I’m currently in week 10 of a 12 week strength block. For roughly the first 6 weeks my lifts were progressing well, heck, even my gymnastics were getting better! Then, mid-week 6, I did something to my knee (if you’ve read my other posts, you’ll know all about it – fear not, I’m not going to rehash it!).

Four weeks on and my knee is a whole lot better; significantly better than I would have expected in what is a reasonably short period of time. Despite physically healing well, I found myself with what I’ve come to think of as a pretty big ‘mental scar’ from the knee ‘incident’. I found myself thinking ‘what if my knee goes?’, ‘what if it happens again?’, ‘what if it’s worse’? I worried about twisting my knee (which I managed to do on a bench in the middle of a client session – not a good idea!), I worried about someone hitting my knee (which the postman just about managed when I came around a blind corner); far far too many things were viewed as presenting a ‘clear and present danger’ to my knee. I guess you could say I was walking around with a great deal of ‘what if baggage’.

In addition to said baggage, I found myself getting frustrated about the injury, how it was limiting my training and not allowing me to develop as much strength as possible during the few remaining weeks of the strength block. Then it occurred to me, I am developing strength, just not in the way or form I’d originally expected.

Being the highly motivated, competitive sort that I am, my natural inclination would be to try to push through the pain. In this instance, I soon realised that doing so would only extend the recovery process, possibly even doing more damage. Needless to say, the few weeks of not doing any lower body exercises took a lot of strength – I found myself developing a pretty bad case of ‘squat envy’ – even of the 1/4 squatters!

Similarly, doing my mobility work was (and is) an absolute, not something to do ‘if I have time’. Yeah, I’d much rather spend more time squatting than grinding a roller or lacrosse ball into my glutes, but no mobility will impact future training; swapping the power rack for the lacrosse ball has definitely taken some resolve.

Lastly, and I think most importantly, I’ve come to realise that I have both the mental and physical strength to deal with whatever my body throws at me. Yes, dealing with the knee ‘thing’ has been annoying and frustrating, but, I’ve faced it, and am dealing with it. I’m in the process of working my way back and beyond where I was. I’m doing what I (in consultation with a few other folks who are far smarter than me!)think makes sense, there’s plenty of time, no need to rush (or get hyper-competitive!!). By realising I’m able to deal with whatever comes my way, the ‘what if baggage’ just got a whole lot lighter. Think I may have just hit a mental PB!