alpinisto's blog

The corona crisis has caused a lot of unhealthy changes in my life as it struck just a few months after I had had a surgery of my right knee in October 2019 to solve my longtime knock-knee problem and had finished the mandatory rehabilitation from the hospital and was transferred to my well-known gym for further recovery, a recovery which then was forced to a stop because of the corona pandemic.

Only a few months last summer I was able to return to my gym, and I was also able to fly to Frankfurt in July for a single wrestling match, my only wrestling match since February 2020 when I was able to wrestle an American coming to Copenhagen for a conference, but luckily he also had the time to wrestle me.

Since then nothing major has happened, except for that I finally had the second surgery this March and now am about to work my way through the mandatory rehabilitation from the hospital - and in principle this goes very well forward, as I appear to proceed faster than I did after the previous surgery. However, the downside is that I also clearly can feel the loss of muscle tissue because of the very limited physical activity I've done during the recent eighteen months. Therefore I am still not able to work on my scissors yet, but hopefully this will come soon so they can return to their previous strength.

Thus my original idea about having this second surgery this spring while waiting for the corona pandemic to ease off seems still to work as planned. With a bit of luck I should be able to finish the mandatory rehabilitation from the hospital coming July, and according to our official vaccination plans I also should have had my vaccine by then. So my idea that both important timelines would finish at the same time still seems to work.

One more important timeline also fit in with this pattern, because in July it will be four months since I had the second surgery - and I also had my first wrestling match after my first surgery four months later, so I actually should be able to meet for wrestling again at the same time as I will have finished the mandatory rehabilitation from the hospital and I should have the vaccine which can enable me to travel for wrestling. And still have about forty guys all over Europe which would like to wrestle me. Plus a handful on the east coast of the United States.

I surely will have to be lenient when I return to wrestling as I surely will need to build up my muscles again - but I know that wrestling is the best workout for wrestling, it may be submission wrestling or just play wrestling for a start. But I certainly am looking forward to get sweaty on the mat again coming August and the following months!

My intention that I could return to my old routine of wrestling every month after I had had that wrestling match in Frankfurt last July, foundered as the second wave of the pandemic flushed all over the globe, and as a result of this we were advised not to travel to other countries in the world, except for the Vatican State, though I don't have any plans to wrestle the Pope! And since all my potential wrestling opponents were living in other countries I have been forced to put all my wrestling plans on hold - and hope those opponents will still be happy to meet me for a wrestle once the pandemic is over.

Thus I now, nearly half a year later, can look back on a time with very minimal physical activity, but at least I yesterday received the good news that we in Denmark probably will have a vaccine at the end of this year. So once this vaccine has been given to the most vulnerable citizens like the chronicals as well as the most needed people in the health and elderly care it can be given to the more general citizens like me. So with a little luck I could be vaccinated some time in the beginning of Summer 2021.

In the meantime I am now considering to have the surgery of my left knee done, a surgery which was postponed last February, while it seems that I won't be able to do neither traveling nor wrestling anyway. So that I at least will be able to get something out of this lockdown. Thus I now am scheduled to have the surgery done medio March, and if I need the same time to recover after the surgery as I did after the surgery on my right knee, I should be able to do the first wrestling match four months later. Which will be some time in July, a time when vaccine should be available.

Although I then won't have the same stamina as I had before the surgeries, not to mention muscle tissue, I will then find out if all those wrestling matches I had postponed at the start of the pandemic can still be opened again. Also because the number of opponents I almost a year ago had planned to wrestle has not become smaller in the meantime. Actually I have during the pandemic been contacted by more people who would like to wrestle me. And the good thing is that now I also have more time and money to travel to more opponents.

So once my knees are good again and I've had that vaccine I am ready to wrestle even more. And if that will happen it will become a good Christmas present for me!

After having had the successful hotel wrestle in February I soon updated my return to wrestling after my knee surgery in October and soon I had a good plan, in which I was to begin in Berlin in March and moving on to Bremen and Brussels in April. So that I in May could have a real wrestling holiday in London, where I could wrestle five different guys. But this good plan came to nought because I couldn't even begin the plan when the corona pandemic struck. And to add insult to injury my gym was now closed so that I neither could finish my rehabilitation after the surgery, nor do just a little bit of physical exercise, which the fight I had had in February showed me that my body was in need of.

Thus after the initial four months of rehabilitation I had another three months of non-activity because of the closed gyms. And as I still could not run, which previously had been my primary mean of workout, I had decided that I at least could do some long walks. Which certainly was better than nothing, but it clearly lacked the unexpected and surprising element, which is a vital part in wrestling. So I was happy when our gyms opened again on June 8th, and even more so when our borders opened to a small number of European countries (three) a week later. So now I could return to planning my return to wrestling.

Luckily Germany was one of the three countries we were allowed to travel to, but due to local restriction it wasn't practical to go to Berlin as I initially had planned. But I had another potential adversary in Frankfurt am Main, who luckily had planned his summer holiday a few weeks later, and as the airlines were beginning to fly again I pretty soon had booked a long weekend in Frankfurt.

Three guys I could wrestle in Frankfurt, and on Saturday it was planned that I could wrestle a big guy, which I had had three rounds with last year. He was from the area near Kassel and was looking for a revenge with me. But unfortunately he had a work accident while I was on my way down to Frankfurt, so respectably he sent me a message about what had happened and that he now was unable to wrestle. The other guy I was to wrestle in Frankfurt was a local guy, who previously had challenged me for a match, and him I should wrestle on Sunday. But even before I had arrived in Frankfurt he stopped replying to my messages, so I never heard from him. Thus a veritable no-show and thus he was the first guy I had put an abuse flag for, as he had plenty of possibility to tell me if he couldn't wrestle.

The third guy, Gerd Uwe, aka HardfightFfm, was not any of that kind. Some time earlier he had taken over one of my leotards, which had been too small for me and I was not only happy that he could make good use of my leotard now I was too big for it, but also I was happy that I now could wrestle him. Also he had offered me that I could stay the night with him and I could make use of his mats while I was there - though the two other potential wrestling opponents never showed up. But Gerd Uwe was here and I was happy that I finally could wrestle him.

Gerd Uwe was a lightweight guy, and given our weight difference I knew that I should not make too much use of my weight advantage, which is what I usually don't do when wrestling much lighter opponents. On the other hand I had not been wrestling for close to half a year and also had not had much workout in the same time because of the pandemic, but I expected that it would be about the same for Gerd Uwe. Though I could not cover the fact that I weighed about a half time more than him, so when I wanted to move he could hardly stop me from doing so, even though his body was built of strong bones and with muscles as steel.

I could have squashed him if I wanted, but I didn't feel like putting my full weight on him, as this would be unfair to do, so I had quite some fun in letting him put me in some hold and then try to break free from them, which mostly was successful. After all this could give me the muscular workout I had lacked for too many months.

We rolled around for quite some time and it felt good being back in wrestling again, even if I still was unable to run in a decent way. In was good that I had tried wrestling again, even though the doctors had told me that I should not expect to wrestle until three months after I had picked up running again. Towards the end I decided to put him in a good solid bearhug, and I wondered if I could make his bones creak like I had experienced it in the old days. But this was unsuccessful, as there was not a sound to be heard. Obviously I had not so much strength in my body as I had had in the old days, so this I would have to change when I was back home in the gym again.

I wondered if this match could become a return to my old routine of wrestling every month, though this probably was out of my control as the virus was still among us, and in other places and countries spreading faster than it had done before. Personally I had not been affected by the virus, even though thousands of people had died from it and millions had been infected. So I think I've done best in only traveling to the countries where our health authorities do not advice against traveling, and at the moment this meant that London and Great Britain was still out of bound. But Belgium was now open, so maybe Brussels could be the place for my next wrestling match if our health authorities still do not advice against traveling there.

I had a knee prosthesis put in my body last October and then was told that I should expect to wait 6-9 months before I could begin wrestling again, but when I was to the final check-up in the hospital at the beginning of this month the surgeon told me, that I should be prepared to put my wrestling on the shelf, as a contact sport like wrestling would not be good for the more brittle prosthesis I now had. Which was not what I had planned for, as I have always had an active life, and I had undergone this surgery to continue my physical activities and not to stop them. Probably the surgeon was referring to boxing as a contact sport and not wrestling. In any case he had not taken BIGguywrestlerBE in his equation.

Since the surgery I had intented to return to wrestling after these six months inactivities though I was planning to have my first wrestling match in Berlin this March, which was only five months after the surgery. But a week after this last check-up in the hospital I was challenged by this big guy from New York, who was coming to Copenhagen for work. And this opportunity to wrestle him was a too good chance to miss, as I have never met other Danish wrestlers here so I had always had to travel to other countries to get to wrestle. Also had always loved to wrestle guys heavier than myself, and this guy was 70 pounds heavier than me!

My rehab after the surgery had finished mid-January and then I could return to my local gym, but it was only last Thursday I did my full program of 15 exercises with each three reps and increasing weights, which I had done before the surgery. Though this time I didn't put on more weights through the reps to make sure that I would be able to do all 15 exercises. And this worked, though I was pretty knackered the day after - but in a good way. So how would it work to wrestle this big guy on Saturday?

I had prepared myself for this first match the best I could. I had chatted with other wrestlers here on MeetFighters which have had similar surgeries, and none of them had needed to stop wrestling but had returned to wrestling after a period, and I had bought a special inflated 'rubber ball' knee pad to spare my right knee for potential problems. Also I had talked with my coming opponent that he needed to be careful with my right knee, because a direct hit would not be good for it. Finally I was happy that this match was to be a hotel fight, because when wrestling on the double bed there would be less chance to have a direct hit to my knee.

As we had agreed upon we met in the lobby of his hotel, and as I usually do I greeted him with a bearhug, though with wrestling we waited until we came to his hotel room. This guy was a bit shorter than me, but it surprised me that he should be 70 pounds heavier than me because he didn't look that heavy. We swiftly changed into our wrestling singlets and went down on the bed to wrestle.

Obviously I tried to do the moves I was used to from previous times, and for some time it worked quite well. I soon found out that this big guy had a weak spot, but as usual I tried not to make advantage of realising this. Because for me the most important aspect today was to have a good and sweaty match, as I usually see this as a sign that I have had a good match, so I had no wish to finish this match too soon - I was only happy that I seemed to be able to wrestle well though I clearly cold feel my lack of fitness and power. The new knee pad on my right knee worked excellent while the one on my left knee much too often slid down. I had a feeling that this was because of my left leg had become thinner after four months of doing nothing.

Although I had a feeling that I was wrestling quite well I much too soon felt my stamina lacking and suddenly I was caught in this big guy's steely body scissor. Even though he was 25 years younger than me he had more than hundred past opponents and besides wrestling he was also lifting weights. So there was a good reason why he had legs solid as telephone poles. Once he got hold of me in his scissors he could just lie back and relax while I, desperately gasping for air, tried to free myself from his steely legs. I have always liked solid legs, but these were a bit too close for comfort.

I had not expected to win this match against a guy 25 years younger than me and weighing 70 pounds more, especially after not having wrestled for six months, but was only happy that I had been able to wrestle him for nearly an hour. Though I can't avoid to feel that he had been kind to me because of my obvious weakness - but still happy that it seemed right for me that I had returned to wrestling and not shelved this activity just because my surgeon had recommended me to do so. I would probably have a sore body the next days - and this I had, though it was a good feeling of my body having done something which it is made for. Also I have the feeling that this big guy was happy to wrestle me as well, and as he might remain in Copenhagen for three more weeks I can only hope that I can get the chance to wrestle him again before he returns to New York.

And then I still have the intention to visit my wrestling friends in Berlin in March, so Berlin seems to become my next wrestling travel.

Three months had passed since the surgery, where my well used right knee had been exchanged with a prosthesis after nine marathon races, 40 years of climbing mountains all over the world and a load of long-distance hikes, which had taken its toll on both my knees. The right knee was the most worn, so it went under surgery last October, and then the left knee was supposed to get under the knife this January. Yesterday I was back in the hospital for the last check-up after the surgery of my right knee, so I had a feeling that this meeting would be very important and a guideline for my wrestling future.

The result of this last check-up can be cut down to one good news and one bad news. The bad news was that the surgeon was of the opinion that I should expect to put my wrestling on the shelf, as a contact sport like wrestling would not be good for the more brittle prosthesis I now had. I had had the impression that a knee not really was an hinge, but only worked as one. I supposed that there was nothing which physically connected these three bones, as it only was my leg muscles and tendons keeping the leg connected and functional, and such muscles can be trained.

The good news was that my surgeon had shelved his previous plan that I also needed to have a prosthesis for my left knee this winter, and this told me that I wouldn't need to rush my wrestling this year, as this no longer needed to be done before June, when I had expected to have my second surgery.

I had the previous month done some beforehand planning of who, when and where I wanted to wrestle before I would be in for the next surgery. I actually had been considering meeting other wrestlers in Berlin, Bremen, London, Brussels and Florida plus an extra travel to a non-wrestler in Dresden. All places to travel to before or not later than June. Surely I would love to do them all, but I was happy that I no longer needed to have the big rush to do them all before June. So I an now thinking of returning to my old wrestling plan of doing a wrestle every month, which should give me good enough time to recover after the matches.

Two of these plans I have put on high priority, and these are my travels to Berlin and London. Berlin I am sure will come first, because some of my friends there, the guys I have wrestled the most often, will surely accept a slow recovery match for me so I this way will be able to find out whether I will be ready to wrestle now or I will have to wait longer. And the other plan is London, because I have a long-time invitation to go there, which had not been possible because of the Brexit troubles.

The London trip will probably be a longer travel, because it is now four years ago since I last time visited London and there are so many guys I'd love to wrestle there, so I probably also will need some extra days between the matches while I am there. And at least one of them is a heavyweight guy I had had the wish of wrestling for many years, so I better have to prepare my body and muscles for that match.

But for the time being I am expecting that my next wrestling match, and my first after the surgery, will take place in Berlin, hopefully in the beginning of March.