From Knee Injury to 400 Pounds: What I Learned Along the Way
Hurting my knee was the gift I didn’t know I wanted.
Back in 2015 I had ignored some pain signals and did the easy, “train through it,” take. Until the pain was so severe that I could barely squat 75 pounds.. For context, I had been getting closer to squatting 400 pounds prior.
It was a gift because it showed me that I would have to dig deeper and find what caused the problem. I sought out a Physical therapist to “fix” me. I had a belief that they would treat my knee and after 4-5 visits, I would be healed and ready to pick up where I had left off.
Unfortunately for me, that was not the case. The pain was more manageable and I did havea diagnosis to use for my research. The pain was still there though.
In my digging, I went through multiple training programs, read academic books, and took courses. I gained a denser understanding of what was going on. The symptom had to be caused by something. If I could figure out what that was, then I could prevent this from happening again.
Finally hitting 405#
I did end up squatting over 400 pounds a few years later. The pain was pretty much gone. But then I started having low back and hip flexor pain.
The pain and overall limitation from this pushed me even deeper into understanding what was going on. I started looking specifically at the experts in the movement fields. I read their posts, watched their videos, and took their courses.
Fast forward to 2024, I did the myokinematic restoration course from PRI. This connected the dots (finally haha) to what caused my knee pain back in 2015.
The gift of hurting my knee gave me the desire to understand what caused the pain from the beginning. From there I learned as much as I possibly could to understand pain, injury, rehab, preventive exercises, progressions, mobility, stability, recovery, biomechanics, kinesiology, etc…
Now when I see people who are struggling with pain and not moving freely, I have to help them. I know how they feel but it doesn’t have to be that way!
The body can be rebuilt. The imagined future of wrestling with your kids or grandkids, traveling, playing sports again, and enjoying the gift of movement can be for most people who are in pain right now!
If you know anyone that fits this description, connect me with them.
Let’s get everyone back to moving again!
Left leg atrophy after my injury