I thought things were going well with my ACL rehab, five months of heavy lifting, steadily progressing from the two-pound weights to the heavy weights.  I was steadily recovering from reconstructive ACL surgery.  My knee was beginning to feel great and so was my confidence.  

Finally, I went to the doctor and he cleared me to do anything I wanted to do in a controlled manner.  One restriction, he still wanted me to wait until I was fitted for and received a knee brace before I played any sports or rode my motorcycle.  The first thing I did, after ordering a brace, was I schedule an appointment with Jason.

Jason is a PT for the University of Utah football team.  If there is one thing this guy knows it is the physical conditioning needed to perform at championship level.  He has trained some of the best athletes in the country.  Every year, hopeful college football seniors go to him to get prepped for the NFL draft combine.  I don’t think I’ll get drafted this year, but who knows, maybe some team in Lithuania needs a middle-aged skinny, white guy with a bum knee to run out there and get the kicking tee after the kick-off.

I thought I was in shape.  Well, turns out that is not the case.  The workout, to say the least, kicked my ass.  I was hurting and it was just the warm-up.  I can’t believe the intensity of the basic stuff I was doing, and I wasn’t even using weights.  It wasn’t that the new stuff I was doing was so hard or heavy, but more, it was the fact that I had grown accustomed to working out (rehab) at a level somewhere in between a Sunday stroll in the park and water aerobics at the old-folks home. 

Welcome to the real rehab. After knee surgery, most people, if they have done any training at all, are at the point in their recovery where they stop their rehab or PT.   Granted, my knee was good enough to walk, run and play with my kid, but not good enough for the type of activity I enjoy. 

Why was I doing this to myself?  I should go buy some golf clubs.  The fact is of the matter is, I want to be able to forget about my knee.  I want it to be strong enough that I don’t have to think twice about it or think of a way to work around it.  I want to be able to crank on it with a motorcycle in the summer and skis in the winter. 

By doing rehab with Jason, I definitely moved up a level on the intensity and exertion scale. But, this is what I will have to do if I want my knee to be in the condition I need it to be in.  It proves a point that I make in the lesson of “The Funnel of Doubt, Fear and Pain.” As you get closer to completion of a major task, goal or become more skilled at something, the level of competition, the intensity of the work and your suffering increases.

I am definitely closer to having a 100% knee than I was a month ago.  I have, at least, six more months of ever increasingly difficult workouts and rehabs.  The conditioning is intense, because Jason expects a level of exertion that far exceeds the run-of-the-mill PT.  My intensity has increased three fold.  It is amazing how I became used to and lowered my standards to accommodate the rehab of a hurt knee. 

It is a great feeling going from being treated like a sick patient that just wants to be able to walk, run and jump, to an athlete who is expected to be able to do that as a minimum.  

I suffered through the warm-up and tried to pretend that it was not killing me.  My heart rate was probably near the max.  I was deep in the middle of “The Funnel of Doubt, Fear and Pain.” Being in the “Funnel” sucks, but at least you know you are on the right track. 

I’m sure you have seen the tee shirts with the big dog, guy, truck, monster or (fill in blank with something tough) on them.  “Pain is weakness leaving the body” I think I need to get one of those. 

When the session was over, he said “Good job, the knee looks strong and great and I’ll see you next time…by the way we will finish the other half of the workout next time.”  Cool.

Another step closer to riding my bike and being able to forget about the bad knee.