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Usually an injury doesn’t get me too excited, but when I got the go ahead to try physical therapy for my stubborn leg a small bit of happiness lifted my spirits. I thought, “physical therapy, well that’s like exercise, right? Maybe this is my chance to get back to a semi-habitual workout routine. All I need are the ‘right’ kind of exercises”. So I thought a physical therapist would be perfect for this. As soon as I have the right types of exercises, all I need to do is work on those until my flexibility is back to normal.
With the help from my knowledgeable and athletic therapist who happened to be a friend from church, I was on my way to the next step. I was so glad at this point to finally get help from someone who cared about my condition and had a true passion for figuring out the solution to my problem.
I started off doing daily stretches, ultrasound therapy, range of motion tests and a few leg muscle strengthening exercises. Because of my history, anything involving working out muscle did not include less than 20lb of weight. Especially when it came to leg days. This had a real impact on my daily activity and gave me a new sense of humbleness in the gym. No longer was I loading up 45lb plates. Instead I replaced squats and lunges with rubber bands, cable machines, or just my own body weight. In addition to strengthening at the gym I pursued at least 5-6 stretches every morning after waking up and every day before bed. At the time, therapy was helping. I really, truly think it did help. I was learning new techniques and properly recovering lost muscle. However, after several months I hit a plateau. I could bend my knees but I still couldn’t kneel and just the thought of sitting in a position with my lower legs under me brought fear into my heart.
