When she’s dancing, she doesn’t feel her knee. Especially when she’s competing. It had been more than a year and a half since her injury, then surgery that put her out of dance, and this past January in Nashville was her comeback competition. Getting here wasn’t easy. There were lots of bumps in the road, setbacks, and struggles. But Kate is one of the most persistent patients and dancers I have worked with. When Kate says she’s going to do something, it’s my job as her physical therapist to make sure her body is ready.
Losing More Than Movement
Having something we love taken away from us is hard; maybe it’s dancing, running, or long walks. These activities are more than just things for us to do; they’re things that give our life meaning and joy. They become ways we connect with others, and these activities shape the character of our days and weeks. But injury can take from us. It did for Kate.
Starting Small
Kate tore the meniscus of her knee in 2023–an injury from her last ballroom dance competition, actually. Not all meniscus injuries require surgery, but Kate’s did. Before we could start working on dancing, we had to work on the most basic parts of her mobility–knee flexibility, leg strength, balance, and walking.
Why Rehab Steps Matter
You don’t get to skip steps in rehabilitation. Take flexibility for example. Kate could barely get her knee bent to 90 degrees–90 degrees is how much your knee bends while just sitting in a chair. If we skipped the step of getting Kate’s flexibility back, the result would be a knee that doesn’t bend how it needs to for her to do the things she’ll later want in life; think going up and down stairs, being able to tie your shoe, being able to stand up from the toilet. I see this happen to a lot of people following total knee replacements, especially when they didn’t go through a period of rehab with a physical therapist after surgery. If Kate skipped this flexibility step, it’s much harder to get it back later, and it would limit how Kate moved for the rest of her life.
Persistence Vs. Patience
Gaining back mobility requires persistence and commitment to doing a little something each day. Lucky for both of us, Kate has an abundance of persistence. With lots of patients, my focus is on making sure they stay consistent with their exercise routine–this consistency has the biggest impact on how someone recovers from injury, surgery, pain, etc. With Kate, she bordered on too much persistence, and I often had to tell her to stop doing things.
She’d tell me things like “I did all my exercises double today, then I went out in the yard and hauled wood for 4 hours.”
Recovery is all about finding the perfect balance between challenging your body enough to help it grow but not too much to cause pain that slows the process down. There is a right amount of challenge to give your body. Once in a while I get patients who push too hard for their own good, so with Kate we worked on being patient while being persistent.
Prepping for a Comeback
We got there, Kate got stronger, more flexible and more steady. She went back to dance lessons when we all agreed she was ready–which included her dance instructor, David, at Simply Ballroom. Then Kate had another goal—she wanted to get back to ballroom dance competitions.
Competitions are different from dance practices, which might last an hour or two and, if something isn’t feeling good, you can slow down, modify, or take a break. Competitions are essentially all-day affairs where you are on the floor a number of times each day giving it your all. They are tons of fun, but a lot is asked of your body over 2-3 days.
This would be big for Kate but, again, she was persistent.
2 Days, 42 Dances
I ratcheted up all the exercise assignments to make sure she was challenged in ways that would help her come competition time. She practiced her dances, found the perfect dresses and packed up for Nashville this past January, where she’d be competing for the first time since her injury a year and a half ago.
Kate went big in Nashville. She danced 42 times in 2 days, competing in waltz, foxtrot, tango, quickstep and more. Being there, just being there and dancing, is a win. But Kate didn’t settle for that. In addition to regularly placing in her categories, she also came away with a few first prize honors.
Her knee supported her; it didn’t stop her.
Hope After Injury
Sometimes when we get injured and try going back to the activities we love, those activities hurt. Too often I talk to people who have given up on those activities. No one likes hurting, so I get it.
But there’s a better way. All bodies are capable of growth, and change, and recovery. You need to be strategic with how you go about that recovery, and that’s what your physical therapist is there to help you with.
If you have stopped doing something you love, because it hurt too much, I want you to know there’s still hope.
There was for Kate, and we celebrate all she’s done and all she’s yet to do. Kate, you are amazing!
I Want to Get Back to What I Love, Too!
If you are dealing with injury or pain that’s getting in the way of the things you love, contact us. I, Dr. Alex, am here to support you every step of the way, no matter where you are. Book your free 15-minute consult to talk with me about your concerns and learn more about how we work! Our online physical therapy and personal training can help you regain what you thought you’d lost and go strongly into your future.
At motivPT, we believe your body deserves to feel great.
