Recharging
I’ve been having a blast the last couple of days! I’m currently down in Southern California visiting friends, and taking a small break from the daily grind (yup, my coach gave me a few days off!). It’s definitely been nice to just catch up with some of my good friends.
Don’t worry though, I’ve been continuing my workouts and doing my rehab workout for my leg. Yesterday I went to UCLA for training. Even though they no longer have a men’s program, the gym had more than enough equipment for me to get my upper-body conditioning done. Later today, I’m going to train at a gym that’s located north of L.A., and also to visit my friends, Arson and Paul, that coach there.
It’s been a fun couple of days but I’m actually really looking forward to this weekend. This weekend is my old teammate’s annual “Fish Fry” party. Over the last couple of years, it started to become a tradition for our team to head down to his place in Southern California and join his huge family for this weekend-long party. The reason it’s called the “Fish Fry” is because of the amount of tuna they serve (every year, his father goes out to catch a bunch of tuna just for this party). All of us on the team are looking forward to this weekend as there should be a lot of good food and good times!
I’ve been training as usual but my mind is definitely getting a break. I should be recharged and ready to go once I get back!
Sho's Inside Look #2: NorCal Elite Clinic
As I posted before, here’s the video from the clinic this weekend.
Hope all the guys are continuing to train hard.
Thanks again to my teammate, Ryan Lieberman for helping me out with the vid!
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this VideoPress video.NorCal Elite Clinic!
Yesterday, was an exciting day. With the help of several awesome coaches, I was able to host a clinic for some of the up-and-coming gymnasts in Northern California. In all, 13 gymnasts were able to attend, all of whom were either level 9s and 10s.
I’ve gotta say that the clinic was a success. All of the guys worked really hard and there were several highlights throughout the day. Plus it’s always good to have a bunch of gymnasts working out together because that can be motivating. I’m hoping that all of them will take whatever they learned this weekend and bring it back to their own gym!
Thanks again for all the coaching staff for helping out wit this clinic! Video coming soon!
NorCal Elite Clinic
Anyway, it’s Sunday and I’m planning on spending today with zero plans. No gym and no rehab should make for a relaxing day. I know I need to catch up on sleep so I’ll probably do that!
Congrats Guys!
Congrats to all the guys that competed this week at USAs! I basically spent most of tonight clicking the refresh button on my computer so that I could keep up with the competition. I was sad that I wasn’t there competing with the guys but I’m using it as motivation to get back stronger than ever. As they say, “it’s more fuel for the fire!”
Also, I just received a phone call from my coach at Stanford who told me that I was chosen as a member of the national team. This is quite an honor and it’s more reason for me to work hard with my rehab so that I could get back in the game in order to help the US team.
The following is the new National Team until Winter Cup 2010:
Alex Artemev, Lakewood, Colo., 5280 Gymnastics
Kyle Bunthuwong, El Cerrito, Calif., University of California – Berkeley
Alex Buscaglia, Cary, Ill., Stanford University, senior
Jake Dalton, Sparks, Nev., Gym Nevada
Wesley Haagensen, Colorado Springs, Colo., U.S. Olympic Training Center
Tim Gentry, Plano, Texas, Stanford, University
Joey Hagerty, Albuquerque, N.M., U.S. Olympic Training Center
Jonathan Horton, Houston, Cypress Academy
Glen Ishino, Santa Ana, Calif., University of California – Berkeley
Steve Legendre, Flower Mound, Texas, University of Oklahoma
Danell Leyva, Miami, Universal Gymnastics
Tim McNeill, Falls Church, Va., University of California – Berkeley
Sho Nakamori, Albany, Calif., shonakamori.com
David Sender, Arlington Heights, Ill., shonakamori.com
Brandon Wynn, Voorhees, N.J., The Ohio State University, senior
A little update with my leg – It’s getting better. Got my stitches out the other day and mobility is getting better by the day. I can easily bend it up to 90 degrees but they don’t want me to push it further than that (at least for another 1o days or so). This is because they repaired the meniscus and doing so will put a lot of pressure on the area that they worked on. Either way, things are going well. Doctor says I’m ahead of schedule. Good stuff!
My leg in the intense leg brace
Do It Up Dave!
First day of USA’s finished yesterday and it looks like it was a pretty exciting competition, especially with my teammate, Dave, landing his Yurchenko Double Pike! Solid! At the halfway point, Dave is sitting in 2nd. Am I surprised? Not really, considering we’ve competed side by side for many years and I know the way he is in competitions. He’s able to turn up the intensity like a light switch.
As many of you probably know already, tomorrow will be Dave’s last competition ever. When I tore my ACL in Japan a few weeks ago, I don’t know what made me more sad: the fact that I wasn’t going to be doing gymnastics for a while, or the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to compete with Dave for his last meet. We’ve known each other for a long time and have competed for Stanford since day one, so both us were looking forward to competing together at this year’s USAs. Although we were both bummed, I’m happy to know that he’s out there competing hard and kicking butt. Better yet, it’s awesome that he’s competing this week with my logo on his chest. For some reason, even though I’m in California right now, I feel like I’m Dallas for the competition.
Dave is my best friend and definitely the best training partner I’ve ever had. It’ll be sad to see him go but I’ve gotta say that I admire him because it takes a lot of guts to hang up your grips when the sport has been a big part of your life for so long. I’m also happy that he’s going out to do something that he’s always wanted to do, which is to become a vet. I’m starting to realize that the blood and sweat I pour into this sport to make the Olympics is no longer just for me, but it’s for me to keep our dreams alive, as well as all the people who have supported me throughout my career. I’m definitely very lucky to have such good people around me.
Anyway, to Dave –
Do it up! Get ‘er done!
Dave and Me in '08
Sho's Inside Look #1: Road to Recovery
Below is my first ever video update.
Big thanks to my teammate and friend, Ryan for helping me out with this.
More to come in the future so keep checkin’ in!
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this VideoPress video.Team ShoNakamori.com???
So you’re probably looking at the above pic and wondering to yourself, “what in the world are these?” Well just for checkin’ in, I’ll let you in on a little secret. The above pictures are of the offical competition uniforms for “Team ShoNakamori.com”. Yup, you got it right, someone will be wearing it in competition, and actually really soon. In fact, it’ll be my teammate, David Sender at this week’s USA Championships!
This was a last minute idea but Dave thought that this would be a good way to get my website recognized. Also, being the nice guy that he is, he also thought it would be cool to wear the logo because I won’t be able to get to compete at this week’s Championships due to my leg injury. Definitely can’t wait for the meet to begin. We’re both really excited!
Anyway, good luck to all the guys that are competing this week. It should be a fun and exciting one!
Good Luck E!
Aside from training in the gym, I spent most of the day yesterday just relaxing at home. I even got the day off from PT, which was good because I’ve been going non-stop with rehab ever since I got my surgery last Friday. And as well all know, we need recovery time to get stronger.
Things are going well though. I pretty much have full extension and I’m up to 90 degrees on the CPM machine! With my leg gradually getting better, I’m able to do a little more in the gym in terms of upper-body strength. You’d actually be pretty surprised by how difficult upper-body conditioning can be when you can’t fire up your leg muscles. I tried to do some handstand push-ups the other day and those definitely felt difficult. Mainly beause it was hard to balance my body beause I couldn’t tighten up my quad muscle. However, after trying the same thing after relearning how to fire up those muscles, I realized that the exercise became much easier. I guess it just comes to show that gymnastics requires every muscle of your body.
As for the rest of the day, I visited my teammates’ house for a little get-together. It was fun but a little sad that I had to say goodbye to my teammate and good friend, Eli.. Eli, came to Stanford the same year as me (he was also my roommate all throughout college), and after sticking around the area for a year to gain some work experience, he has decided to attend law school at UCLA. I’m definitely happy for him but it’s always a bit sad to have to say your goodbyes considering we went through a lot of experiences together during our college years. We hardly knew each other before entering our freshman year but he has definitely become one of my closest friends through working towards a common goal. I’ve gotta say, I think that’s the best part and the beauty of teamwork.
Me and the '08 class (Eli is 2nd one from the left)
Anyway, I’m really happy for Eli and excited for his new adventures. He’s moving away, but in the internet age, nobody is all that far away. You can basically get in touch with anyone whenever you want. Plus if I really wanted to visit him, he’s still “only” about 6 hours away from where I’ll be.
Good luck man!
I Can Make a Muscle!
Yup that’s right…I was finally able to fire up some muscles in my leg since having surgery! I’ve gotta say that this is pretty exciting stuff considering my leg was just a blob of meat for the first few days. However, after a couple of sessions with the physical therapist, my leg is starting to function again. Movin’ in the right direction for sure!
Now, my goal is to get some flexibility back and from then on it’s just slowly rebuilding the muscles again. Flexibility isn’t too shabby either. I’m in the CMT and have it so that it bends the leg up to 85 degrees (almost 90!). As for strength, haven’t gotten to that part just yet. I have to be patient and make sure that the swelling goes down before I do anything too intense. It’s easier said than done but I have to make sure that I don’t get too antsy because rushing into things will slow down my healing process. Either way, I look forward to going to PT all the time because it’s exciting for me to see how much more I can do than the day before.
As for my life in the gym, I’m told to take it fairly easy with my conditioning, at least until they take out my stitches, which is on Monday. As soon as they do that, my focus will shift on not only getting my leg stronger but my upper-body stronger as well!
First Day of PT
As expected, my first physical therapy session (which was this morning) was pretty low key. We just did some light leg tightening exercises and some easy massage to flush out the swelling. Nevertheless, it felt good to go in there and get my leg working again! My leg feels a lot better already and I can almost fully extend it even though it’s only been a couple days since getting it repaired. I’m also able to bend my leg up to 70 degrees with the help of the CPM (continuous passive motion) machine! I’ve gotta say, things are looking really good and the physical therapists were impressed with my knee, saying that I’m farther along than average.
Aside from that, I was able to go to the gym today and do some light conditioning exercises. It wasn’t much but it was good to get a little bit of sweat going. I’ll gradually increase the intensity, and will start doing upper-body strength like it’s my business!
Anyway, more physical therapy tomorrow. Can’t wait to see what kind of exercises are in store for me and to see the gradual improvements with my knee!
Oh, and I’ll be going to watch Funny People with my teammates later on tonight. Should be a good movie!
Funny People
