In 2017 I decided to try a new sport, I had spent the previous 4 years training for bodybuilding and had become bored, I needed something to spark my interest again. After some intense google searching through the different sports that were available in my area, I came across something called Strongman.
I hired the first coach I spoke with and was ready to dive head first into this new adventure! I paid the gym and trainer fee’s, set up a schedule for me to come to the gym to train because if you don’t know much about the sport, the equipment is pretty specific and generally isn’t found in regular everyday gyms.
I was one month into my new Strongman training with my coach, we were finishing up for the day when he had asked me to do just one more quick exercise. Run 60ft with 175# keg. Now I know the type of equipment sounds funny but kegs are used quite frequently in the sport.
I repeatedly told my coach that I was not physically strong enough to carry that much weight yet (I was still new to strength training) but he insisted. I picked the keg up the best I could and waddled down the run way. When I managed to make it to the end my grip failed me and I dropped the keg which caused the keg to fall back into my knee and hyper extended it.
I didn’t know at the time but I had torn my ACL almost 100%. 7 months after the injury happened, I had my first ever knee surgery.
My surgeon and I decided an Allograft would be the best choice for me with what I was trying to achieve with my athletics. Allograft tendon is a cadaver tendon.
The surgeons say an ACL recovery is 6 to 9 months but they don’t take into account different age and athletic backgrounds.
I remember walking into my physical therapist office and they handed me a sheet that had all the exercises listed for me to do and they were the same thing they would give a 60 or 70 years old person with no athletic background.
At my 3 month check up my surgeon had ordered me to stop going to my physical therapist because I was so far behind in progressing that he believed I could of done better on my own. My surgeon was right!
At 6 months post op, I competed in a strongman competition and placed 3rd in my class
Throughout my recovery, I was always struggled to extend my leg the way I did previous to surgery. I tried multiple times to explain this to my physical therapist and surgeon and each time they would respond back to me saying this was completely normal.
The surgeon and PT claimed that over time, the tendon they had put into my knee will eventually “stretch” out and not feel so tight within my knee.
For 8 months I walked with a constant limp, not due to pain but because my knee would physically not let me straighten my leg to the fullest causing one leg to be shorter than the other.
At 8 months post op, I was at strongman training when I was doing an exercise that required I go onto the tip of my toes and the moment I did….snap, my ACL tore again.
Stay tuned for part 2
