10/09/2024
Back in February, partially, almost fully, ruptured her Achilles tendon at the studio. An Achilles tear is a BIG injury. It keeps athletes out of their sport for a whole season. We knew it was going to be a slow, painful and very emotional journey to recover and rehab the Achilles.
We’ve been very mindful of loading the Achilles and reintroducing our strength work to our training sessions. Sandra has been laser-focused on doing what she can, when she can. We did lots of calf raises, worked on balance, reintroduced the sled and started deadlifting again.
Prior to the Achilles injury, she had deadlifted 80kg for multiple reps. We never tested anything more.
On Friday, Sandra asked me “Do you think that maybe I could lift 100kg by Christmas?”. I said, “For sure”.
We were currently doing some halting (paused) deadlifts @ 65kg. I told her I was going rogue on the session plan and that we’re just going to do one rep at a time, normal deadlifts. Don’t think about the weight, just concentrate on good technique and creating lots of tension.
I put 80kg on the bar, Sandra lifts it. Starting to feel that she’s working harder.
I put 90kg on the bar, Sandra lifts it, albeit with a little bit of a struggle.
I put 100kg on the bar, with Sandra oblivious to how much she’s actually lifting at this point. I told her to be ready, create lots of tension before she lifts and keep pushing down into the floor throughout.
100kg - got it.
Sandra puts the bar down and I say “How’s 100kg by the 6th September?”.
Lots of disbelief and a few tears later, here’s the picture of the bar at 100kg. This was a monumental moment. A moment of ‘I’m strong, and possibly even stronger than ever’, just 6 months after the Achilles rupture.
A moment of overcoming a debilitating injury, a moment of showing herself that she is capable. And I don’t know how many times I’ll have to say it before she admits it, but Sandra is STRONG!
Now onto that 200kg Sled Pull… 👀🔥
——
On a professional level, the injury was probably the scariest moment of my career so far! But every challenge is an opportunity to learn something new!