John-

Awesome site — I have been a big fan of CrossFit Football since discovering the program two years ago. I really enjoy “TTMJ,” especially the article regarding training while recovering from ACL injury.

On Wednesday, I will be having minor surgery to remove a lipoma on the right side of my neck. My lipoma is a benign fat accumulation; although the procedure is 100% elective, my doctor recommended I have it removed while I’m young and can recover quickly. However, the estimated recovery period is three weeks of “no physical activity.”

As an NFL veteran and one experienced with numerous surgical procedures, I was hoping for your advice. While I do not want to upset the stitches and set my recovery time back further, three weeks is quite a long time. I fear that my strength and conditioning will suffer over this layoff. My college swim coach used to say, “For every day you are out of the water, it takes two days of training to catch up.”

If nothing else, I will continue my mobility work so that I do not lose the flexibility required for the Olympic lifts.

Thanks for any advice and keep up the great work,

Richard

DON’T FALL BEHIND IN BLACK OPS#1

*TTMJ has been flooded with injury questions as of late. I have been working through few of the more serious ones, so stay tuned.

Richard,

Take your doctor’s advice and relax. We can overlook the possibility that sometimes mandatory induced training breaks allow us to heal other injuries and offer us a desperately need recovery from hard training.

And you have probably fallen behind in Black Ops skills. Remember, somewhere their is a 13 year old kid who has logged 14,000 hours on Black Ops and it was only released in November.

Late in the season in 2004, I tore my hip flexor in a Monday night game against the Patriots. My knee was badly banged up from two surgeries, a long training camp and longer season, the torn hip flexor came as a result of overcompensating for the knee. The torn hip flexor injury kept me out for a few weeks and the time off allowed my knee to heal. In the end, one injury allowed the other more severe one to heal.

Take this chance to work on your mobility and rest up. I am sure when you go to back to see the doctor in a weeks time to check progress, he will remove the stitches and clear you to start training.

Best of luck,

John