Many of you know the sting of injuries and how they can hurt you both physically and mentally. Fortunately, most injuries heal with time. Sometimes, time is all it takes but other situations might require anti-inflammatories, physical rehab or even surgery. Either way, you’ll ultimately be back to 100% at some point.
But not everyone is always so fortunate. Consider, for example, arthritis. For most people in its advanced stages, they’re told there’s nothing they can do. It will only get worse, not better and living with pain will be your new norm. That’s exactly what I was told about my right elbow, so no more heavy dips, benching etc. Still, I refused to give up and vowed that it would get better. I always had hope.
Searching for Solutions
So I kept looking. The best solution of course is re-growing new cartilage, something only intra-articular GH can do. At least in those cases like mine, where there is none left. Yes there is PRP aka platelet rich plasma, stem cell etc. but in the absence of any cartilage whatsoever, I was told the success rate was very low. And while I didn’t spring for the stem cell thing I did get PRP, which only proved they were right – what little relief I got was only temporary. And it was an expensive experiment. But I still had hope…
Over the years though, I HAVE found things that’ve helped – Glucosamine, Chondroitin, Cissus, Fish Oil etc. And to be clear, these caused a major improvement. How major? It’s the difference between not being able to hold a handstand at all, vs. doing handstand pushups with a weight vest. Nothing to sneeze at, especially when you’re left with the prognosis I was.
So at this point, I knew 2 things…
1.) What they said about “there’s nothing you can do, it just gets worse” wasn’t true and;
2.) If anything, I had even more hope than when I started
Hope is a powerful thing, but it cuts both ways. When you believe there’s no hope, you will almost certainly fail. Everything is negative and nothing will work, so why even bother?
Didn’t the Dr. himself say there was no hope? He’s a Dr., right? Folks, I’m here to tell you that Dr’s. are people like you and me. There are good ones, there are bad ones and everything in between.
But here’s the thing: They don’t live in our world. A world that historically has been at the forefront of many breakthroughs the medical community has only recently grudgingly admitted to.
Myths Debunked
Resistance training makes you musclebound and slow – until we proved the opposite. Fat was bad and carbs were good for weight loss – until we proved the opposite. High protein diets are toxic to the kidneys and won’t help you grow more muscle – Until we proved both of those false too. I could go on and on forever, but you get the picture.
So I kept looking, and I’m happy to report I’ve found something that works for severe arthritis better than anything I’ve ever tried. I’ll be dropping this in tomorrow’s BP Bulletin, but needless to say I’m excited about it. Even with glucosamine/cissus etc. I was unable to perform a single dip, my right elbow just collapsed.
Yesterday, I did reps with a 45lb plate hanging from my waist. This something took 4 years to find. 4 years since I was originally told, “there’s nothing you can do”. Turns out there was, and I’m not done yet. Not by a long shot.
I’ll finish with a quote from Samuel Smiles: “Hope is the companion of power and the mother of success; for he who hopes strongly has within him, the gift of miracles.”
