Who hasn’t had the case of the Mondays before?? You had such a fun weekend – whether you were busy spending it with friends or running errands and catching up on much needed family time or just taking some time to recharge, it was great! And now, its Monday. Back to the grind, back to having to really wake up to your alarm clock, and back to having to manage how to balance everything in a few hours before/after work in order to make sure you have time to work out, run errands, take care of kids, take care of yourself, oh and get those recommended 8 hours of sleep! Mondays have been tough recently (along with other mornings), all rooted with my current knee situation. I’ve been active my whole life and can’t imagine my life without it! I tried many sports before landing on soccer, running, and ballet while growing up. Over the years, I also golf, play tennis and ski. As I’ve gotten older and busier, working out in a constant in my life and so important for my mental, emotional, and physical health. I noticed very quickly that getting up early puts me in a good mental space to take on the day – even if I have to guilt trip myself into getting out of bed before its a normal waking-up time. I’m addicted to how it makes me feel. I love the feeling of getting stronger. I love the time for myself to sweat it out and think through whatever is in my head. It makes me sleep better, eat healthier, and makes me more energetic.
I tore my ACL back in 2013 while skiing and almost immediately had reconstructive surgery. From that point on I’ve been determined to get back to my pre-injury intensity level. I was the best PT patient, always doing my exercises. After doing a good amount of PT, trying dry needling (you don’t want to know), doing intense sports therapy massages, I’ve seen my share of medical professionals. And then a little over a month ago, all of sudden I had sharp pains in my knee – to the point that I couldn’t walk properly and I didn’t even feel safe driving b/c it was so painful to move my left from the pedal to the brake. I knew that wasn’t good.
Since then I have had to cut back majorly on my exercising, to limit the joint movement and try to give my knee time to rest. I had an MRI the other week and am seeing the ortho next week. I honestly cannot wait to hear what the plan is. Right now, I miss my daily intense workouts! For cardio, I basically can only go for walks. I do a bunch of ab exercises and have been getting really creative with my cross training (hello biceps), but I just miss my cardio. I miss doing sprints. I miss the annoying stair stepper. I miss rowing even (well kinda)! I find myself struggling to get out of bed and do any workout b/c I know I’m going to be frustrated with all I can’t do. I’m struggling to feel good about when I will be able to get back to exercising fully without knowing a plan. I don’t think I need surgery, but I don’t know what exercises will get this knee back to working properly.
What I’m trying to focus on through all of this is being thankful. I want, I need to be positive. I’m thankful to have two legs that allow me to walk, move around, drive, jump (kinda). I’m lucky. I’m lucky to have my health, to have my limbs, a strong heart, and energy to continue to be active. I know this may sound cheesy, but I personally need to stop and realize how lucky I am. I need to be sure I remind myself that. I appreciate everything I have. I’m lucky and I’m thankful. Maybe if you’re going through something similar, this will help you. Every day I try to take a couple minutes to think through this and it really does help to put everything into perspective.
I’ll keep everyone updated about my knee situation…but until then, I need to do more research into additional exercises i can do with my knee!
-A