My Sports Rehab Story: Physio, #GTFOOTG (Convict Conditioning) & Yoga!? Part 2
So just over a year ago I hung up my beloved red shorts. My body had had enough. I had to stop pushing. Pure love of the game just wasn't enough anymore.
Let's recap. I went into greater detail in Part 1, but in October 2012 I sprained the talofibular and deltoid ligaments in my left foot playing basketball [1]. In February 2013, during my little cat and mouse game playing defense in soccer, I created a 2x6x10cm tear in my left quad. That really wasn't enough for me to fully listen to my body. Sometime during the fall of 2013, while playing soccer, I sprained my right abductor as a result of a pelvic uplift. That's right, my entire lower body shifted down to the right to compensate for what I had done, or more importantly hadn't done. So I learned the hard way that the half-assed stretching and nonexistent prehab and conditioning I was doing just wasn't good enough.
I was doing physio exercises before, but I finally went and took the referral to see Dr. Mackie at LifeMark Sport Medicine at the Richmond Olympic Oval. He hooked me up with the physiotherapist Stefan Iorio. It was a very humbling process, but it needed to be done if I was ever to get back to the sports I love. It was holding me back socially and physically. I had invested so much time and energy into my favourite crafts and it was taken away by my own stubbornness. I wasn't managing my time or listening to my body properly.
Quite fortuitously my new employer has an athletic therapist and student of osteopathy come in to the office biweekly. This is when I met Jen Hanson of Ora Sport Therapy, the most ridiculously awesome therapist that works her "voodoo magic" on me all with a smile on her face. Her words not mine. Dreamy. She's my first; athletic therapist that is. Probably will be my last too, because she's just that good. Serious.
Just so we're clear I do have my First Lady... but I'm getting sidetracked.
I was doing Bikram before, but I was forced to look to a different studio and found the gorgeous Bikram Yoga Commercial Drive Studio. The people there are truly fantastic. It's become a second home for me, a place of refuge. So after discussing things with my team and applying some of those engineering principles I came to the realization (other people knew this all along... I was just ignorant of the implications) that the body is all connected! My ankle woes threw off the loading on my left side and tearing my rectus femoris made things worse. It impacted my right side badly. I started to feel it in my lower back too. My right femur was also just not in the right place... my right foot was slightly turned out as a result too. It was only partly love of the game that was driving me at this point. I was in pain all the time.
No. I started working harder than ever before. I have a calendar where I write down what I do everyday to rehab. If I see a gap of days I'll kick myself and dig in some more to get myself back on track. I think of Derrick Rose as a source of inspiration. I take it one day at a time.
I had to Derrick Rose the knee up before I got the re-up/
Yours truly, the boy/
I just build and build more, y'all niggas build to destroy/
Y'all niggas party too much, man, I just chill and record/
No filler, you feel it now if you ain't feel it before.
Yes Lord... this the shit I want to go out to...
Drake - Furthest Thing [2]
Now all the stretching, and manipulations (*wink) in the world aren't going to fix a 2x6x10cm tear in my quad so I started biking to work. I tried it once on a Friday after being inspired by my First Lady biking all over Vancouver. I jumped for joy like a kid when I made it to work the first time. Yeahhh biking is pretty awesome, so I try to do it on the regular now. I do the 17km ride in about 46 minutes. That's right Google Maps, I love you but I'm shitting all over your projected 1 hour and 7 minutes. Commuter biking is awesome, especially here in Vancouver, and there are ways to take it to the next level, but that's material for another post like this one, Awesome Idea #3008 [3].
I've restarted my childhood love-affair with biking. I'm just a wie bit taller now than the days in Mississauga, so I was due for an upgrade. While Tumbler1 was getting her rear tire fixed by the good people at the Bike Doctor, we began "The Build". A bike that seemingly had my name all over it. It was once viewed as an outcast, impossible to sell. A partially modified Devinci Copenhagen. Drop handlebars. Aggressive tires. The Good Doctor switched out the seat post to accommodate for these long legs of mine. Pedals that go both ways, you clippin' in today? Accessories well suited for all season riding. That's right, we're talking fenders. It took me a little while to turn over a new leaf and accept them, but they are functional and oh so sexy. OH my the locks! Bike, wheel and seat. All kissed with some extra TLC. Complexity and aggression paired with simplicity and beauty. On February 14, #Tumbler2 was presented to the world [4].
Now beyond the smiling face, I've recently have been going through some "speedbumps" which has resulted in a cumulative hiccup in life/work. I know about the mental health benefits of exercise so I've tried to exercise more to cope [5]. Physio exercises in the morning, some commuter biking sprinkled in with Bikram. Completely unintentionally I discovered mindfulness for myself. Here's a hilarious video on how they've cultivated mindfulness into on of my favourite company's cultures; that's right, back to my love, Google [6]. The popular course has been distilled into a book called "Search Inside Yourself" [7]. A little while back I had the pleasant pleasure of seeing Victor Chan, bff of the Dalai Lama speak at TEDxVancouver on how "You never know where the day will take you" [8]. Back in my life, I feel like a fearless, selfless, leader sometimes, a super hero!
I'm pretty much pain free now, just need to work on my right side a bit more now. The killer standing bow pose helps tremendously. Lots of room for improvement on the strength and flexibility side, so onto the next phase which is tentatively called #GTFOOTG.
What's #GTFOOTG you ask? A couple close ones and I call it GET THE F OUT OF THE GYM. Ah, it feels good not to have to whisper about it anymore. If it's not managed properly weight training can have negative impacts on your joints. Don't even get the First Lady started on crossfit [9]. You can end up jacked and in pain, say when you need to cut laterally in the real world. Or bend over to pick up your dirty laundry. Oftentimes we ignore training actually useful muscles and fall prey to our vanity (ie: Reckless skipped leg day douchebag) So after a friend recommended it to me I bought a book called Convict Conditioning [10]. Pretty gangster right? That's some straight James Johnson stuff right there:
"Man I made a euro move and I banged into his shoulder...That was nasty right, I cocked that joint back and banged on em" [11]
So with the assistance or guidance? of my First Lady and channeling a few ounces of the resiliency and work ethic that Jay Demerit #WhitecapsCaptainForLife displayed [12]. We'll be crafting out a program that:
Sooo yeah. Red shorts. Coming to a gym or pitch near you in 2015.
You can call your mom to remove my nuts from your face.
Just kiddingg... looks around sheepishly :)
Lil' Ye's Workout Plan. courtesy of Ali Graham.
But most importantly, at the end of the day, once we overcome, those that get hurt the most come back the strongest.
The next milestone is tomorrow! Sunday March 1st, I will be climbing the 48 storeys of the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel for the 14th Annual Climb The Wall: Stairclimb for Clean Air. Proceed go to the BC Lung Association [13]. The money we raise will contribute to medical research, asthma education, clean air initiatives, and programs to help young people live tobacco free, a better place.
[1] My Sports Rehab Story: Physio, Weight Training & Yoga!? Part 1. The Pursuit of a Life of Purpose. Jerome Arthur.
[2] Furthest Thing. Nothing Was the Same. Drake
[3] Awesome Idea #3008 - Road License Part 1. The Pursuit of a Life of Purpose. Jerome Arthur.
[4] Hello World. Twitter. @JeromeAthur
[5] What Happens to Our Brains When We Exercise and How it Makes Us Happier. Fast Company. Leo Widrich.
[6] Chade-Meng Tan: "Search Inside Yourself", Authors at Google. Talks At Google.
[7] Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace). Chade-Meng Tan.
[8] You Never Know Where Your Day Will Take You. TEDxVancouver. 2014 #TILT. Victor Chan.
[9] CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret. Everyone has an uncle they'd rather you not meet. Medium. Eric Robertson.
[10] Convict Conditioning: How to Bust Free of All Weakness - Using the Lost Secrets of Supreme Survival Strength. Paul Wade.
[11] The Dunk. The Interview. NBA. James Johnson.
[12] Are you ready for your sunny day? TEDxVancouver. 2014 #TILT. Jay DeMerit.
[13] Climb The Wall. BC Lung Association: 48 Storeys to Glory. Jerome Arthur's Donation Page.
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