Episode 92 | Showing Up in ACL Rehab

What’s up guys? Short one today, all about showing up. I am currently coming off the edge of being sick. I have lost my voice over the weekend from coaching and all these other pieces as well as being sick, and I’m still not 100%. I apologize for the change in tonation. But here we are. We’re going to keep it short and to the point. And I wanted this to be a little bit of a learning lesson. 

One of my goals with this podcast is to make sure I show up every week for you. And I’m not stopping this week. That made me think about today’s episode showing up in your ACL rehab. I remember there were many different days during my two ACL recoveries where I did not want to show up, whether that was for PT or for the rehab things that I needed to do on my own. I just wanted to stay at home and not do anything. And it was probably because I was maybe tired or had some sort of setback, maybe my expectations didn’t match up to the timeline or frankly, I might’ve just been burned out. And it’s a long process. I know all of you listening to this, you’re like, yes, it’s so long. I feel like I’m in rehab purgatory constantly, like working on my knee and it’s not going as perfectly as I want it to. And so I completely feel you here. The number of times that I just wanted to be like, yeah, I’m done. We’re countless, honestly. But it’s one of those things where my goal was more important than how I currently felt.

And honestly, today, I didn’t feel 100% to do this. And it could have just been easy to just skip the week. But now that I’m doing it, I actually feel better. I don’t feel that bad and I can get through it, and you guys show up for me, so I’m going to make sure I show up for you. I want this to serve as a reminder to all of you out there who are going through the ACL process—show up. That does not mean you have to be at your 100% to show up. Sometimes that isn’t even your 70%. Sometimes it’s literally just showing up and proving to yourself that you can. 

And I think one thing to point out here that we have talked about in previous episodes is your expectations. And with any of our athletes, we talk about expectations and framing your expectations in this process, knowing that it is not going to be linear. It’s not going to be this perfect line from point A to point B. It’s going to have these ups and downs. It’s going to go backward some, it’ll drop some. And that’s just a normal part of this, as well as anything really related to life. We’re not going to be able to control some of our life things that happen.

Stress, emergencies, changes in just lifestyle, sickness, all of these things, we’re not going to be able to 100% control these factors. But what we can do is reframe our expectations to make sure that doesn’t impact our mindset negatively. If we are able to prepare for things like this and know that things will come up, then that helps us to be able to inform our mindset to make sure we’re actionable, we’re prepared for it. That we’re not let down by any type of circumstance. That’s the main thing that helps with setting the expectations. And there’s no athlete that we’ve worked with that hasn’t had life get in the way. There’s no one we expect to have 100% on training or the energy they show up with or completion.

Do we expect consistency in communication? Absolutely. But even if you aim for 80% consistency. And you know it’s going to ebb and flow, that’s completely fine. The goal is to make sure that we’re slowly moving the needle. At the end of the day, you are not going to change this process in one day, a week, or even a month for that matter. But it is about stacking up that consistency over time and making sure that you show up when you can. And oftentimes when you do show up, you end up feeling better than you did versus if you didn’t show up. And what I mean by that, is you might just need to go through some of the movements on your day. It might just be getting out and going for a walk as your recovery or your rehab for the day. It might be showing up and giving it your all to a training session and your ACL rehab for that day. 

Some reminders for you guys: Every day will not always be 100%. And that is okay. Make sure that you are controlling your controllables and the things that you can’t control. Make sure to shift whatever that is beating you down about it. And making sure you can move on to what you can control. Keep those expectations in check. I think that’s one of the number one things in this process that will help you to know, okay, if you’re waiting—and let’s say you’re early in the process and your rehab protocol says you’re going to be running at three months. This is a classic one we see all the time. And you get to your three-month mark which is where most physical therapists would probably- if you asked 10 physical therapists when can you return to run? The majority of them would say at three months. When really time is only a proxy for getting ready to run. So that is one piece of the process. But the thing is, is that many athletes are not ready to return at three months. And I would argue that benefit more from being able to delay in order to build more strength, not aggravate the knee, and then also have the best biomechanics to run more efficiently. And that is something that if your rehab protocol is telling you this and you expect three months and let’s say your knee’s still grumpy and you can’t get there, you’re going to be super frustrated.

I mentioned this before. But if you work a job where you’re expecting to get paid $100 and you only get paid $10, you’re going to be pretty upset. Being able to make sure that that is anchored to things that are important and that are criteria versus time, and also being able to make sure we reframe that and know that this process is not perfect. It’s not going to be linear. 

And the biggest thing today that I want you to take away is to show up. Even if you don’t want to try to do something. And it’s okay if it’s not 100%, but just show up and that will help you so much to keep moving that needle forward and to keep staying consistent in this process.

All right, team, that’s going to do it for today. Apologies again for the voice. I’m hoping when I catch you next week, we’ll be back to 100%. Appreciate all of you. As always, this is your host, Ravi Patel, signing off.