In this blog, I want to share with you how two injuries put a stop to all my athletic training; and how growth mindset and mental imagery helped me make a full recovery.
During this time I put into practice a lot of what I had learned from personal development and psychology, and what I used really helped me stay focused and optimistic about the future.
Whether you want to lose weight, or you're currently recovering from injuries, or you have other physical health and fitness goals; your mindset and how you use mental imagery will play a big part in your success (whether you're aware of it or not).
I hope you'll be able to take some inspiration and insight from my story, which also serves as part of my 'expert story positioning'...
One morning I woke up with a severe pain in my right knee. It came out of nowhere, and I had no idea what the problem was...
All I knew was that I could no longer bend my leg without a reservoir of pain building up at the joint, and straightening it released a focused flood of agony that only subsided for as long as I could keep my leg from bending again.
Not ideal.
I soon found out that I had patella tendinopathy. For one reason or another, the tendon in my right knee had become diseased and the result was a pain that very rarely let up.
I remember a couple of years after the diagnoses I was at a theme park with friends riding in bumper cars (dodgems) -- one direct hit from another car lurched me forward and my knee whacked into the rim of my car in the exact spot where the problem was.
That was one of the most painful things I have ever experienced.
For three years I tried physiotherapy, acupuncture, and a treatment called hydro-stripping; which involves a solution being injected into the tendon to remove the painful nerve ends.
All of them gave me some relief, but there was always the inevitable relapse that followed.
For three years stairs were the bane of my life, which for someone with athletic goals was a big blow!
I grew up loving the gym and exercise.
My dad was a bodybuilder and athlete in South Africa, and I spent a lot of time during my teenage years learning and practicing weight training. I learned from top professionals online and offline, and I was quick to put into practice what they shared.
I ate nutrient dense foods. I learned about supplements. I wrote detailed workout plans and logged my weights. I mixed high intensity interval training with split-routines. I played football and rugby. I went to spinning classes and circuit training. And over the months and years I was able to see clearly that I was getting stronger, bigger, fitter, and faster.
All in all, my training level got to be pretty high.
Before my knee injury, there was no change in my desire to play sport and reach high levels of athletic performance. I had goals I wanted to achieve, so not being able to train my legs properly was a big blow.
After 3 years without successful treatment, the muscles in my legs had all but faded away. I finally decided that if my knee was going to be fucked for the foreseeable future, I had to just do whatever leg strength training I could to start the process of restoring balance in my body.
What I didn’t realize at the time was just how weak my lower body had become. Three years had left them in need of more TLC than my frustration (and current knowledge) offered.
A few months after I started training my legs again, I woke up with a pain I hadn't felt before...
It wasn't a muscle pain. It wasn't something with a joint or ligament. It wasn't a tendon...it felt like there was a knot inside my left butt cheek that I couldn't loosen.
And it was killing me!
After a couple of days without any change, I went to the hospital and had an MRI.
The verdict was I had herniated the L4/5 disc in my lower spine, and the fluid was pressing against my sciatic nerve causing the pain I felt.
Again, not ideal!
SOURCE: https://www.howtogetridofsciatica.com/bulging-disc-l4-l5-symptoms-and-treatment/
So now I had a right knee that I couldn’t use, and a left leg that would barely allow me to walk, stand, or sit.
There was no other option now. The last resort had to be used...
Surgery.
As I like to do, I tried to make the best out of the situation. I figured that if I was going to use surgery to deal with one problem, I might as well use the recovery time for my knee too.
So, in late 2014 I had surgery on my knee to remove the diseased tendon...
6 weeks later I had surgery on my back to remove the herniation...
And yeah...I was out for the count!
For 12 weeks I lay in bed while all the remaining muscle and strength I had gradually faded away.
To make matters worse, four weeks after my second surgery I started getting a pain in my leg that was 10 times more intense than before! The only relief I got (aside from the STROOOOONG painkillers I was given) was lying curled in the fetal position, knees tucked to my chest.
Considering I had only had knee surgery two months earlier, this position was not ideal for recovery!
I felt like I was at square (minus) one with my body, and all this uncertainty brought up many questions that put my imagination into overdrive:
What was life going to be like in the future? What would the outcome of my surgeries be? Would I be able to walk? What would happen if I needed more surgery?
And this is where my mindset came into play, big time!....
MINDSET
A mindset is collection of mostly unchanging beliefs and attitudes that influence your regular thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. They are formed as you experience and learn about life, and while mindsets can change, the word 'mindset' refers to a mental outlook that is (at time of reporting), 'set' in an individual.
One of the most talked about mindsets is the 'growth mindset'. Someone with this mindset has a set of beliefs that help them respond to failure in positive ways; to face challenges with an attitude conducive to learning; and to keep focusing on the progress they are making.
It's a good one to have, when it comes to health and fitness - I've got it!
This mindset allowed me to reflect on the situation I was in and know that, no matter what, it wasn't over...this would not be the end of my story!
I knew for 100% sure that there were thousands of people who had been in much worse positions than me, and they were still able to become incredible athletes! There are Olympians with lost limbs, bodybuilders with no arms, and rugby players in wheelchairs – and so I decided that no matter the outcome of my surgeries, there was no way I was going to give up on my health and body, and there was certainly no way I was going to give up on something I truly loved.
I didn’t know how I was going to get there YET, but I knew that when I achieved it, I would have grown in countless positive ways.
This mindset made a massive a difference to what I imagined life being like in the future...
MENTAL IMAGERY
I remember lying in bed and picturing in my mind being in a wheelchair, surrounded by fellow athletes and friends, with a big smile on my face...
I loved it!
My mindset allowed me to form a mental picture of being happy and healthy, and I knew (one way or another) I could get there; even if I was wheelchair bound for the rest of my life, I could still keep my identity as a strong, fit, healthy person.
I could still 100% could be the person I wanted to be.
If I had focused my mind on everything I couldn't change, or on things that kept me from beginning with the first step...the image in my mind would not have been the same.
I felt certain that my health and happiness wasn't dependent on the outcome of these surgeries...it was dependent on me. And that meant I could begin picturing myself doing the things I needed to do in order to return my body to good physical condition.
Forming the picture in my mind of what I was going to do, how it would feel, and who I was going to become by doing it - meant that I could be patient and appreciate the process of getting there.
(You can read more about mental imagery in sport here. The article also includes references to the PETTLEP model of mental imagery.)
Thankfully, the pain from both surgeries eventually subsided, and I soon began to focus on simple things I could do each day to aid my recovery (body weight movements and water aerobics were a big part of my new training).
Thanks to muscle memory, the knowledge and experience I had with bodybuilding, and a very, very strong dedication to doing the work; around 18 months after my back injury, I was back in shape. I had also built a good foundation with my leg and lower back strength, which has been instrumental in getting myself back running and playing sports again.
I think you can tell by now that my motivation for training my body goes beyond physical appearance (although I am very grateful for the good genes - thanks Dad!); I really just want you to see that that by focusing my mind on learning to be the person I would be happy being (whatever the results of the surgeries were), I was able to reach goals that would not have been possible otherwise.
I had never recovered from surgeries like this before.
I didn’t know how to do it safely and effectively.
But I knew it was possible, and I knew I could learn.
LEARNING MINDSET
Here's what I want to leave you with: Your current ability or knowledge should never be the reason for you to not set ambitious goals for yourself.
No matter what goals you have for your health, fitness, diet etc., you must know that you've learned stuff before, and you can learn things again.
Focus on what you really want. What would be the dream result? Picture yourself there, and feel what it would be like.
Really.
Your goal should be to get back to that feeling by practicing being able to do what you really want.
If there is something telling you that you cannot make a change, or that it’s too late, or you’re too old, or anything else….then I hope my Learning Myths Busted PDF will help refresh your mindset, and get you moving forward. It's free and you don't need to enter your email address to download it.
