Injury Update

Surgery has happened.

According to the MRI I had a torn lateral meniscus, it didn't show any other damage to the ACL or any other ligaments which is a major bonus.
So this led to arthroscopic (keyhole) surgery to fix it. The doctor had told me that they would either repair the meniscus, or if the damage was too severe they would remove part of it.
The repercussions of each:
Repair - Long ass rehab to allow the meniscus to fully repair before strengthening the knee and the quads, hamstrings etc. Better in the long run as I should have a fully functioning knee again.
Removal - Much quicker rehab as there is less recovery time to allow repair, BUT a much higher chance of osteo-arthritis in the knee in later life.

Let's be honest - I've been playing sport since I was 7, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to be riddled with arthritis when I'm older anyway, so I was asking them to do the removal so I can get back to my best quicker, BUT I suppose I should be looking at the long terms and at the positives.

So now I'm in a leg brace that limits my range of movement - I can go to full extension (I can't quite get there yet, still a bit of pain at the bottom of my patella when I try), but can only flex or bend through to 90 degrees at the knee (I've reached it a few times, which is a massive positive as I couldn't do that pre-surgery).

The plan now is to where this brace for 6 weeks, then on to rehab. I'm hoping that coming from a sporting background and a higher training base than the average guy will help me to rehab faster but I am definitely not going to skimp on it. I don't really want this to happen again as it's been a pain in the arse - especially with the Internship at Harlequins. It's kind of stopped me from being so hands on which is absolutely killing me as I want to be as involved as possible to learn as much as I can and allow myself the best chance for progression.

So there we go - that's the injury update.

Cheers for reading.

Rob.

Injury

So training has been going really well lately - particularly the squat which has been making fantastic progress.

But unfortunately I have some bad news in the fact that I have injured my left knee. I went down to a rugby training session and out of the blue when I was standing up from the floor after carrying the ball my left knee popped and then locked up.
This had happened to me before - first time back in March 2013 when doing some MMA with Jon Bradley in Worcester but it popped straight back in and gave me no further issues. Since then it has happened once but again it went straight back.
Unfortunately this time it didn't go back in to place. I went down to A&E and had three people cranking at it trying to manipulate it back into place. This was hands down the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Thinking back to it now makes my ties curl. Horrific. But they couldn't get it back straight - it's much closer than it was but I still can't get to full extension and it also hurts to bend my knee.
I stayed in overnight had a couple of scans etc and then got sent home with a budget knee brace. Less than ideal.

So now I've had an MRI as well and am awaiting my next appointment with the consultant this coming Friday and yes told me to go in fasted to be prepared for surgery to repair my torn meniscus and cartilage.

Now this has obviously put my training back, in particular lower body. But one of my colleagues at Quins has put me on his 6-week bench program for lower body injury players. Its essentially bench press twice a week and then close grip bench once as well. This way it keeps me off my knee but still let's me make some kind of progress. It is a percentage based system and should have me hitting 160 by the end which will be a 15kg PR.

Definitely be keen to have a 160 bench. Then once my recovery is done it will be on to rehab and then back to squats etc. Makes me think that's its basically time to settle and just get focused on the career, and train for enjoyment and performance but not really for any particular sport. I would help however like to start doing more Olympic weightlifting so maybe that can be used as my base and build off that with regular strength training. I'd also like go get back to doing more stuff like farmers walks, prowler etc. I enjoy that stuff and it has always reaped rewards for me.

Anyway there's the update for you all.

Til next time.