Happy Wednesday Friend!
Do you remember a few weeks ago I mentioned I hurt my knee? Well it's healing. I can "sort of run", cut, jump, play tag & hide and seek. It's not yet 100%, but I'm getting there.
Well yesterday I had a massage w/ Chris to accelerate the healing and next week I see Barry to get some manual therapy. I had a thought that I wanted to share in case you wanted to update your thought processes (software).
Wait & See
When we're younger, we wait & see. Kids gotta problem (cold, cough, pain, some sort of symptoms). We wait & see what happens before deciding. And this thought process carries over as we become adults. We wait and see. Something aches. We wait and see. Got pain. We wait & see. Here's the thing. When you're a newborn and you get a scratch or blemish on your skin, someone could turn their head for a moment and it'd be gone. It's amazing. Infants really heal that fast. Same thing in your teens and 20's. Something aches. Wait and see. You'll heal pretty quick for most things.
Respond and Take Action
When we get older and out of our physical prime, which Tom Brady keeps defying and more on him in a bit, the "wait & see" doesn't work so well and in fact is a poor best practice. It just takes longer to recover as we age. Waiting & seeing means you wait & see longer before the issue gets resolved. I like the "respond and take action" thought process more. Gotta problem. Do something about it. Hurt your knee. Do something about it.
Now I'm 4 weeks out from the initial moment of injury, but it's not for a lack of effort to try and see my favorite treatment people. Logistics kept us from connecting. In the mean time, I did take action and used the onsite resources and knowledge I have to address my discomfort and haven't missed any workouts or life because of my knee. I've modified the movement, made substitutions if necessary, went slower and kept training hard. I couldn't do the timed 10 yd sprint, so I practiced walking without a limp for 10 yds. I couldn't be explosive on the agility ladder, so I walked the patterns. I couldn't hop on my left, so I squatted on my left. I couldn't do lateral skaters, so I did speed skaters.
I also rolled, massaged, stretched and did mobility exercises more and took Advil if I needed it. I never needed to ice, I thought about it, nor heat, thought about that too.
What this means is not only did I still address my self-care and well being, priming myself to perform all by keeping my workouts and my walks, but I made extra time, before, after and at other times to address the symptoms of my knee while assessing my posture & movement patterns looking for culprits that may have pre-disposed me to hurting it.
And now I'm on my treatment teams schedule, so things are only going to get accelerated. Today I did 5 yard, flying starts into a 10 yard timed sprint, x 4sets, just like we'd do in the gym and on Monday I did the agility ladder full speed just like in the gym. Today and Monday I went up in weight past my 25-45% Total DB Load. Today I used a 50# DB on SLDL's after trying the 40lb. on the first set, and (2) 40lb DB's on Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats. No problems. I even put an up arrow to either use more weight not the RFE split squats next week or to do more reps.
"Respond and Take Action" is working.
Yesterday when I saw Chris, he said it was probably better that we couldn't see each other until now because it gave me more time to heal and said, "sure, on 1 hand; and on another I might have been more healed by now if I saw him earlier".
Tom Brady's Thumb Injury.
A while back as the Patriots were preparing to play in the AFC Championship against the Chiefs I believe, Tom tore his thumb down to the bone when, one of his teammates Rex Burkhead ran into his thumb. He had to have emergency surgery to save it.
Guess who played in the championship game and then won the super bowl. Yup. Good ole Tom.
You know what he did before and after surgery. He started getting very gentle massage and accupuncture and probably other things I don't know about. When he saw the surgeon before the game to remove some of the stitches that were messing with his feel of the ball, the surgeon couldn't believe how well he progressed in under a week. It's unheard of. Brady was 40. 40 year olds don't heal as quick as baby's, kids, teens and 20 year olds.
Brady responded and took action.
Take Home Message
If something bothers you. Don't "wait & see". Respond and Take Action!
And keep living your life and keep your training schedule as much as possible, modifying, substituting and going slower as needed. If you shut everything down, you're going to feel doubly awful. Your mood, your psyche, your spirit, your drive, your performance, your metabolism, everything is going to suffer. You've gotta find a way to keep going forward.
My Go To Treatment Resources
Chris Larson, Personal Trainer and Massage Therapist. Fitness Principles, Allston, MA, cell #617.935.1645. (text is the best way to reach him)
Barry Meklir, Manual Therapist (Massage Therapist & Physical Therapist), Muscular Solutions, Brookline, MA. Email @ barry@muscularsolutions.com, Call 617.566.8986.
Joint Ventures Physical Therapy. 1-on-1 physical therapy. My personal favorite. jointventurespt.com;
I go to Chris when I'm beat up, I go to Barry when there's a problem or I need a tune up and I go to joint ventures if it's a longer problem that I want to use a co-pay for vs. paying out of pocket. If I could do like Tom Brady, I'd see Barry & Chris multiple times per day, everyday like I did for my athletes when I practiced primarily as an Athletic Trainer.
And if you need a surgeon:
Dr. Thomas Gill is who did my meniscal surgery back in 2007 and I had a great experience with and outcome from and if my knee was more of a problem than it is, I'd reach out to our very own Dr. Joseph Kavoulas because he trains with us, so he speaks the language and understands. You can't get a more personal relationship with a doctor than if you get to train with him or get to train him.
Look. We all get 1 shot at life. You know and I know.
Don't wait & see. Respond and Take Action!
Make it count,
Coach Mike
