Roger Federer's 2x knee operations in 2020Rafael Nadal's
knee (&
foot) problems throughout his career.
Those headlines hint at the consistent daily battle every sportsman faces keep inflammation under control. And that's the first of three key takeaways..
1. ConsistencyConsistency is the number one lesson to keep
moving,
playing and
doing the things we love.You get a sense of that consistent battle when a journalist wrote about Andy as far back as 2007:
‘..within the past year, he has suffered back, neck, ankle, knee, hip and groin injuries’. At that point Murray was only 20 years old.
In 2012 he retired early from the Rogers Cup
with a knee injury.
From then on, his biography does not sweat the small stuff.
His story flags up only the
BIG problems and challenges. And it’s remarkable how he
faced up to each one. For example, in 2013 he underwent
back surgery for a disc problem.
A trapped nerve in his back sent shooting pain down his leg.
He made it back after only a two-month layoff.
Playing at that point is remarkable.
Making it through to the quarter finals of the Australian Open beggars belief.
And I'd argue it demonstrates two things:
A reminder: major tennis tournaments comprise multiple 5-set matches.
A 5-set match of tennis is arguably the maximum sort of repeated inflammatory hammering that a human body can take.
He faces that challenge with daily consistency.
Our own more 'average' challenges need to faced with similar daily consistency.
And that bring us on to the second key takeaway..
2. RecoveryGood recovery in elite sport is built around:
- 8 hours of good sleep every night 😴
- Optimised high protein nutrition 🍗
We should all be laser focused on those core pillars of good health.
Elite athletes draw on the very best science and expertise to guide their everyday lives.
And yet, it is not enough.Our joints are remarkable, but they can only take so much.
‘Getting old’ doesn’t come close to cutting it as an explanation here.
‘Getting old’ can’t be it when describing someone in their early to mid-30s.
What actually brings a professional sporting career to an end is not so much a one-off injury…
..BUT the lifelong build-up of elite whole-body inflammation. 3. Load v TimingMurray is typical of a high-performance athlete living with inflammation and ‘injuries’ as a part of his daily life.
Where he is (almost) exceptional is that he chose metal-on-metal hip resurfacing in August 2018 to keep playing tennis at a high level.
Too much load comes in many forms.
It’s clearly NOT always too much bodyweight balanced by too little strength.So the third key takeaway is that we all have a choice:
A choice between modifying the load on our joints..
And timing of joint replacement.We can learn a lot from Murray's story.
And his story is quite a story.
