rx (elite) women's and men's standard but if I'm on my third day in a row I've beaten my ego back enough to super-scale. That gives me 80% of the benefit and 5% of the overuse risk.
5. I start my personal warmup 30-40 minutes before the class warmup starts. It helps to be retired. If we're doing a power lift I'll work up to 80% of my target weight during the warmup.
6. I rarely do more than 3 consecutive days of CrossFit. I like to do two days on, one day off. During my off days I do other things - bicycling, hockey, inline, skiing, etc.
7. I do protein drinks and morning eggs and the usual protein things. Olds need more protein. It seems to help. (I exercise enough that I usually eat 4 meals a day.)
8. This isn't really a geriatric CrossFit thing but it's probably worth mentioning that puny guys like me should never try to out-lift an elite woman CrossFitter. That way lies humiliation and broken bits.
9. It takes a while for my cardio system to engage. In cardio workouts I usually start slow and finish better. I do 90% of my capacity rather than 100% -- I don't like having my blood pressure drop out when my heart can't keep up.
10. Don't laugh when the super-fit 40yo next to you complains about being old (a small ironic smile is ok). In general don't talk about age unless asked. Your younger colleagues don't need to know and Oldness is kind of a downer. Also, whether you like it or not, you are often their model for what they want to be in 20 or 30 years. They may talk about you. So suck it up.

That's my list of tips for now, I'll update this post if I think of some others. Please note I'm not actually recommending CrossFit as a great activity for 60+. I enjoy CrossFit, but there are less extreme group exercise programs that are probably safer. Just a lot less fun and a lot less effective.

UPDATE 3/28/2023. I asked ChatGPT to create something like this blog post. Damn but it's not bad. It's more generic than my tips, but it didn't actually have my blog post (knowledge base is 2021). It had to have 10 items on the list of course.

Prompt

Write a list of tips for persons over 60 years old doing CrossFit to maximize benefit and minimize injury. Write in the style of the blog at notes.kateva.org.

Result (ChatGPT 4, March 28, 2023)

CrossFit for the Golden Generation - Maximize Benefits and Minimize Injuries After 60

CrossFit is an excellent way for individuals of all ages to stay active and maintain their fitness. For those in their golden years, taking up CrossFit can be an empowering and effective way to promote overall well-being. However, it's important to be aware of certain precautions and modifications to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience. Here are some tips for those over 60 years old embarking on their CrossFit journey:

1. Consult your doctor: Before you jump into a CrossFit routine, consult your physician to determine whether you have any health conditions or physical limitations that may require modifications.
2. Choose a suitable CrossFit gym: Look for a CrossFit gym (or "box") that is known for catering to a diverse range of ages and abilities. A good gym will have experienced coaches who understand the unique needs of older adults.
3. Start slow and steady: Don't rush into high-intensity workouts. Begin with lower intensity exercises to build up your strength, endurance, and flexibility gradually.
4. Prioritize form over intensity: As an older adult, it's essential to focus on proper form and technique to reduce the risk of injury. Don't hesitate to ask for guidance from your coach.
5. Modify exercises when needed: Be mindful of your limitations and work with your coach to modify or scale exercises as needed. There's no shame in scaling back to protect your body.
6. Emphasize mobility and flexibility: Incorporate stretching and mobility exercises into your routine to improve your range of motion and decrease the risk of injury.
7. Listen to your body: Pay attention to any pain or discomfort you experience during your workouts. If something doesn't feel right, stop and consult your coach or a medical professional.
8. Stay hydrated and nourished: As you age, your body may require more time to recover from strenuous activities. Ensure you're staying hydrated and consuming a balanced diet to aid in recovery and overall health.
9. Rest and recover: Give your body ample time to recover between workouts. Schedule rest days and prioritize sleep to allow your body to repair itself and avoid overtraining.
10. Build a supportive community: Surround yourself with like-minded individuals who share your fitness goals and can offer encouragement, camaraderie, and motivation.

By following these tips, you can maximize the benefits of CrossFit while minimizing the risk of injury. Embrace this new challenge and enjoy the journey to better health and fitness in your golden years!

Installing a NiteRider headlamp on a Bell helmet's GoPro mount with K-Edge adapter and Suptig thumbscrews

My Bell Super Air mountain bike helmet (removable face guard) came with an undocumented snap-in GoPro mount. I figured I'd use it to hold a NiteRider light for night trail rides (a relatively common Minnesota activity, we use one bar light and helmet light). This was more of a journey than I expected, so I wrote this up to share.

The first mistake I made was treating the Super Air GoPro mount as removable. It broke and in COVID times it took months to get a replacement. When you snap that thing in don't try to remove it; I think it's designed to safely break under stress. 

You can see the mount on the photo below, as well as my light, the NiteRider approved K-Edge adapter ($30 with shipping!, but if you know what to look for you can get it via Amazon for $20 with Prime), the remnant of a Best Tek Amazon adapter (very good except it broke after 3 uses, $10) and "Suptig thumbscrews for GoPro" ($7).

The bottom line is to mount a light on this helmet's GoPro mount you need the K-Edge adapter (their site, NiteRider site) and the Suptig thumbscrews. If you're Amazon Prime you can get both for $27. (I think K-Edge makes a range of GoPro mounts that can be used with NiteRider and this adapter.)

There are limited directions for installation so check out the photo on the K-Edge site; it shows how you orient it in the NiteRider groove.)

The K-Edge is a tough of alloy. You slide it in the NiteRider groove and once you have a good balance point position you tighten two small hex bolts. It ain't coming off without an Allen key.

I actually liked the Best Tek adapter better, it looked like a regular NiteRider mount fused to a GoPro. Sadly it was made using a very inexpensive plastic, didn't slide in and out very well, and the release tab broke off the 3rd time I used it.

Here's the K-Edge with Suptig thumbscrew on the Bell Super Air's Go Pro mount. It's very solid and a great location on the helmet for trail illumination. Of course we have to watch for branches, I've walked lights more than once.

Inline Skating San Francisco -- from 1997!

I wrote this in 1997 and found it in my old pre-blog Web 1.0 archives. I decided to republish it here because, you know, I could. Some of it may even be relevant today.

Before blogs we did this kind of thing in wysiwyg tools (FrontPage 97 for this piece) and then FTPd to a web server. 

The original page is still on the web but it is not known to Google. Astonishingly it's in the Wayback Machine.

Exercise for Olds: year 63 (CrossFit and so on)

I entered my 63y recently. For me this means another look at what I'm doing with the old arthritic body I've got.

I started doing CrossFit in April of 2013. I was 53 when I started so I'm into my 9th year at CrossFit St Paul. There have been some interruptions for injury rehabilitation and COVID shut us down for a few months (I built a home gym), but it's been pretty much continuous. I've been there over a thousand times by now. I was at my peak strength and ability around age 60 -- probably stronger than I had ever been! I ran into some recurrences of lifelong and new back issues after that, but recently my new rehab program has worked pretty well. I'm not far off peak strength now and I think I'm still stronger than I was in my 30s. There are a few lifts where I could still get a new lifetime personal record.

I restarted (did some in early 90s) mountain biking 6-7 years when my oldest son joined a new High School team. I was a parent volunteer then; he stopped but I continued. During COVID I bought a Fat bike and road with friends and lights through the dark winter. A few months ago I added a new full suspension bike (Trek Fuel EX 7). I'm by far the best mountain biker I've ever been. That's a bit of a problem actually. I'll get to that.

I started ice hockey much the same way I started mountain biking. I skated as a volunteer and team manager for Minnesota Special Hockey and then 4-5 years ago I joined a local pickup league on my own. Last year was lost to COVID though.

I've always done road biking and that continues. I've a century ride coming up next week and next month. I do some short 3-5 mile runs with Emily, but not that much on my own now. I swim very little now. I inline skate with my middle son every week or two. I love classic Nordic (cross country) ski but the climate has not been our friend.

The body is mostly holding up. A typical week might look like:

Sunday: CrossFit and family bike ride/Nordic ski, in winter coach special hockey

Monday: CrossFit

Tuesday: Home CrossFit with Emily and #2 (a relative rest day for me)

Wed: Mountain bike (summer) or Fat bike (winter) ride with a friend - can be intense

Thur: Inline skating or Mountain bike with #2 (rest day)

Fri: CrossFit (plus Hockey in winter)

Sat: Road bike ride, Fat bike in winter, sometimes just a rest day

In addition I do my rehab exercises at least 4/week. I've come to love the Romanian Deadlift (RDL). I struggled a few years ago when gyms eliminated the therapeutic back extension machine I was taught to use but my PT signed off on my RDL program and it's worked well.

So far I'm still on the the 30 year plan. In 2014 I figured I'd have to downshift at 65; that sounds about right with another drop at mid-70s and dead at 85.

What's changing? With age I do a better job of relative rest days (2-3 a week of easy activity) but there are still more things I want to do than I have time for. I'm having trouble eating enough to build muscle (also limited by age related stem cell depletion). If/when I retire I will have more time to work on strength development, that's currently hard to fit in. Mountain biking is an odd problem -- it's great exercise, I love doing it -- and I'm getting too good at it. I'm good enough to do trails where a mechanical failure or a personal mistake could lead to serious injury. I should be wearing a full face helmet -- but at my age that's insane. So I have to back off a bit. It's hard to do ...

Schwinn IC 4 / Bowflex / Nautilus cycle trainer - review with Zwift and Peloton apps

We've used our Schwinn IC 4 cycle trainer for about 10 months now. It was a pandemic purchase in December of 2020. The same trainer is sold as a Schwinn IC4, a Bowflex and a Nautilus.

We paid $900 from Dicks sporting goods. In September 2021 it's closer to $1000. It may be the only decent trainer left that doesn't require a Peloton-style subscription.

It's worked well for us. The only crappy part was the pedals, but the manufacturer expects those to be replaced. My son likes SPD clips so we use those with an adapter for shoes. The magnetic resistance is easy to adjust and quiet. Unlike trainers that attach to a bicycle it's easy to move and adjust for different heights (in our home 4'11" to 5'11"). There's a mount for iPad and a USB power out.

The trainer connects with Zwift on my son's iPad via Bluetooth and transfers the calculated power output. So if you adjust the magnetic resistance but keep a constant pedaling cadence then the power output goes up. The power output is reflected in Zwift cycling speeds. Unlike more expensive units the resistance doesn't vary based on the Zwift simulated course -- but if you go "uphill" in the simulation your power output converts to slower speeds.  So it works.

It comes with a heart monitor that worked when we tested it but we never use it.

It weighs 106 lbs and comes with front wheels that make it easy for me to move. That turned out to be much more important than I expected, we move it around depending on what we're doing in the home gym.

Besides Zwift (my son has a subscription for $15/month) I tested connecting it to a bundled "ExploreTheWorld.app" and "Peloton.app".  You can't connect to an Apple Watch. ExploreTheWorld came with 4 free videos ws not very interesting.

Peloton is all classes ... lots and lots of classes. It behaves like a real iOS app with a slick signup. You get 1 month free then it's $14/user. You have to adjust the resistance yourself, the Peloton app can't change it.

Zwift is simulated rides with an avatar and lots and lots of group rides and routes. The UI is pretty crude on an iPad, I think it's made for a giant low res display or maybe a remote monitor. You get 23KM free then it's $15/user/month. We got a Zwift account for my son, the rest of us just watch our iPad or use the trainer for intervals in our family CrossFit workouts.

My prophylactic back exercise routine

I wrote the original of this post in the early COVID era. Since then I expanded the basement home gym with a way over-specced power lifting squat rack and a full Olympic spec weight set (what I could find, more than I wanted).  I also ran into some minor back strains, perhaps due to on/off COVID CrossFit and more of the age and arthritis annoyances. Between those two developments I've expanded my pre-lifting warmup. I still do the morning stretches and (on non-lifting days) the evening Roman chair, but if I'm lifting I have a more extensive warmup now:

• Roman Chair 10 reps
• Inchworm toe touch to push-up then Up/Down dog 5 reps
• Tuck 20 reps
• 1 arm lateral planks 40 sec each side followed by 5 lateral dips
• Touch toes with rounded back and slow roll-up
• Bar hang knee/hip rotation 40 reps (Hang from bar, trace figure 8 with knees while flex or extend hips.) 
• Tuck 20 reps
• Roman Chair 10 rep with two 15 lb dumbbells held in 90 degree reverse curl
• Romanian Deadlift (RDL) with 15lb dumbbells x 10
• Roman Chair 10 rep with two 25 lb dumbbells held in 90 degree reverse curl
• Romanian Deadlift (RDL) with 25lb dumbbells x 10
• RDL with 95 lb barbell x10
• Tucks
• RDL with 115 lb barbell x 10
• Tucks
• RDL with 135 lb barbell x 15
• Tucks
• RDL with 145 lb barbell x 10

[Update 11/11/2021: These days I take the RDLs off my rack and I go from 135 to 185 -- but I'm not sure there's much to gain for me above that. 

12/3/2022: My current routine does less roman chair, RDLs now 195, more hamstring stretches but otherwise pretty similar.]

 The Roman Chair is a 10yo StrengthTrainer ST45.

Then the workout. 

In the morning, for over 12 years I do these stretches every morning before I get out of bed, I got them from Physicians Neck and Back Clinic in Roseville MN (click for full size):

I don't bother with the wall lean stretch in morning (see below) and I combine the standing thigh stretch with a freestanding balance exercise of pivoting forward to stretch hamstring.

Editorial comments from 5/24/20 (rest of this article was updated more recently, the foot drop mentioned here went away about 1.5-2 years post onset)

My experience as a physician who treats people with back pain and as someone who has had some success with the problem is that nobody wants to hear that fitness is (almost!) the only fix. I get it, twenty years ago I also thought of this is an unfixable problem too, but at least since 2009 this has been common knowledge. The surprising bit is how much exercise it takes.

My back isn't bulletproof. I've had several episodes of back pain over the past 12 years. The most worrisome was seven months ago and was probably an L5/S1 disc prolapse. That took 6 weeks to mostly heal with diligent exercise and 10 weeks before I could set new CrossFit personal weight lifting records. I think I have some residual left foot extensor weakness (had to switch from low support CrossFit shoes to real running shoes for runs). On the other hand I play ice hockey, do CrossFit Olympic lifts, and basically expect a lot out of a crummy old back.

Update 8/18/2025: Where it all ended up, 4 years later.

Exercise and sanity in the time of you-know-what

Fellow exercise addicts -- let's examine our options...

1. Trail, road, gravel biking. Extreme aerosol diffusion. Antiviral ultraviolet radiation built in. Social distance built in. Definite good. Buy your gravel bike now before they're all gone, but any road bike will do. Start commuting by bike.
2. Mountain biking. Same, but different bike.
3. Running. Hard to be less social. Trail runs nicer. For St Paul MN -- Battle Creek!
4. Garage Gym. Get that car out of there. Who cares about cars anyway? Bench, bar, weights, programming from your local CrossFit franchise. Get some friends together at a distance (byob).
5. Your local CrossFit ... class sizes will be smallish. Open the big doors and spread outside where the air flow is amazing. Dress for the occasion. Learn to love open air deadlift and those $!$^@ runs and rows and such.
6. Golf. Chase (Tim) wants this. Lots of social distance! Don't share clubs :-).
7. Lake swimming. Cold in MN March, but eventually ...
8. Inline Skating! Time for a comeback. Get those blades out of the attic. Airflow, etc. Join the Facebook Minnesota Inline Skate Club Group.
9. Hiking. Slow trail running for the win.
10. Rock climbing outdoors. Sweat and blood do not transmit. Maybe don't spit on the rope?
11. Paddling! Canoe, Kayak -- air flow, social distancing, perfect.
12. Fishing -- not much exercise, but good for sanity.
13. Tennis -- don't spit on the ball.

Things governments should do to help morale:

1. Free fishing licenses!
2. Waive state park fees.

Bodies are weird, episode 26

My right wrist hurt the other day. A sudden sharp annoying pain. Maybe a tendon, maybe my arthritis acting up.

So I did my usual amateur self-therapy. I avoided the sharp ouch, but I moved with weights and resistance through a proximal path that was sometimes achy but not ouchy. I had lots of opportunities to load the wrist with weights, I am obliged to do CrossFit six times a week [3].

After about 4 or 5 days of this I noticed the wrist was pretty good. No more sharp pains.

It seemed … familiar. Eventually I remembered it happened before, back in Oct 2015, a bit before my formal Dec 2015 arthritis diagnosis. Resistance work was the fix then too.

This isn’t what we were taught in the medieval medical school of my youth. We were taught to rest sore joints, not to put them under painless load. We weren’t taught that running might make knee cartilage better.

Bodies are weird. Back in 2015 my knees were quite sore. I figured my CrossFit days were numbered; I even tried underwater hockey.

But then the knees got better. I continued my back squats and lunges and all the CrossFit rest. Maybe it was the exercise, maybe it was the hydroxychloroquine my atypical rheumatologist prescribed [2] maybe it was both.

Over the next four years I sometimes had knee and wrist effusions, sometimes not. Lots of things came and went. My hands got beat up, but they didn't bother me much.

Then this past summer came around. I felt weaker. My back was fragile in late July. I developed “pseudo-claudication” (look it up). I lost a bet with my daughter when I missed my birthday Bar Muscle Up. I figured age had caught up.

But then it turned out I had the pseudo-claudication was pseudo-pseudo. Probably a protruding disc. It got 80% better after 6-8 weeks of modified exercise and 100% better after 8-10 weeks. (Discs do that — it’s even in the textbooks.) I hit new lifetime best lifts in clean & jerk and back and front squat. Equaled some others. Got even closer to that elusive bar muscle up.

It’s not like I’ve stopped aging. I look a few years older than my age. I feel pretty old. Everything could fall apart tomorrow. So I’m not expecting to carry on like this. I’m just saying bodies are weird and “osteoarthritis” / “idiopathic arthropathy” [2] is weird. We do not understand. We might as well keep moving.

- fn -

[1] The process likely began with some rogue antibodies before 2010 and a single acutely inflamed distal finger joint in 2012.

[2] The one study I’ve seen on HCQ and OA says it doesn’t work. OTOH, I think “osteoarthritis” should be renamed “idiopathic osteopathy” to underscore our ignorance of what’s likely many different conditions with similar appearances. My mother did relatively well on it FWIW — before she went full RA.

[3] I leave it as an exercise for the reader to imagine why a sane person would actually need to go 6 times a week, even foregoing my ice hockey. It’s not for (my) health or training!

The rules change

On the 9th of August 2009 I wrote a post on at the start of my 51st year. It included an estimate that I was at "70% lifetime strength”. That was an improvement over June of 2008.

I figured it was downhill from there.

I was wrong though. Four years later, in April of 2013, I started doing CrossFit. It’s enlightening to look back at what I wrote then:

… I now do CrossFit twice a week; that's about as much as I have been able to safely handle. I currently need 3 days to heal between each session. Between sessions I do my usual 2 hours of bike commuting one day a week...

...After five months, despite my back strain injury, St Paul CrossFit has worked well for me. I haven't developed much visible muscle, but I'm significantly stronger and I can handle more exertion. My weight didn't decrease until about month 4, since then I dropped 8 lbs and am close to my optimal weight.

The net effect is that physically I perform and feel more like I did at 44 than at 54. That's a big difference; if I feel at 62 the way I was at 52 I'll be content.

I'm not as keen on CrossFit as some but I enjoy the people, the exercise, and the game of staying within my limits … I'll probably go to three times a week when ice and snow stop my bicycle commute...

… At 54 I'm into managed-decline rather than improvement, but at 34 I'd have been tempted. CrossFit workouts are intense -- and I'm not sure five or even four workouts a week makes sense for most 35+ bodies…

Six years later I would frequently do CrossFit five times a week, and I usually managed four times a week. At age 59, six years after starting, I amazed myself by surviving a 300 lb deadlift. That’s warmup weight for a strong middle-aged man, but it was a lot for me.

I got my dubs last year.

I've had several weight lifting and gymnastic personal records in the past two years. “Managed decline” didn’t happen at 54 after all -- despite being hit by the familial arthritis train at age 56. In retrospect, while my physiologic maximums had been declining for decades, there was more head room than I’d expected. I just started living closer to that maximum performance level.

But we know how the story ends. We know what 85 looks like. There’s a steep descent ahead.

I think I’ve started that run. Over the past few months I’ve been more fragile, prone to old injury patterns, healing more slowly. I didn’t make my 8/1/ Bar Muscle Up goal (still training though).

My peak performance has met my downward trending physiologic limit.

They probably met in May of 2019 - 3 months ago, but I only got the message last week when a minor back strain passed all my usual fitness tests — and got suddenly worse on a warmup lift. The rules changed.

I greeted this understanding with the mature wisdom of an Old person.

Hah, hah. Not really. I wanted to cry. I was crying on the inside. For a day or two anyway.

Now I have to figure out the new rules. I’m off CrossFit until after my early September Maah Daah Hey mountain bike trail ride — I need to be as rehabbed as possible until I’ve done that trip. So I’m doing my training rides, my rehab weight lifting (my strict pull-ups are 50% improved, also working on a new bench PR!), started swimming again, picking up more inline skating.

I’m studying my Supple Leopard book.

When I return to CrossFit (9/9/2019 is the plan) I can max on the cardio and the body weight reps and I can keep training for my maybe-never-bar-muscle-up, but it will be months before I let myself do serious weights. I have to figure out the new rules.

Maybe next year I’ll do my first triathlon.

Update 12/6/2019

So this week I set new lifetime best weight lifts in clean & snatch, front squat (17 lb increase!) and back squat. More than I’ve ever done before. I was also just 5lbs short of my PR for bench press. Aced every 1 rep max test over 5 consecutive days.

The back? After 6 weeks it was 80% better, after 10 weeks 100%. I think it was a posterior L5/S1 disk — that resolved.

The bar muscle up? No, not quite. But today I was agonizingly close. If I’d piked forward I’d have made it. By far the best ever.

I do not understand all this.

Update 2/3/202

I got my bar muscle up.

My exercise program towards the end of year 60

Current exercise guidelines are more demanding that the “12 minutes a day, 3 times a week” standard of my youth ...

For substantial health benefits, adults should do at least 150 minutes ... to 300 minutes ... a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes ... to 150 minutes ... a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity...

… Additional health benefits are gained by engaging in physical activity beyond the equivalent of 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week.

… Adults should also do muscle-strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity and that involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week

I’ll be 60 in 10 weeks. This is how, as a genetically ungifted athlete, I approach those recommendations between May and October

Sunday: 3-4 hour road bike ride, not counting lunch. If weather is bad then CrossFit St Paul. I’ve been enjoying CFSP for more than 6 years now. Often 9 holes of walking golf with #1 son.

Monday: CrossFit, usually with my teen daughter, followed by sets of sit-ups and dubs (120 and 80+)

Tuesday:  Mountain biking 1 hr at Battle Creek, River Bottoms, Leb or Carver. St Paul JCC with Emily and #2 son, weights and running — whatever I’m not doing at CrossFit. Usually Bench, SLR, and working on components of a Bar Muscle Up.

Wednesday: CrossFit, with the daughter, sit-ups and dubs.

Thursday: CrossFit (daughter) and the J with Emily and #2 son. Some light weights and sauna.

Friday: CrossFit, sit-ups and dubs.

Saturday: Rest day! Nothing scheduled but often kinetic anyway.

From October-April I do JMS Hockey on Friday nights, CrossFit on Sunday, and Nordic skiing when conditions allow. This year I’m planning to add winter mountain bike trail rides.

Because I once had a quite bad back I do a set of 9 stretches every morning and 20 weighted roman chair reps each night — but those go fast. I do dumbbell curls during phone meetings and before bed because of that muscle-up project.

I’d love to be able to also bike commute to work, but my current job is a remarkably bad fit for bike commuting.

On a good week I do at least 600 minutes of moderate to high intensity exercise. It keeps me more or less balanced and able to work. I didn’t start out doing 600 minutes a week, it just built gradually over the years. The older I get the more important exercise is, and the more time I need to spend on it. It helps that I’m quite good at amateur injury rehab.

Current medical wisdom is that exercise won’t control weight, but I think that depends on how much exercise one does. In the winter I am more careful, but in the summer I sometimes need to add extra food to maintain my weight.

CrossFit for Olds - years to build ligaments and tendons

My son bought me a slim book on rock climbing techniques. Rock climbing was my brother Brian’s gig, but I could see doing it when my knees knock me out of CrossFit. It’s something I did in college back when we belayed using ropes wrapped around our body (no belay hardware).

The book talks about single finger pinch holds. Specifically, it says not to try them until at least two years of building up tendons and ligaments.

Two years is a fair amount of time. I’ve not seen that mentioned in any clinical references I read. I suspect it’s right though; it’s obvious muscles can develop much faster than tendons.

I think we should be more aware of this in CrossFit training. Young muscles develop fast, but ligaments and tendons take time. To lift heavy things safely we need connective tissue to be at least as strong as muscles (ideally stronger).

In my 60th year I lift significantly heavier things than I did when I was younger-Old. Probably heavier than I could have done in my mid 30s. My muscles are somewhat stronger, but I think a lot of that is connective tissue development, and that took years. More than two years for Olds I think.

Life goal #2 - The CrossFit Kipping Bar Muscle-Up

In 2018 I met one of my two CrossFit Life Goals (tm) - 10 consecutive dubs (hit 42 in a wild fluke the other day). Only took me five times as long as anyone else I know.

The other goal is the Kipping Bar Muscle-Up. So that’s on the list for 2019. I’m also planning an IMBA “Epic” mountain bike trek — the Maah Daah Hey, but that’s mostly about showing up and moving my feet. The Bar Muscle-Up may be impossible, so it’s more interesting. (Watching Paoli video I should be able to do it now [1], but that’s now what I’m feeling!)

I’m putting my training notes and references on this page.

Examples

• CrossFit demonstration video 
• Carl Paoli Bar Muscle Up progression (3/2017)
• Extended tutorial
• WODPrep step-by-step and WodPrep Ultimate Guide (course)
• Invictus — knees up

Movement notes

Some of the best tips came from a post in the CrossFit Physicians Facebook group.

• Hands a bit wider than shoulder, but narrower than bench
• From beneath the bar jump up and back to a big arch then fall forward into extension position — gets good start there
• Drive hips to bar from top of “hollow” position, while “push down on bar with straight arms”. There should be a bend at hips so can “pop” the hips and pull, row bar into chest/navel (pop/pull is the trick - need timing). The pull should be very hard and fast
• Grip. Begin with the end in mind. You want to think about the position the hands and wrists need to be in when you're on top of the bar and doing the dip portion of the BMU. A lot of people struggle because they grab the bar from directly underneath and don't really wrap their hands over the bar. Instead of doing that, wrap your hands as far over the bar as possible. It's basically a 'false grip' maneuver that you've probably seen on the rings, just on the bar. The idea is to have to turn your hands/wrists over as little as possible. The-two word actionable cue for this is "meaty grip".
• In the kip swing, think about getting your body as loooooong as possible in as you move in front of the bar into the extreme of the arch position. Maximize the full range of motion of your shoulders, keep knees as straight as possible, and point your toes. Your body is a sling shot. Two word cue: "get long". 

• For the pull up & over the bar. Pick a spot on the floor in front of you. Your goal is to stare at that spot all through the first part of the kip and the initiation of the transition into the hollow position & first part of the pull. At some point, as you pull your hips up to the bar, you're going to lose that spot from your vision (it's unavoidable - the head tilts backwards), but your goal is to see that spot again as soon as possible. The instant you don't see the spot anymore, your sole focus is to find it again. This will help you with the speed necessary to execute the transition. Actionable cue: "find the spot". 

Training programs

Some of these are for the (ring) muscle-up, the bar muscle-up is considered to be harder

• Virtuosity with Dusty Hyland: The Entire 8-Part Muscle-Up Series
• Proper Foundations: A 5 Step Progression to the Bar Muscle Up
• … five to ten strict pull ups, and around ten or more unbroken kipping pull ups … some weighted pull ups … Once the athlete can get the bar to the xiphoid process, that is when he or she is ready to move on into the next phase. I recommend the athlete have the ability to hit the xiphoid process regularly while using a regular kip. This means the athlete should have a solid kip, but also have pull strength…
• Bar Muscle Up Assistance Drills - The Barbell Physio
• Bar Muscle Up: $25 program (I might try this)
• Bar muscle up 4 week program building strength
• 12 Weeks to a Muscle-Up! This is a detailed strength program, gymnastic rather than CF, requires more strength
• Tip: How To Do a Bar Muscle-Up | T Nation
• Tips For Getting Your First Bar Muscle Up!
• CrossFit Muscle Up Progression Program - Muscle Up (ring)

Training exercises

• Strict pull-up
• Kipping chest-to-bar with elbows behind the back
• Lat Pull-downs
• Use gym machine with pulley’s ropes to emulate the curious straight arm downward push-pull (see still below).
• Back extension and arching
• Shoulder range of motion, esp. internal rotation
• Band-assist Muscle-Up with gradually diminishing bands
• Box jump muscle-up with gradually smaller box
• The glide kip drill - stand on 1-2 bench, bar a bit above eyes, arms and back in line with hip flex to big hollow, hop up, glide out with feet just above bench and extend to small hollow, then reverse on return.
• Paradiso progression
• 3 sets of 5 high back kip swings
• Hip to bar pull up (20 repeat 1 rep) - kip swing with hip snap
• Transition (atop box, etc) - 20 to 30 reps of jumping box muc
• Hip-to-bar progression with a slight arm-pull, hip drive from the hollow (I can’t get my hips to the bar yet), note in this still from Paoli video his elbows are bent, but he’s mostly pushing the bar down towards his hips and lower abdomen. Feet are below hips. Trapezius muscle here. I have to figure out how to build something like this.
  
  and note he’s actually hitting bar around navel at this point (not hips), feet are still in front as he transitions.
  

[1] Well, not now exactly. My left biceps is strained, so I have to rehab that first.

Update 2/3/2020

I posted the first version of this on Dec 27, 2018 and I succeeded on Feb 3, 2020.

It took me over 13 months. At one point, probably June 2018, I bet my 17yo daughter I’d get it done by my 60th birthday on Aug 1 2018. If I’d succeeded she owed my $10. If I failed, I would pay her college. 

Emily and I are paying her college. 

In August 2018 I was feeling kind of bleh and this looked impossible. To my surprise I started to recover in October and have been getting stronger over the past 5-6 months. Maybe the protein and creatine shakes helped. I also started doing more CrossFit for weird (but good) family reasons — 4-6 a week instead of 3-4 a week.

I didn’t end up following any of the programs above. I just worked on pull-ups whenever I could and I practiced with bands. I could do BMUs with a “green and blue” (green is BIG), then the sequence went like this (typically 3 at a time, the first is usually hardest):

- 1/9/2020: single black band 3 consecutive
- 1/20/20: red and blue then thin red, orange, blue
- 1/22: blue+thin red+orange
- 1/29: blue and 1 orange
- 2/3/20: During a “max MU in 4 minutes” WOD I started with blue, red, and orange bands and in about 4 sets of 3 I dropped bands until I did 3 with two thin orange bands and then one with no bands. When I actually succeeded it didn’t seem that hard. Timing is key.

The most useful advice I was given was "wrap your hands as far over the bar as possible. It's basically a 'false grip' maneuver that you've probably seen on the rings, just on the bar.” I didn’t really understand it at first, but it means having wrists above the bar when you start. I had note understood how hard I had to grip the bar and lever myself up.

I hope I do more, but in terms of my goal I only had to do one.

CrossFit 59 and so on

I used to write a birthday blog post each year about doing CrossFit. I missed this year; probably because its kind of a regular thing now. I had several personal best lifts this year, but none in the past couple of months. Still not bad for almost 60. Stronger than I was at 55, much stronger than I was at 40. I finally did more than 10 consecutive dubs (14!) … and then I dropped back to doing a few at a time. I still haven’t done a bar muscle-up, but I haven’t given up. I think I’m more impacted by heat than I used to be. My cardio isn’t improving much but it’s probably no worse when the temperature is good.

There is one new thing. My 16yo daughter started doing CF with me this summer. She’s progressing quickly; she’ll be doing sets of 50 dubs within a year. She’s good at CrossFit and it makes her happy. She hangs with very healthy, very fun, women from ages 20s to (maybe?) 50s. Pretty great role models.

I have no currently active wear and tear injuries, despite my familial arthritis. Shoulders, knees, wrists, back, hands, ankles — all behaving for a change. I don’t know why. Bodies are weird. I can do CF four or five times a week rather than just three times. Maybe I’m just better at scaling.

PS. For my birthday this year I got a mountain bike tire and some mountain bike shorts.

Dubs

Ten. Consecutive. Dubs.

It’s not too much to ask, is it?

Oh, and one muscle-up. Or bar muscle-up. I’m not picky.

Dubs aren’t that hard. Most CrossFit newcomers figure it out in a few months, maybe a year. I don’t know anyone who has failed as persistently as I have.

A few months ago I got 8. It was a bit of a fluke. I’ve gotten 5 or more several times. I looked like a meth-addled feeding frenzy but, like I said, not picky.

Then I started to get worse. Finally I couldn’t get any at all.

I think I’ve figured out what happened. My technique got better. Instead of swinging my forearms I learned to do singles with my wrists — like you’re supposed to. Turns out my wrists can’t move the rope fast enough. I don’t have anywhere near the coordination. This isn’t only being Old, I’ve had horrible coordination all my life. Old isn’t helpful though.

Once I thought of this I went back to the arm swinging feeding frenzy and I can do a few again. So I’ll practice that for a while. Preferably somewhere nobody can see me. Which means not my gym, where sympathetic looks of sorrow and helpless frustration are hard to bear.

Meanwhile, I can work on those lat pulldowns.

8/6/2018: I0. Also, in that set, some 7s, 8s and a 9. #lifegoal

8/12/2018: 14

12/19/2018: 42 consecutive.

Arthritis update (personal note)

My familial arthritis showed up in one finger a few years ago, but in December of 2015 it became a bigger deal [1]. It looked like an early and fast moving symmetric osteoarthritis (OA), but then so did my mother’s before it morphed into something like RA (which ate lungs, joints, etc). OA is really a junk drawer diagnosis so I ended up calling it “familial arthritis”.

After a bit of personal research I ended up with an eclectic rheumatologist who suggested hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). This is a popular Lupus and RA med that started life as an antimalarial. It’s generally well tolerated with one minor side-effect — you can lose your vision. [2]

HCQ has been since tested experimentally in osteoarthritis — and it didn’t seem to do anything. [3] It did work for my mother’s RA though (where it is known to work), and her disease started out looking like mine …

So I’ve been on the HCQ for about two years.

Has it worked?

There’s no way to know, I can only present circumstantial evidence for one person. I have no idea what the disease would have done without treatment.

The joint deformity has not progressed much. To track joint changes I bought a ring sizing set and I use it to measure a selection of PIP (small, distal finger joint) and PIP (join in mid finger) sizes. There hasn’t been much change in joint deformity over the past two years; interestingly the worst measurements were the first set. That’s probably measurement error or some initial soft tissue swelling that’s diminished. 

I don’t have any finger joint redness or pain any more. Sometimes I forget to take the HCQ and I imagine I have some hand stiffness and joint aches — but that seems too fast to be a med effect. I think it’s my imagination. (Though we don’t have a good story for how HCQ works, so who knows.)

My knees aren’t worse; they are better than they were before I started the HCQ. I still do 230 lb CrossFit deep back squats. (I’m a wimp. Average strong guys do well over 350 lb.)

And, yes, I’m still doing the CrossFit. The rheumatologist approves. I thought I’d have to take up underwater hockey instead but I put that one off for now. 

It’s only been two years though. I’ll be more impressed if this is still true in two more years.

- fn -

[1] When I search the blog I see a few prior posts on knee and wrist exercise related aches that were, in retrospect, part of the arthritis.

[2] There are eye exams to try to spot this early, but we know in animal models that the chorea disease progresses for some time after the medication stops. We don’t know the real frequency of this complication — there’s at least a 1/20 chance I’ll get it.

[3] OA, like autism and schizophrenia, is an ill defined collection of things that’s damnably hard to study.

CrossFit 58

I’ve had a habit around each birthday to review where I’m at with my exercise addiction. This past week was the 58th. I bought myself a Canon SL2 and Emily made me a fabulous Black Forest cake. So time for an update.

I started on the hard stuff at 53. I’d done some exercise before that - mostly road biking, nordic skiing, inline skating and other soft stuff. At 53 though, I fell into CrossFit. Actually, I was pushed. By a friend.

Four and a half years later I’m 58 and I’m still a regular at CrossFit St Paul. I average 3-4 CF workouts a week, mountain bike 1-2 times a week, and do 1-2 days a week of recovery weights or road biking or ice hockey or nordic skiing.

I’ve had soft tissue strains and pains from all of those things, but by now I’m good at rehab. I have a suite that covers hamstring/gluteal/“piriformis”, lower back strain, shoulder things, achilles stuff, chondromalacia patellae and more. “More” includes a familial arthritis syndrome affecting my hands and knees. Sooner or later that will do me in, but hydroxychloroquine seems to slow the progression. When it was diagnosed 2 years ago I figured I’d be out of CF by now, but the arthritis hasn't been a big deal yet.

I work the rehab into my workouts. It’s all one thing. Mostly I’m pretty good.

Over time I lost about 20 lbs of fat and gained about 5 lbs of muscle. Alas, at 58 I have no more muscle stem cells — those seem to go away in the 30s. I may yet get a bit stronger with practice, but not a lot. I’ve bumped up some of my weightlifting records, but recently my overhead squat and snatch have sucked. Seems the small amount of muscle I added to my shoulders came along with decreased range of shoulder motion. Gives me something else to work on.

I still can’t do consecutive double-unders, I have to mix singles and dubs. I may set a record for longest time practicing without success. It’s a coordination thing — I’ve always been clumsy but age sucks. I’ll try a fourth jump rope; some say a slower, heavier rope works better for the old. I have a rope for every occasion now.

I haven’t been able to do a muscle-up - neither bar nor ring. I work on it. Maybe someday.

I got into this to keep my formerly bad back better and because the only things that seem to slow dementia onset are sleep and exercise. I need to slow the dementia - family circumstances mean my brain has to work until about 85, when I can finally keel over and die. It’s too early to tell if it works for the dementia, but my back is pretty good.

Happily I enjoy CrossFit. I travel for work and always drop in on a CF gym — they are almost everywhere (not Hot Springs South Dakota though). I’m almost resigned to being the slowest and weakest person in the box.

It’s a living.