11/30/11

That strike I wrote about in my last post- it worked. At least when it comes to scoring. I went abroad and didn't play for almost four weeks, got home with no stamina left at all, played a game without any timing in neither feet nor arms, but managed to score and make some assists. Will use this as a start over and really find my motivation again.

10/16/11

No goals today either. Thinking of going on strike for a month or so.

I don't like October

Almost a month since I wrote last time and I thiiiink that things are working out quite good. Managing to stay away from colds and major injuries, always a step in the right direction. The training is going fine, focusing on the junior team-practises and go double when I feel that my body is in sufficiently good shape for senior team-tempo. Although, still not scoring during the games which really messes with my brain- as fast as I get a goal-chance, I automatically think score, and therefore end up shooting five metres outside of the goal. However, I have gotten some tips from a person that really knows what he is talking about:

• Take more responsibility when I play with the junior-team, even though it shouldn't be needed.
• Dare to handle the ball for longer sequences and not just getting rid of it as soon as I get it.
• Try to stop shoot with the backhand-side when I actually have the time to turn around to the right position and shoot with the forehand-side.

The funny thing is that I really DO practice these things (it is hard not to when hearing his voice as soon as you get near the ball). Number two is going slightly better than number one and three but hopefully, I will get there.

09/21/11

(I better watch my writing, seems like my coach reads this blog as well- hej Anders!) Trying to leave Sunday's game behind, in my opinion one of the shittiest games I've ever played. However, a win 5-3, met the team that qualified for division 2 last season, not bad considering that we just advanced from division 4. So, what was, according to my self, improper? My running and movement. I ran, but I ran wrong. As my new role as forward on the left side (instead of the right, on which I've played during the last couple of years), I'm supposed to run my ass off and both disturb the opponent's defenders, as well as be in constant movement in order to be the first player by the ball when it's hit down to the corner of the pitch. Not often, I managed to be on the right place at the right time and this is the cause of my anger with myself. Therefore, I decided to use Tuesday's practice to learn the right running patterns. How that went? Good I think, but it would've been even better if more than four players had listened to the instructions...

I'm only going to play with the junior-team this week, as there are no games this weekend and my thighs and knees really need to recover.

Tournament in Spain

Just as last year, my team once again went to Madrid for five days to participate in an international torunament, competing amongst others the Spanish champions, containing half of the Spanish national team. Five games in three days, 35 degrees Celcius and a floor more bumpy than flat. How it went? Five victories and thereby an overall victory- we now consider ourselves as Campeónes Españoles, by all right. Personally, I did one (excuse my hubris) freakin' fantastic match when considering that I've only played one complete game since the 2nd of January. The second game was okay, played good but missed at least ten open goals. The third, fourth and fifth were nothing to brag about but I felt that I really got into the new system we're playing accordingly (just watching it for eight months didn't help that much). The knee felt great, despite some nice air crossings.

Got home, found out that I'm probably going to train three hours/time since the junior-team and the senior-team have the sessions straight after each other on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Don't know how my body is going to react but I guess we'll find out.

Season-premiere with the senior's B-team today, win 5-3 and for some reason, my coach thought I should play the A-team premiere tomorrow as well.

Anyway, after almost nine months- I hereby declare my knee as perfectly working again!

26th of August- time for comeback!

Out of nowhere, the fact that I have this blog recently came to my mind. I loged on, read the previous posts, and laughed. Don't know if it's considered healthy to do that at your own writing, but who said I was healthy? Anyway, it was more or less three months since I last wrote and at that time I'd just started to do some floorball training sessions after more than five months of rehabilitation only. If I'm not mistaken, I took part in five sessions before the summer break and from what I remember, the knee actually felt pretty good. However, a knee that feels pretty good is not sufficiently useable and therefore, I've been continuing my rehab training over the summer, both with my team and by my self. My physio therapist had seven (!!!) weeks off, thus no one has really been there to push me but my coach. Now I'll make a list of what I've focused on in my training during the last couple of months:

• Even more muscle building in my right leg, especially the thigh- both hamstring and vastus medialis.
• A lot of core training as that's what my physio says is the most important for the future. All stability to the knee comes from the core and since we're going to play in a lot tougher division this year, that's going to be needed.
• Trying to get the-stamina-that-I've-probably-never-had-back by jogging with the team every week. If it gave any result? Not what I've noticed this far.
• All-round fitness training with the team every week.

And what is the outcome of this like? Excellent I must say! I've participated in all of the floorball sessions since we started a couple of weeks ago and haven't had any trouble what so ever with my knee. Tomorrow it's time for the real comeback as we're playing the district championship. 237 days since I last played a real game. That's insane.

Diet for two days

Yesterday, no training session: One slice of bread, 5 small chocolate eggs, 2 chicken fajitas with rice for lunch, one glass of water, one ice cream, one disgusting (said-to-be) watermelon juice, one portion of home made caesar sallad, one McFlurry, two slices of rhubarb pie.

Might be the worst day ever looking from a nutritional (and economical) perspective. However this does not belong to my usual eating habits and I did feel bad about that McFlurry in the evening (until I put the first spoon in my mouth, then I didn't regret anything). The sugar levels were extremely high and even though I consciously have been reducing my intake of fast carbs and thereby decreased my cravings for sugar, I have some days when resistance isn't on the map. Besides, I really have to drink more water, especially as the temperatures rise during the days.

Today, training session: One slice of bread, apple juice, two portions of spaghetti carbonara, one coffee, one big portion of pasta with tomato sauce, one big glass of water, appr. 0.5 litre of water during training, one ice cream, one slice of rhubarb pie.

The ridiculously high amount of pasta wasn't planned but happened to be since the food my family was eating for dinner wasn't going to be done before I had to go to my training session. Pasta is the solution to everything, that's my mantra. However, much better food today with exception for the post-work out things. I don't know if it was the pasta that made me able to train without feeling particularly tired but since I don't have a solution to it, we'll go with that.

11th of May

Two months to my 18th birthday today, hurray. As I wrote in the last post, I've started to participate in my floorball sessions and I must say that my knee has gone noticable better during the last couple of weeks. Most of the time I can bend it all the way in without a warm up and when I run in the movement pattern typical for floorball, it's seldom over stretched to such an extent that it really hurts. Yesterday's session was by far the best one this year (given the fact that I never did a real training session in 2011 before I tore the ligament) and even though my coach forbids me to play with body contact to others, I can't help doing it. The shots were however lousy yesterday, must have been something wrong with the stick/ball/floor. My stamina is indeed seriously improvable since I get exhausted after only one rush á 40 metres.

Based on this, my goals for the summer and silly season-rehabilitation training is mainly to do my physio therapy exercises in order to gain explosiveness and coordination in the muscles around the knee, as well as getting that long lost stamina back.

A month later

Here we go again, I kinda wanna be more than friends...

Just kidding, I'm not singing that song. Nope, not me. Not at all. Well well, a month ago since I wrote last time and honestly, I haven't been very active in my training. Probably because I finally have started to participate in my normal floorball-sessions and want the recovery time in between those in order to maintain the energy required in my thighs. Being back and training fairly normal is just as wonderful as I imagined, if not more. My coach always yells at me to take it slow and be careful when I play but hey, that's not very fun, thus I pretend I don't hear him. Also, I went to the physio therapist today and got some brand new things to do, more running:ish. Feels good to do something more specific than just weight lifting and pure muscle building.

This post is most likely the worst I've written so far but I promise I'll write more frequently and also take the nutrients-aspect into consideration. So long!

March 31st - April 4th

No training on Thursday the 31st, my body was a bit exhausted from the body-pump the previous day.

Therefore, I celebrated April's arrival with a spinning as well as core-session. Guess I could've had some more resistance during the spinning but it's hard to know how much is enough if you want to be able to accomplish the core-session afterwards as good as possible. Some days the spinning is fairly painless even with a higher level of resistance and some days it kills you after five minutes. The core-sessions are getting easier and easier and for that I'm thankful, don't even want to think of how much pain I was in after the first couple of times.

Went train- and bus-hoboing for hours on the Saturday with a friend all over Stockholm and after that I did feel some pain in my knee which my mom wasn't too happy about. According to her I shouldn't walk longer distances in Converse but according to me it's ugly to wear trainers so no way in hell that's going to happen.

No training yesterday but a couple of hours ago I came home from the physio therapist as well as the gym. Faced my first difficulty when I did the side-jumps and the knee capsule started to ache. On that particular area I've been sore since all this shit started but last time I did the exercise it went completely fine. The physio therapist told me to avoid those kinds of loads for a few days and then try again. Afterwards I crossed the street to the gym and cycled for 20 minutes on level 10 and 8. Did 12x3 in the adduction (44 kg) and abduction (63 kg) machine and after that my intention was to do some back lifting but stupidly I didn't know how to adjust the machine so I finished the session with a bit of stretching. When the joint is warm I can bend the knee almost all the way in, think it was a new record today.

March 30th

Just got home from the body pump-session and felt some improvement from last Sunday. In the end I managed to do an exercise which I impossibly could've done during the last session. So, progress, I like it. Tomorrow's ache will probably be the worst so far in my life, I'll take a picture of my soon-to-be-swollen-biceps and show you. If you wonder about my very healthy intake of nutrients afterwards, it consisted of:

• Three buns.
• Two slices of cake.
• One glass of cordial.

I love having my both grandmas between my house and the bus.

March 23rd - March 30th

Wednesday: Went to the physio therapist in the morning and got some new things to do. Did a couple of exercises that had a higher level of weighting on my knee and thigh such as walking up and down a step (appr. 50 cm high) having the pressure on the right leg. I also got to do the funniest thing so far- dodges (jumping from side to side like an ice-skater). The knee felt really stable which was a relief. If the knee is unstable, I'll most likely have to do a new surgery but as it felt as good as it did, I have the best of gut feelings. In the evening I went to the gym and had the best work out so far. Increased all the weights in the machines (and accidently had 40 kg in the leg push for the injured leg instead of 10, maybe not too clever) and increased some repetitions. However the ones I decreased were in the machines in which I increased the weights the most. My coach told me that what the purpose of my training should be, is to activate the muscles and especially improve their reaction, rather than just building even more muscle-mass. When I get back to floorball the most important thing is that the muscles react as soon as my knee is suddenly rotated and therefore I'll from now on work on my explosiveness, hence the decreased repetitions. Spinning for warm up and and...warm down (the opposite, to get the waste products in the thigh in motion). After that hour I wasn't able to lift my shin bone from the ground, my hamstring sure didn't love me.

On the Thursday I...wait for it...brought my stick and played some floorball! For the first time in almost three months. Fantastically and amazingly wonderful. Even though I didn't do more than some shooting and a few rushes with stick and ball it was just the receipt I needed for my motivation to keep alive. Things are going forward, just like I want it. The knee felt normal when I did the tempo-changes and ran in curves which I think is the situations when the knee is under the most pressure.

No training until Sunday when my first Body Pump-session was on the schedule. Really good work out I must say but I've noticed from the ache that I've had since then that I put way more pressure on my left leg than on my right. Probably unconsciously.

Tuesday yesterday and played some more floorball. Shooting and some careful running with stick and ball.

Wednesday today and a new Body Pump-session in the evening, think I'm going to do some spinning as warm up just before and perhaps stay for a while afterwards and work my back.

March 10th-March 22nd

So, what have I been doing the last couple of weeks? No idea, that's why I'm going to grab my calendar and take a sneak peak.

As I mentioned in the last post, I went to the physio therapist on the 11th and got a new training programme. Lighter weights and fewer repetitions to start off with the week after but screw that, I went to the gym the morning after and began with the exercising a couple of days earlier than what the doctor had told me to. I'm not going to make a comeback if I don't train, right? Anyway, it felt a bit irritating to decrease for instance the weights in the "thigh-push"-machine from 70 kg to 40 with both legs and from 40 to 10 with the injured one. Did some spinning for half an hour and normal physio therapy as well and when the knee is warm I can actually bend it almost the whole way in.

Continued the gym settlement on Monday the 14th and did basically the same as on the Saturday. Jumped of happiness when I without problem could increase the hip abduction from 63 to 72 kg and the adduction from 36 to 45 kg. Also increased the repetitions from 12x3 to 15x3. Was still careful with the knee and kept the weights I'd been adviced to use by the physio therapist.

Didn't go to the gym until Saturday last weekend (the 19th) as the teachers thought that their subjects were more important than my knee. Meanwhile my friend shook her booty in a zumba session (which I will participate in when world peace has come and Gaddafi has turned into a nice person) I went spinning for half an hour and then joined her in the core session. Both my physio therapist and coach (Mr. Chiropractor) have said that a strong core is important if I plan to stay free from future knee injuries as all stability comes from that part.

No training since then but tomorrow morning it's time for physio therapy-meeting again.

In addition, I can announce that my team has advanced to division three, being undefeated the whole season and is the team that has let in the least goals in the whole Stockholm-district, both junior, senior, men and ladies divisions considered. 104 scored and 24 let in in 16 games which gives 6.5 goals done/game and 1.5 goals let in/game. Now that's really good.

Day 31-today

So, here we go again, after exactly two weeks. Last time I wrote, I had just gotten home from a spinning session and the morning after I felt a cold coming. Due to the surgery that I was going to have the Tuesday after (Tuesday last week), I had to stay free from all sorts of infections and illnesses and because of that I didn't do any exercise except for some minor physio therapy up until the day of operation.
The arthroscopy went well and the anaesthesia was just purely awesome. Afterwards, the doctor came to me and said that what they had found out was that my cruciate ligament is 50% torn and that it is the half of the ligament that controls the rotation stability (tell me about it, I've felt that a couple of times). Also, I had lots of scar tissue between the kneecap and the ligament which they erased while they were in there. No pain during the first couple of days and straight after I woke up I felt that extending the leg was much easier. She also said that there are two alternatives to consider at the return visit in 6 weeks:

1. If I have managed to built a muscle power sufficient to keep the knee stabilized in every motion and rotation, I most likely won't have to do the surgery when they repair the ligament.
2. If muscle power just isn't enough, I will have to do the surgery and that would mean a rehabilitation period of 6-9 months. That is saying that I won't be able to play floorball until 2012 and thinking about that is just causing a mental breakdown.

However, the good thing in this is that I according to the doctor actually have a chance to not do the surgery. If they had thought that "No way that you're gonna play with that knee", they would have repaired the ligament instantly or booked in a new operation straight away. So, what I have to do for the next couple of weeks is to live at the gym and get steroid-legs. Have been to the physio therapist once since the surgery and going there this Friday as well. In the beginning of next week I can start working with the machines at the gym but will have to create a new programme with lighter weights and fewer repetitions to get the knee used to exercising again.

Just took the last bandage off my knee and see two small dots. Those scars will be pretty at my wedding...

Day 27-30

Sunday: Rest-day that day, the ache in the abdominal muscles after the core-session the previous day wasn't something you wanted to play around with. Also my thighs felt a bit pumped out of energy after the spinning-session.
Monday: Went to the gym again and worked out with the ususal machines. Started off by spinning-interwalls for 15 minutes with the levels 14 respectively 10 but had to decrease both two levels after five minutes. Never overestimate your own ability just because your friend has thighs like Ben Johnson and a determination as great as a robot's. Added one round of repetitions on almost everything and also started to do back liftings- 10x4- to prevent future injuries (some clever guy told me that a strong back might be good for you but I don't know, maybe he lied).
Tuesday: Went to see our normal floorball practice and was just about to start the physio therapy when I was interrupted by a man from the national radio station's sport section. Honestly, I knew this a week in advance so I'm sorry if I sounded completely surprised. He asked me (as the team captain and because our coach thinks that I'm the one who can talk to grown ups without feeling uncomfortable) about the current measures our club is taking to enhance the chances for the a-teams to climb in the charts and also a bit about my injury and upcoming surgery. Have I mentioned that I'm getting an arthroscopy on Tuesday? No, don't think so but that's the case. Thus, if you understand Swedish you can listen to Radiosporten on P4 sometime next week and you'll hear a spluttering giant baby in falsetto, that's supposed to be me.
Wednesday: Went to my physio therapist this morning and for once, I actually got to exercise. Primarily my thighs and afterwards I could barely walk downwards in stairs normally. She said that we were not going to make anything harder before the surgery and that I just have to keep on going with the training programme I have. Booked in a new meeting with her next Friday, three days after the surgery when the knee hopefully has started to loosen up and gotten rid of the stiffness. Came home from a one-hour spinning session a couple of hours ago and God it felt good to sweat like that! Maybe spinning isn't the best you could do to improve your gone stamina, but the thighs are now drop dead. Note to self- never train the heck out of your thighs and then expect a spinning session to be as a sunny summer's day by the ocean.

Ledsen Anders om jag överdrev lite inom den där parentesen om radiointervjun men jag tar mig den friheten eftersom du tvingade mig att göra bort mig. Hoppas du har det bra i Spanien, ta med lite värme hem.

Day 19-26

Issues with the account, quite strange since my usual blog's been working properly the whole week. Anyway, I'll give you a quick resumé- last Saturday to Tuesday I didn't go the gym but did some physio therapy at home. Nothing extreme, felt a cold coming thus my body was pretty tired. Went to the gym on Wednesday and started with the normal machines, didn't increase the weights though, just stuck to the programme I used the week before. I did manage to squeeze some spinning interwalls for 20 minutes in but I really noticed how lame my muscles were. No training on Thursday and yesterday my friend forced me to come to a spinning/core-session, 30 minutes each. Sadly, the music playlist at the spinning wasn't that challenging so my stamina was barely worked on. The core-session was however awful, we were shaking like aspen leaves after 15 minutes and I'm not sure if we even "beat" the fat woman infront of us which was our common goal. Although if I am to defend ourselves, my friend's a goalie and I'm a cripple so losing that battle might be justified.

Now, the fun part of this post begins. Yesterday I also went to the knee specialist and what a professional I got to meet! Told her my version of the story, was asked to take my pants off, the knee was examined for barely a minute and after that she was pretty sure that doing an arthroscopy is the only way to really get to know what type of injury it is. According to her, you can only tell that there really is an injury on the cruciate ligament by doing an MRI but not see which sort of injury. Therefore, the easiest way is to go in with a camera and take a look and meanwhile clean some shit up inside of the joint capsule which she thought was the reason for why I don't have optimal movability. She continued:
- So, I'll put you up on the priority list and we'll have the surgery within 14 days.
You say WHAT? 14 days?! That's nothing! But I'm happy, not complaining at all, just glad that they want to fix it as quickly as I want to. Looking forward to it!

Day 18

Spent 1.5 hours at the gym and am pretty impressed of how much the muscles have been activated after only two real sessions. Changed a couple of thing in the training programme, such as increasing the weights and number of repetitions.

• Started off with spinning interwalls for 10 minutes to warm the knee up and get the circulation going. Level 12 for the fast-pace-interwalls and level 8 for the low-pace. Much better warm up than the stair-machine I used last Monday since my lack of stamina appeared even clearer.
• Hip abduction (earlier known as "the girl-machine"). 64 kg, 12x3.
• Hip adduction (same same different name). 36 kg, 12x3. Felt a real improvement from last monday when I barely could do 10x2, very nice to notice progress!
• Leg extension. Increased from 10-15 kg, 12x3.
• Leg curl. Increased from 5 to 15 kg, 12x3.
• Leg press. 70 kg with two legs, 12x3.
• Leg press. 30 kg with one leg, 12x2.
• Lifting of pelvis including roll with pilates ball inwards. Didn't use my arms to support the stability this time, much harder and even better exercise for the core. 12x3.
• Crosstrainer interwalls for 10 minutes, level 10 and 8.
• Some more spinning but now in a sitting-position where the arms aren't used. 10 minutes of interwalls on level 8 and 6.

Day 16 and 17

No training yesterday, don't ask why (but if you persist doing that, I can defend myself with aching groins. They're never going to get back to normal).
Thus, did I do any physio therapy today? Yes. Was it sufficiently? Hahaha hell no! Fought (or denied, whatever) the snow chaos and then forced my mom to promise she'd come pick me up at where our team practises just so I could sit there, pretend and trying to convince myself that I was actually doing something of importance, do my friend's homework and buy a coffee. In total, my training consisted of 2 minutes of pelvis-lifting. Good job, keep it up. No, seriously, I'm going to the gym tomorrow after school for a couple of hours and I'm sure I'll be able to trick someone to accompany me on Sunday too.

And yeah, by the way- HEJ ANDERS! JAG HAR INTE ÖVERDRIVIT NÅGONTING I DET HÄR INLÄGGET, BRA VA?

Day 15

That was yesterday. Woke up with a fantastic pain in my groins, probably from working with the "girl-machine". Fantastic because I've missed aching muscles as results of hard training. Anyway, I went to look at our floorball practise and got my friend to accompany me with the physio therapy. To prevent my coach yelling at me, I brought my indoor shoes. Last time I tried to jog just for fun he told me that "For being so smart you can sometimes be so insanely stupid". Therefore, I put my shoes on and took a few laps. One word: wonderful. Don't know if I'm even aloud to jog but you don't have to tell the people in charge. Continued with my regular physio therapy but increased the numbers of what I did from 10 and 15 to 15 and 25. However, the highlight of the day was when my coach asked us if we would want to be defenders during a special exercise- using a stick! Being on the court! Involved in motion! Haha you can't imagine how excited and motivated I got to get back as soon as possible.

Day 14

A.k.a My-first-day-as-a-gymperson. Oh my God that was so much fun! An what a feeling I've had these hours afterwards, about the same as after a really good floorball training or a game. My body feels like a chicken fillet filled with some feta cheese-mixture straight from the oven, yeah, that's the feeling. You can't imagine how much I've missed this states of both mind and body after one month and five days without exercise that actually makes you sweat. My muscles still feel tense and swollen (as in pumped) in the same time as they are completely relaxed. In conclusion I once again feel that I am my body.
So, what did I do to be this satified? Well, first I asked my physio therapist to give me som exercises this morning and then I did them (not joking, it's true):

1. Started off by walking in a stair-machine. Interwalls on level 12 with 77 steps/minute for ten minutes. Good warm up to get the circulation in the knee going and also to work that abscent endurance.
2. "The-girl-machine", first pressing the thighs outwards and then inwards. Working outer and inner thighs. 40 kg when doing it outwards and 25 kg inwards. 10x3.
3. Leg curl (contraction of knee, working the hamstring), 5 kg when doing it with one leg. 12x3.
4. Leg extension (working the quads), 10 kg when doing it with one leg. 12x3.
5. Leg press (working the core, thighs, knees and calves). 70 kg for two legs and 30 kg for one. 12x3.
6. Lifting of pelvis with feet on pilates ball, body from 140 to 180 degrees. To get stability from the core and increase stability in thighs and knees. 12x3.
7. Same as above but now rolling the ball beneath the body. 12x3.
8. Squattings with medicine ball between knees. Until I got tired of it.

THIS FEELS FREAKIN' AWESOME!

Day 13

Bad luck? Nope, not at all. Went to the gym a couple of hours ago and bought myself a membership for one year! Expensive as hell if you don't use it as much as you can, but I see no reason for why it shouldn't help me to get back to normal training and floorball even quicker so I'm pretty sure it'll be worth it. Besides, many of my friends already go there regularly which definitely will motivate me- training is so much more fun when doing it with others (that's why I play a team sport...).

Day 11 and 12

Crappy motivation these two days, no motivation at all in fact. I guess I could blame the lack of time (which I really have had) and my social life but physio therapy only takes 20 minutes if I do the quick version so I assume I've just been lazy. Bad, I'll shape up, promise. However, I'm not in shock anymore and have come to accept the fact that, yes- my injury is quite severe but nothing will get better by complaining and a mental breakdown. I'll just have to do the best out of the situation and hope for a comeback within a couple of months!

Spoke to the doctor

My meniscus isn't broken. Yay! you react. I don't, an injury on the anterior cruciate ligament is far worse. Shit shit shit life sucks, I hate this.

What we learned from this:

• Don't let your brain get certain of things you don't actually know, it'll only be messed up when what it thought was right, proves to be wrong.

Day 10

HARDCORE session a couple of hours ago! I increased the number of repetitions of all of my exercises, increased the time I did some of them, invented som new ones (e.g. juggle with three balls when doing one-leg squattings on the inflated pillow to make the brain focus on something else and thereby exacerbate the balance) and kicked my team mate's asses when challenging them with what I was doing. Do you know what the best thing is? That I notice the difference of my thigh strength and it really feels amazing. After only one week of hard training, I physically feel that I have activated more muscle fibres and that especially my hamstrings have been strengthened incredibly. I feel that I have much more control of my legs and knees now than ever before and that is truly satisfying, to see that if you do a thing regularly and consistently it does improve. That, dear readers, I will definitely carry with me when I get back to floorball again. If I want to improve my shooting, all I have to do is to be serious when I do those exercises. If I want to do that extra run during a game which might be the difference between a victory and a loss, all I have to do is to push myself mentally during the practices over and over again because sooner or later- I will naturally do it as if it was the only thing I have ever done.

As simple as that. Brains are easy to fool once you get the drift.

Day 9

Yesterday in other words. To be honest, I didn't do any of the exercises since my thighs barely allowed me to walk and made me look like a real cripple again. A cripple without crutches that will say. However, I noticed something that I kind of have noticed even earlier but is way more concrete this time- I'm constantly tired. Ever heard of the "Zombie Walks" in different big cities all over the world? Yeah, I feel like one of them. In the beginning of the week I couldn't really figure out why I'm tired all the time, but then yesterday it hit me- I haven't exercised properly for exactly one month. Now how insane isn't that? Thus, me being tired isn't peculiar at all, it's just that my body isn't used to being this inactive and not getting the endorphines on a regular basis.

What we learned yesterday:

• Exercising does make you feel more alert.

What I do, Paint-version

Paint is kind of fun. These are the main exercises I've been told to do by my physio therapist. I have some more but they're not as important. Over time, I'll develop these exercises and increase the amount and number of repetitions.

Day 8

Okay, doing an MRI wasn't as cool as I'd expected it to be. Fortunately, I got the laugh of the day when I saw the result after the not-so-charming lady in charge had told me to get undressed and put on a long, loose and adequately transparent shirt/dress. Yes, we're talking high fashion. Went into the room with the x-ray-thingy and laid there for, what, half an hour maybe? I even think I fell asleep, that's how undramatic is was. They said I'm probably going to get the results from my doctor within three-four working days and that would be Friday but since we all know that that's not reality, I hope for Monday or Tuesday next week.
I like this, I like when things happen and I don't have to stand like a jerk knowing nothing of what's going on with my own body. Even though I haven't got the results yet it does feel better mentally when you at least think you see the light at the end of the tunnel. I mean, now it's only two steps left-

1. Get the result
2. Treat it.

Sort of. It's however definitely better than two weeks ago when no one knew nothing. Right now, I'm gonna get dressed for some workout! Did my exercises intensively for a whole hour yesterday so my thighs are still not functioning properly but I guess I'll survive!

Day 7

Hey guys, not that I think someone actually reads this blog but I can imagine you exist, I'm good at imagening unrealistic things. Sooo, what about my knee. Well, as I wrote yesterday I went to the physio therapist this morning and she seemed to be pretty pleased with my exercising and progress so far. She also said that since the swelling inside the knee hasn't really gone down during the last couple of weeks, she's almost sure that it's a meniscus injury. That's kind of bad ass, isn't it? Cool (and old) people always get their meniscuses broken from dangerous accidents. I got tackled, that's cool enough for qualification. ANYWAY! The physio therapist gave me some new instructions of the special exercises I've been doing, making the squatting harder by standing on an inflated pillow on one leg and things like that. I was also answered that yes, it's good to cycle and work with the crosstrainer, not least to keep my endurance alive. Another thing I have to be careful with is the fact that I rotate me knee inwards (haha, inwards) when squatting so when I do them I have to make sure I keep both legs straight and maintain the accurate positions of the feet.
In the afternoon, my mom called me and said she'd managed to get a (restored) time at the hospital tomorrow for an MRI! That's cool for sure! I've always wanted to do an MRI (to be honest, I've also always wanted to use crutches for real and that wasn't too fun).
I think I'm going to do some balance-exercises when watching tv tonight, sounds good? Of course, I'm good incarnated.

Day 6

That's actually today, yay me! Went to see our game this morning and everybody asked me "What the hell are you doing here? It's 8.30 am, you're mentally ill". Well, yes, I'm probably mentally ill and lack a meaningful life (as I accused all the people in the crowd for and then realizing I was one of them) but do you understand how crazy I'd get if I didn't go there every training session and game? Now when I've gotten older I've come to realize how important the social aspect of playing floorball and being a part of a team (and also a special identity) is. Also, I get extremely jealous of the ones playing and this indeed motivates me to get my ass of the couch and do some physio therapy. So that I did, went home and did some training in other words. 10x3 bendings with the rubber band, 20x2 squattings with both legs on the ground, 10x2 with each leg on the ground and some stretching for approximately 10 minutes; first 5 mins with the knee extended and then 5 contracted. It's quite fun how much better the motion ability is right afterwards I've done these things, even though they're not that complicated. Going to the physio therapist tomorrow morning before school, wish me luck.

Day 5

Umm...that was also yesterday, however today's yesterday and not yesterday's yesterday as I wrote yesterday. So, what did I do to maintain my health and strengthen my knee in an injury preventive aim yesterday? Not very much to be honest, I went for a walk for an hour to get the blood circulation going but skipped the squatting and bending-with-green-rubber-band since it hurted too much after the dumb accident the other day. The ligaments around the knee were way to tense for me to be able to enjoy working out. Did some minor stretching in the evening but I don't think it was enough to give any noticable result. Nevertheless, I'm getting more and more mentally positive towards this physio therapy period of my life and thank God for that, the law of attraction has helped me before...

Day 4

That was yesterday so I'll do a résumé. Did some squatting and stretching for half an hour and also a couple of stabilization-exercises to strengthen the thigh muscles which everybody has told me is necessary if I want to keep free from future knee injuries. However, the funniest thing I noticed yesterday was later in the evening. Went to see some friends and one of them tend to, apparently, walk as penguin when it's cold outside. I found this so ugly that I had to try and thus I started to walk like one. After ten metres I was literally exhausted and then it hit me- my endurance is already gone, after 26 days without proper training. I don't even want to think of how bad it'll be when I'll be able to run again. Huh, first it takes me half a season only to GET a good level of endurance, and then it's gone by the wind after four weeks. How nice.

Day 3

Actually pretty motivated to train the hell out of my knee today after a completely shitty afternoon. My plan was to use the massive aggressions in order to force myself to exercise even harder and push it all a bit. So, I get ready, leave home, head to the bus and...fall. This is exactly why you don't want to live in Sweden- it's freakin' ice cold, it's slippery and people don't care to check if you're alright in case you've slipped. I slipped and as everyone would do instinctively, I bent my knee to stop the fall. Problem is- I can't bend my knee since it's still too swollen inside and the nervs get in between when pushing it all together. Pain. A lot. However, it wasn't the pain that caused the most damage but the shock I got when I fell and the thought "I'm so screwed, no floorball ever again" hit me in a nano-second. The adrenaline-rush I got lasted for like an hour and I'm still a bit shaky. My coach/chiropractor told me to do as much exercises as I possibly could do though and I guess he was right (he's a giant so he's right even when he's wrong), I did some of the squatting and stretching too loosen the muscles up and get the blood circulation going and it feels pretty good despite the stupid accident. God I hate winter.

Day 2

Stretching the knee at the moment and it hurts like hell. A bit ache in and around the knee from the training yesterday so walking up and down the stairs at school wasn't the funniest thing I've done in my life. Jesus Christ it's stiff when trying to extend it from a contracted (?) position. The boring thing with doing this assignment and not being able do train normally, is that things like what I eat and stuff, don't affect my limited physical activity very much. Well of course, if I'd eat tonnes of protein bars, the muscles in the knee would probably gain more from the exercise but I doubt that that difference would be noticable. However, I don't want to over load the knee and pressumed damaged ligaments too much when I've just started to train, thus due to the pain I won't do any today. I'm going hardcore tomorrow evening again so hopefully it'll be better until then.

Day 1

Here we go, after 23 days of inactivity, pain, plenty of doctors, physio therapists, crutches, bandages, a destroyed vacation and frustration, I finally exercised. What a relief, even though the actual training wasn't more than a couple of knee-bends and stretching. Don't ask why I haven't done the physio therapy earlier, the answer is as simple as knowing that teenagers are lazy and rehabilitation is as fun as black and white tv without sound (except that now, you have to move you body which isn't required if you watch tv). So, how did the training go? Very good I must confess. So good, I get a bit mad at myself for not doing it earlier. My friend, who currently is recovering after a knee surgery, came to assist me and it all ended up with her screaming at me that I HAVE TO stretch the knee, otherwise I might end up unable to put my shoes on in ten years and even worse, not being able to play floorball ever again, which would be like the worst thing that could happen. However, I'm glad that she yelled at me with her most threatening voice- now I can actually sit in my bed with the leg completely stretched out and without support from a gigant pillow, something I haven't done since January 1st. What we have learnt today:

• Physio therapy isn't bullshit.

Cape Verde, January 2011. A couple of days after the injury incident. Hilarious vacation.