Not Everyone Can Be Fit...

When life gives you an opportunity to get fit, grab it.

Author

Rafi Hussaini
October 12, 2023

Current Fitness Goal: 160 lbs by Oct. 14, 2023
Current Weight (As of 10/12): 162 lbs

When life gives you an opportunity to get fit, grab it.

I learned this the hard way.

Up until 2012, I was playing soccer in the streets of Abu Dhabi. I got hit many times, fell, got up and continued the game. This was a normal, and I didn’t think much of it until…

I moved to Canada and was LAZY for the first 3 months. I gained a ton of weight and when I decided to play soccer again, I tore my ACL. This was the first of many injuries.

After the ACL tear, I stopped playing all sports. But I’m a competitive guy and I really do like sports, so I couldn’t just sit doing nothing forever. After about a year of inactivity, I started playing again - this time it was volleyball. I went up for a spike, landed on my left foot, and I heard a snap, crackle, pop - torn meniscus in my left leg.

That was my 2nd strike, I still didn’t realize what was happening or why it was happening to me. I did partial PT and recovered a little bit, but did not do any proper rehab, fitness, or conditioning. On top of that, I took another 2 year break from sports. Then my friends started getting into ball hockey…

I show up for ball hockey, having never played the game in my life. In fact, I didn’t even know how the game worked, just that we needed to score in the opposing net. During the game, my left knee popped out of place and someone had to pop it back in (I know, yikes!). And that was strike 3: a torn MCL.

To this day, I can’t figure out why I made this decision, but shortly after the MCL tear I signed up for a soccer league. I thought I was fine, they were all partial tears and I had been using a knee brace any time I was doing something higher intensity. My PT told me I need to slowly transition off my knee brace and I decided what the heck, let me play soccer without the brace. I don’t remember which game it was, but I got shoved, and boom! I aggravated my ACL tear. That was my 4th strike, this was when I realized completely that I was done with sports, at least for now.

This time I took rehab more seriously and I was about to get married as well - so I was extra motivated to lose weight. This fitness journey started as a short sprint before I got married, but Alhumdulilah it has turned into something I’m passionate about and maintain to this day - over 5 years later.

During this time, I shifted my focus from sports to fitness. I started swimming and slowly started weight lifting, but also I had decided that I was going to get official physical therapy done. As I started losing weight, my body started feeling lighter on my knees and joints, this was one of the biggest reasons why my injuries happened - my upper body had gotten heavier and my knees couldn’t handle the increased load.

After 6 months of physical therapy, weightlifting, and cardio, I joined the soccer league again in the summer of 2019 - this time with my knee brace on just to be safe. This was by far, one of the best times I had playing the game of soccer since my childhood in Abu Dhabi.

The fact that I lost weight and started running made my stamina a lot better and I felt good overall. As time passed, during practice games I’d take off my knee brace and play. After about 2 years I was able to take the brace off completely, Alhumdulilah.

My injuries, the rehab process, and learning about fitness made me realize that although maintaining your fitness is not easy, it is necessary. Staying active and maintaining a level of fitness is one of the best ways to prevent injuries from happening.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re good unless something happens, because at that point its too late to prevent it.

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