Trust(ing) the Process

So here it is, my debut blog for the illustrious Evolutio Avengers crew. I may or may not have called us that without their knowledge, but it seems relevant given the new Marvel movie is out. Oh, and I’m definitely the Captain America of the group - I’ll let you figure out why and who the remaining characters are.  Now, if I’m being honest writing a blog is way out of my comfort zone, putting words to paper (or laptop) has never been my forte throughout school, and frankly, hasn’t improved much since. I’d much rather use my hands or pictures to express my thoughts. Anyway here goes…

For those of you who don’t know me, or we haven’t yet had the pleasure to meet - I’m Phill. Yes, you read two L’s, I assure you it’s not a spelling error, simply, my mother gave me two so I use them every chance I get. I have recently returned to Melbourne after spending a couple of years in sunny, warm, beachy, picturesque Sydney – yes I liked it, no I don’t regret moving back, yes the traffic is terrible and house prices are outrageous, but it’s still a great place.  We’ll save a Melb Vs Syd blog for a rainy day, because let’s face it, we have plenty of those here in Melbourne.

I have decided to call this blog – TRUST(ing) THE PROCESS or #TTP. I feel this is relevant now as the Philadelphia 76ers fans were the first recorded to chant the above slogan during their well-documented dark days, and just last week they played in the NBA Basketball Play-Offs, (which for those of you who don’t know, it’s kind of a big deal given that three years ago they were terrible). Their fans stuck by them, and trusted what the coaching and management staff were building toward and continued to support and back them – and for those AFL fans reading along at home, much like the mighty Tigers. Where am I going with this you might ask? Good question. This is actually very relevant to physiotherapy, injury rehabilitation, and/or strength and conditioning.  Here’s why…

I can assume that many of you reading this, at some point may have invested your time and hard-earned cash in trusting what your physio or coach has instructed to build toward an end goal. Whether this is getting rid of that niggly ache in your shoulder first thing in the morning; returning to the soccer field after rupturing your ACL, or making 100% of your lifts in your debut lifting competition. I still remember the first time I signed up for an Olympic lifting competition giving myself almost 12 weeks to prepare for it. I approached a colleague to be my coach who I believed had the knowledge/skills to prepare an appropriate training program for me with the hope of avoiding an embarrassment on the platform. I trusted him. I trusted he knew what he was doing. I trusted that if I put in the required time and effort to follow the process that my lifts would increase. But I admit - it was hard! I don’t mean lifting the 10 x 3 Clean Pulls at 110%1RM, or the Squat Clean and Push Press Complexes over and over and over. Ohh no, that was the easy part. The hard part was trusting that what I was doing was going to achieve my goals. And it did. It’s fair to say there were many doubts going through my mind, especially in the 2-3 weeks leading up to the competition. All of a sudden, I started missing lifts, and missing numbers I had been hitting easily just a week prior. The thing is - I wasn’t getting weaker, I was just doubting the process.

So, let’s bring this back. Have you recently seen a physio and gone over a plan that you trust in? Are you currently training for a competition with full confidence you will achieve your final goal? Are you now willing to put in the effort and trust the process to achieve your final goal? If not, maybe the plan’s not quite right for you or maybe it wasn’t explained in a way that makes sense to you. If this is the case, tell us (or them)! Maybe it needs to be explained in another way so you do understand, and so you do trust it. We’re in this process together remember!

Now, I’m not suggesting we’re Dr. Strange and can use the Time Stone to see all possibilities of what will happen in the future, because here’s a little secret… we don’t know exactly what will happen. Unfortunately, we’re not actually superheroes. What I do know for sure, is that the Evolutio Avengers crew are committed to doing our job well. So we create individual plans that we believe in. Plans that we ask you to believe in and commit to, simply by TRUSTING THE PROCESS. #TTP