I have been going to the gym and trying different exercises. In addition to the exercise bike I also started doing a few baby deadlifts and squats:
I have been using my leg more and more. I rarely use my leg brace anymore.
I started using the exercise bike a little bit. This is probably my favorite rehab exercise. It makes my knee feel so good.
So that’s the good stuff. Now on to the bad stuff.
The Flu From Hell
Backstory: So my body has been used to lying in bed for 15-20 hours per day.
On Wednesday I decided it’s time for me to go back to work. I am a personal trainer and boot camp instructor (I don’t have to do the exercises while my knee is messed up).
I worked Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. Everything seemed to be going OK. Then on Friday morning I felt very nauseous. And pretty much spent the whole day puking my guts out.
I took a pic while in the midst of the flu from hell.
What felt even worse was the body ache from the flu. I felt a deep pain in my joints/bones. Both knees, neck, back, shoulders. Everything hurt. I couldn’t be still. I kept moving around because the pain was intense.
It was at this point that I felt mentally broken. The combination of my usual post-surgery knee pain + nausea + bone/joint pain from the flu = Mike mentally breaks.
Just because I temporarily had a mental break doesn’t mean I remain broken. Just like working out. You break down the muscle and it adapts and heals back stronger. I feel the same is happening here.
2x Olympic gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko said that his sports psychologist told him that he must continually break himself mentally in training in order to reach new levels. I feel the same thing happened with me.
Unfortunately my girlfriend who was sick and then got healthy is now sick again with the same flu. She’s actually mentally tougher than me. I was complaining a lot more.
On top of the flu bullshit I ended up getting a parking ticket for what I felt like was a stupid reason. I was really pissed when I saw the ticket and punched my car really hard. That was dumb.
My middle knuckle is still a bit swollen.
Well, fuck. That was 3 weeks since surgery. A bunch of bad shit happened. We survived. We’re moving forward.
The week ended on a good note. Got to see my parents’ dog.