Don’t know where else to post this, but given the way Dr. Smith has helped me just keep this old body going, I figure it falls under “building a better body.”
So I was invited to a rugby camp - the North American 4 - where I was hoping to be selected for the US National Rugby team. I’ve been playing rugby on and off for a while now, but have managed to end up in the professional world where training and playing have had to be an after-hours priority.
You can imagine I was thrilled to get the invite and the possibility of representing this amazing country, even though we are routinely considered massive underdogs.
So you can also imagine my horror when, one morning after a series of tire-pulls and sprints, I could barely sit up in bed. In spite of traditional physiotherapy, the pain came back right away even with a slow jog. I could barely play a game of particularly exciting chess for the pain. And rugby is about exploding through gaps in defense, tackling, jumping and getting off the ground quickly. I was pretty sure I was watching my dream disappear with every agonizing step.
But, based on my experience with T-Nation, I found an ART guy in my area who kept me going - diagnosed my sports hernia (which will require surgery soon) - but obviously couldn’t come with me to camp. So by pure coincidence, I managed to find an ART practitioner in Ohio, sent a hopeful email to him, and was surprised and pleased to get a quick reply - he was willing to work with me in between the two-a-days and the games we had to play.
When I limped over to his office after our first day at camp (a full on bash-fest as we tried to sort out the hierarchy early on among the best domestic players in the US…boys will be boys), he patiently worked the iliapsoas and the other muscles that were so tight you could have played Ol’ Susannah on them. We got to talking and lo and behold - it’s Dr. Ryan Smith from Testosterone Nation. Because of my long experience (since 1998 at least) with T-Nation, well, I knew I was in good hands.
Every day I’d crawl into his office, and every day he’d work miracles. Somehow, I’d be back up (along with praying to St. Motrin, at about 2 grams/day) in time to get onto the field. Yes, I was still as sore as a three dollar hooker on nickel night, but there was ZERO chance of doing it otherwise. Ryan even volunteered his Saturday to come to our camp and work me before a game (after he had spent the morning squatting with Dave Tate of course - he’s got his priorities straight).
The guy’s a genius technically but also has the rare gift of understanding what people are prepared to do to live their dreams, and how important that is - no matter how small those dreams might be. Fast forward two weeks and I finally ran onto the pitch wearing the Eagles jersey, receiving my first “Cap” for the US National team.
It was a pretty one-sided game, alas, as the Canadians rolled us and left us to qualify for next year’s World Cup by having a home and away play off v Uruguay - but the fact that I was able to participate in whatever small way is testimony to ART, to Dr. Smith and - dare I say - to T-Nation and this great site.
Because I knew things like ART existed, and because I find inspiration every day from T-Nation folks’ incredible triumphs over our respective odds, I was able to grind through the hernia and have a dream come true.
Oh, the Alpha Male, Surge, Power Drive and Creatine probably helped too.
So I’ve still got to have surgery, since something as simple as sneezing is like putting a hot fork in my guts, but I wanted to share this with anyone who cared. Moral of the story: you never know how T-Nation might help you out. Some say that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I would venture that T-Nation proves something in addition to that: that if you put the tough together, they can get going even better.
Thank you, Ryan.
