What’s been happening? I’ve been on holiday, which I assumed would make it easier to focus on my rehab exercises. That was my first mistake. With my daily routine disrupted like Chris Brown’s travel plans, I have actually been slightly less regular and predictable with my rehab program. I have still been doing my exercises as instructed, but have had less time/ opportunity to ride my bike. I am finding the new set of exercises a little uncomfortable as my knees feel weaker than the state of NSW rugby league, but am hoping this is just some adjustment pain that will go away with time, otherwise I’ll have to check back in with the physio. I was very excited to go for my first bushwalk, which involved a little bit of climbing. The climbing parts reminded me that there are positions that the knee is still not ready to bear too much weight, but it was nice to have the freedom of movement I did. Training
Pretty much every day I do a set of leg exercises that have been set for me (at physio instruction I now take the occasional rest day). These exercises are predominantly variants of squats and lunges and I have to admit I am finding them a lot more difficult than the last set of exercises I was set. On the plus side, the whole routine, takes less time so I have more time to do a bit of upper body or core to balance things out. I ran the full 20km I am allowed to this week, but didn’t bother to try to increase my speed. I only did about 90km of riding- which I expect to increase next week. I am finding that the hardest part of my training is a very passive exercise in which I sit with my leg straight and my foot on a chair for five minutes, to help straighten out my leg. There is nothing strenuous or uncomfortable about it, but I have found it difficult to remember to do daily. Progress Not much to report here other than successfully completing my first bush walk- which was still awesome. Running and riding still feel pretty good but I haven’t pushed myself in either. I still get momentary pain and discomfort when my leg accidentally moves through certain positions, but I like to think this is decreasing in frequency and intensity. Lesson of the week Just because something doesn’t seem difficult or strenuous doesn’t mean it isn’t important. I’m going to be much more deliberate in setting aside time to work on straightening my leg every day from now on. I guess a related issue I need to be more aware of is the temptation to drop the intensity of my rehabilitation efforts now that my level of impairment is almost nothing (or at least normal). It has become so much easier to put off important parts of rehabilitation- such as leg straightening- until the next day, in a way I would have found unthinkable a month ago. I don’t want to spoil the hard work I have already done by not finishing my recovery properly (you can’t rush a big finish).
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So as mentioned elsewhere, having done myself a pretty significant injury recently, I feel I am making some really good progress towards being healthy and a number of people have said they enjoyed the previous article. While it seems that the word, 'inspiration,' now belongs to people who post nearly naked photos posing on instagram, I hope this page can continue to be helpful to others. I thought I would keep a bit of a weekly journal of my continued journey (I cringed a little bit as I typed that word, thinking of how often it is used by reality tv contestants), including the progress I am making week to week, the work I am doing towards said progress and my observations of how things are going.
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