I just got back from my first day of rehab after my quad rupture. This is a huge step for me, because my steadfast rule after my first nine sports-related surgeries has always been:
- I don’t do follow up visits.
- Rehab is for old ladies.
In the past my form of rehab was to wait about 6-9 weeks after major tendon reattachment, and then just start training hard as possible again and force the joint and surrounding muscles to keep up. Guess what? IT FUCKING WORKED! It’s what I call Paleo Rehab, it’s what a caveman would've done if he had major surgery. He would probably wait until he could walk again and then he would go HUNTING, or he didn’t eat! He wouldn’t worry about those tiny supporting muscles and connective tissue, imbalances, flexibility, future health, the mind body connection . . . BECAUSE HE JUST WANTED TO EAT A MASTADON!
So, I sat there while I got a mild electronic charge of stimulating current shot through my knee, with a side order of a hot thing that sat on top. I was then put through a series of exercises that were so mild...I couldn’t feel them. Truthfully, getting in and out of my wife’s Volvo requires way more muscle, effort and flexibility, so I should just do that about 20 times instead. The therapist was telling me how we were working the small muscles that help keep things stable and blah blah blah...
I said “I ONLY TRAIN THE BIG MUSCLES BOY!” I didn’t become the dominator by training small muscles dammit!
Now I’m on the fence about what I’m going to do about this rehab bullshit. I basically have to jump through hoops just to get out of the gym to get to the rehab place. Should I just go all Paleo and use my strength training instincts?
So stay tuned my little Pulcimaniacs and see if Uncle Steve can bull his way through his own rehab with total disregard of the advice of doctors, friends and family without ending up with a permanent pimp walk.
I'd recommend that you find a PT who trains...really trains, and go there. Reason is that most strong guys are not normal - physically...am I right? We both know that you don't go to a 18 year old skinny kid to develop a strength program for a pro powerlifter, same goes with rehab. That PT will know the ins and outs and just doesn't regurgitate a standard protocol for the normal population. Case in point, after I had gone through about 6 weeks of rehab after distal bicep rupture/repair, my normal PT was on vacation and a little 100lb chic was testing my strength and flexibility....what she neglected was that the max range of motion was already back to normal (same as right side) but she insisted on trying to break through to get it to be better with this little end weighted rod in which I rotated left and right, which did nothing. I told her that me and my normal PT had me working on my DL grip, because that's what I cared about....could I rotate my wrist enough to grab the bar in DL position without applying unnecessary torque to my bicep. I just asked her if I could work on what I had worked on previously with the other PT. When my normal PT came back I asked him about her - he came back with a very thoughout answer. "If you were a normal 35 year old guy, her method would be okay, but you have very different strength goals and expectations. We needed to make sure that we could get your bicep and tendon strength back up as close as possible to your old DL. What we don't want is that the Doc to clear you, you hit the gym and tear your bicep again trying a 500 pound DL because we've only worked you up to 30 pounds. We need to make sure it can handle 75-80%."