My Origin Story, and How I Overcame Being Injury-Prone

My experience with injury, mindset, and recovery

Lil Wayne in Forever said it best - “life is such a roller coaster, then it drops”. One day I succeed in getting my first ever dunk, the next I end up destroying my knee. That was the beginning of my decade-long battle with my arch-nemesis, who goes by Injury.

My first major brush with injury

Junior year in highschool, at the end of volleyball season, I landed my first dunk. It was a well placed alley-oop, arcing through the air and pausing right at the apex of my reach, before my momentum brought the ball slamming into the basket. It wasn’t a clean dunk, but as a 16 year-old who’s only 5 '10, it gave me an indescribable rush nonetheless.

Basketball season was about to start, my athleticism was at its peak, and our high school team was gearing up to be one of the best teams in our league this year. We were aiming to win it all. 

But after the second game of the season, that “we” no longer included me. 

It was an uncontested fast break. There was no one around me. It all happened so quickly. I went up, my leg gave out. In just the second game of what was going to be my best year yet, I tore the ACL and the meniscus in my right knee going for an open layup.

I was consumed by devastation.

After the MRI, the doctors estimated that my timeline for recovery would be at least one year after surgery. Optimistically, that’d be midway into basketball season in my senior year. “You’ll never be the same athlete you were,” they said. “Just to be safe, you shouldn’t even play ‘dangerous’ sports like volleyball and basketball competitively anymore,” they added, smacking the nail in the coffin.

All of it went over my head. It was just as well, because inside my head there was one thought only: My high school sports career is over.

A few months later, our team went on to win our big inter-school tournament, taking home our school’s first trophy for basketball. This was the lone bright spot in my long uphill journey to recovery.

The science of recovery

After undergoing two surgeries to fix my knee, I decided it was in my best interest to dismiss what the doctors said, and let my training do the talk. Many professional athletes continued playing at a high level after suffering a torn ACL. Why can’t I? I’ve taken sports training very seriously ever since I was a kid. I tried my best and aimed to improve in every session. I pushed myself. So I adopted the same approach to my rehabilitation, expecting to see similar progress. 

I quickly learned that rehab didn’t really work the same way.

When you’re given a timeline for recovery – let’s say 2 weeks – you always expect the next day to be better than the last. Regardless of whether recovery is linear or exponential, you’ll somehow advance until you’re finally 2 weeks in and back to 100%.

In reality, it looks waaaay more like model B. The scribble of recovery is erratic and drives you crazy. Not to mention, there’s a lot more to “getting back to normal” than just time. More on this later.

The clingy injury tag

At that time, though, I didn’t really understand the process of recovery. I pushed myself, as if the harder I pushed, the sooner I’d get back into things.

The surgeries reconstructed my ACL and removed parts of my meniscus, which isn’t great but the doc said it couldn’t be repaired (who was I to doubt Doc?). After being cleared for exercise, I was on the bike daily and basically lived on a balance board. I sneaked off to the gym during spare periods at school, and tried to stay as active as I could.

I didn’t recover in time to play varsity basketball in my senior year. But I was able to catch the 3v3 basketball tournament we used to host for fun at the end of the school year. 

Left shoulder

Hyped to be back on court, I played my heart out. I was on defense going around a screen. Most of me dodged around it, except for my left arm. The other guy leaned into the screen and my left shoulder promptly dislocated. 

Back to rehab I went.

Right shoulder

Around this time, I had decided to take volleyball seriously and planned to try out for collegiate competition, but that injury set me back a month.

Summer was short, and I had to work real hard if I wanted to catch up on the training time lost rehabbing. Needless to say, I trained a little too hard, and pop! My right shoulder dislocated from landing wrong.

Discouragement, declining work ethic, deteriorating condition

I spent the next 4 years in Canada for university. They were probably my most injury-riddled years. 

I was starting my post-secondary life at a low point, discouraged from getting injured so often and missing my goals. Soon, I stopped taking rehab seriously. 

If I was going to get hurt even after spending so much time and effort rehabbing, what’s the point?

I no longer trained religiously in university, but still played intramural sports quite competitively. It was what kept me active, but also one of the main reasons for what would be my next generation of injuries. That, plus a poor diet, and a horrible sleep schedule.

In 4 years’ time, I managed to:

• Dislocate my right elbow (that was horrible)

• Dislocate my right shoulder two more times (I’m starting to get used to this)

• Dislocate my left shoulder once more (not to be outdone by my right)

• Tear a ligament in my thumb blocking a volleyball (took forever to heal)

(To save time, I didn’t list out the “minor” injuries like rolled ankles. Otherwise we’d be here for days.)

(This is me at an airport back in 2017 a day after one of my shoulder dislocations - see, I wasn’t lying when I said I was getting used to it)

One might say, “That’s crazy. Why are you still playing? It’s just a hobby.. what’s the point?”

I’ll be honest – I’ve thought of hanging it up so many times. Giving up was always lurking like a clingy shadow around the corner of the physiotherapy clinic that I visited whenever I got hurt. “Maybe I shouldn’t play anymore” was a catchy melody my voice of reason sang as I strapped a growing assortment of limb supporters onto my body.

But my competitive spirit and love for sports always brought me back.

In my short time in the UK studying for a master’s degree, I finally got to play collegiate volleyball. But even that one year was riddled with injuries. I’d play a few good games, get injured, and have to claw my way back onto the court. Then rinse and repeat.

My nexus event

Throughout the years of injuries, I’ve gone through all five stages of grief many times, and have landed comfortably on acceptance. I must just be injury-prone. Oh, we’re going by our superhero names? Then I’m Glassman.

It was the beginning of the pandemic when I got a disc herniation in my mid back playing volleyball. Of all my lows, this one was up there (or down there, I suppose) as one of the worst ones. This time, Injury – my archnemesis – really got a good blow in. It sounds clichéd, but as I laid in bed unable to move my upper body, the helplessness overwhelmed me. 

I don’t want to accept this, I thought as I stared blankly at the ceiling. But what can I do? Can I still work my way back from a decade of clashing with injury?

Research, and an open mind

The pandemic was actually a saving grace for me when it happened; the temptation of competition was all gone. Because of health-related restrictions, there was no floor slamming, knee knocking, limb shattering or other forms of indoor competitive sport for some time. I spent a lot of it sitting still and rebuilding my foundation. 

I focused on three key objectives:

1. Conditioning

2. Recovering

3. Fueling (nutrition)

Conditioning: functional ≠ optimal

My first method of attack was obviously working out. I knew getting injured required rest, then a period of rehab to strengthen my muscles to a functional, ideally pain-free level.

One of the most common mistakes leading to reinjuries is returning to sports too soon. Sure, you’ve hit the two-week recovery timeline. You’re cleared to play, right? Well, remember how I said that getting back to 100% takes more than just the time you need to completely heal? 

Here’s what I meant.

What’s important is actually strengthening and conditioning. That means, optimizing your body for the movements required in whatever physical endeavor you choose to pursue. 

I’m not sure why I never made this connection in the past. I was very familiar with the fact that conditioning was an integral part of performance. Yet every time I healed to the point where I was free of pain, I returned to the same level of sports I was playing pre-injury, forgetting the fact that the last time I’d stepped on court was 3 months ago.

There’s a clear gap between being “healed” and being “ready to perform”, which can only be bridged by strength and conditioning. My injury might be healed, but my body can’t magically adapt to the rigorous activities I used to do. Physical condition has to be maintained. 

So that’s what I did. For the next year, I worked solely on S&C.

But I didn’t stop there.

Recovering: getting proper sleep

Getting quality sleep is so easy on paper, but not so much if you’re a college student. And also a gamer. With friends in different timezones. 

Back in university, I was aware of how a lack of proper sleep affected my mood and alertness, but again, I didn’t consider how it correlated with my increased odds of injury.

Training hard leads to improvements, but only if we recover properly. The negative impacts of neglecting rest are compounded with the fact that our reaction speed is affected due to poor sleep, which means we have an injury waiting to happen. 

Realizing this, I doubled down on a proper bedtime, researched on how I could improve my quality of sleep, and controlled my love for coffee.

Fueling: eating right

I can’t overstate the role food plays in keeping us healthy. It’s literally what we’re made of. 

I consider myself really lucky to come from a household with health-conscious parents. Healthy eating at home gave me the buffer I needed to indulge in my cravings without causing lasting damage. The 90/10 rule is: if you’re eating healthy whole foods 90% of the time, the other 10% made of indulgent “fun meals” won’t hurt you. 

In college, I’m pretty sure I managed to uphold the 90/10 rule – just the other way around. Without home meals keeping me in check, my bad eating habits were allowed to roam free. And once they’re free, it’s hard to rein them back in. 

While I did occasionally meal prep during my master’s, it was mainly to save on costs. Now, I do it with a different objective - nutrition. Back in my corporate job days, I packed lunch 4 out of 5 days in the office, making sure I’m consuming the proper building blocks for my goal. 

Takeaways

Over a decade, countless injuries and a pandemic later, these are the 3 main things I focused on to take back control over my health, and to hopefully leave behind my injury-prone tag once and for all. Just exercise to improve your conditioning, eat better, and sleep better. It’s SO simple. This isn’t an easy trick that doctors hate, there’s no premium content involved, and you don’t need any clickbaity life hack that magically turns your life around. Just treat your own health with a little more respect. That’s it!

I’m aware that as we’re navigating the continuous ups and downs of the roller coaster that is life, consistently putting your health first is a difficult task. Even as a coach, I still go through self-debates to get my ass to the gym. None of this comes easily.

However, looking back as a 27 year-old, I have managed to bounce back from 3 surgeries, 6 dislocations, and many more injuries I didn’t have time to talk about. It’s been a decade, but I have worked my way back to dunking off a well placed alley-oop. And Injury’s villain arc ended a few seasons ago. 

I’m no professional athlete, but I’m staying competitive – and on the court – in my local rec leagues. I’m still steadily growing into the best player I can be in club volleyball while managing the setbacks of injury. I’m blessed to still be playing the sports that bring me so much joy. 

Whether it's weight loss, injury prevention, or any other pursuits of health, we’re all just trying our best. If you’ve read until this point, thank you, and I hope my experiences can also inspire you to do just a little more for yourself. You deserve it!

That being said, if you're feeling the love and would like to make a kind donation to fuel my rather large amount of caffeine intake, you can buy me a coffee here.

My content here is free, so a donation of any amount would mean the world to me as it gives me the confidence that what I’m doing is making a difference!