59 Male LL exp w/ Dr. Assayag

UPDATE:
I am now over a month in. 26mm of lengthening in my right leg and 22mm in my left. At the beginning of the month, my left leg felt like I had a long knot on my quad whenever I moved my leg a certain way. Like when I opened my hips in a clamshell workout kind of motion. It was also super weak. I could barely lift it when attempting clamshells. I used the TENS machine, a massage gun, and a roller daily. I would massage this way for like 15 minutes using each device daily. Every once in a while I would switch the TENS device with the NMES device. This helped tremendously and I don’t get those knots in my quad anymore.

I still do lower body workouts for 20 to 50 minutes a day. Obviously non weight bearing workouts. I just feel better after moving around. It’s like my legs are lighter afterwards. Some examples of my workouts include hip thrusts, clamshells, calves using a resistance band, squats while using an assistance bar to help myself get up and sit down, simply walking with the walker, and cycling on my bike.

Lately I have been using this full leg compression heat massager. At first, it was much too painful even on the lowest intensity. Now it makes my legs feel amazing afterwards. I highly recommend this device. It’s like $100 on amazon. It has to be the one that goes up to your thigh. All it does is apply heat and squeeze.

I still consistently stretch for 2 hours daily. This is essential.

I don’t feel any tightness in my legs hopefully my proactiveness keeps the tightness away.

For a while the last lengthening session of the day would make my left quad feel terrible. It felt like it was being pulled apart. I’m pretty sure it was just a tightness issue. It was weird because my left leg was the shorter leg. That stopped happening after focusing mainly on my quads when stretching. It also helped to spread out the lengthening sessions more. I feel some tightness behind my knees now (behind my legs). For a while the tightness was only behind my right knee but it eventually picked up behind my left knee. It makes it a little bit more difficult to completely straighten out my legs but still very possible. Now, I stretch my hamstrings rigorously.

I am now at 51mm in my right and 46.25 in my left. Through all this since the last update my pain levels have not been high. The worst the pain has been was with my quad tightness after the final lengthening session. It was like a 4/10. That pain only lasted like 30 minutes though. My stopping point is exactly 76.2 mm.

Massages have not been necessary lately. I just stretch and do light, non weight bearing workouts.

My progress in terms of alleviating tightness and soreness has been extremely up and down. One thing that has been getting slowly worse is the tightness behind my knees. However, I started going to the pool and doing exercises in the pool last week and it helps a lot. The hot tub has been EXTREMELY helpful. The hot tub has been the best at making me feel loose and even helps me get more range of motion. I wish I did the hot tub earlier and more often in the lengthening phase. I’m at the end of my lengthening. I have 6.2mm left on my left and 1.45 on my right. I am fine with my proportions. Thankfully I didn’t have any nerve pain. 2 hours of daily stretching is non negotiable. In the first two months, I was extremely consistent with stretching. In the last month, I was honestly less consistent. I missed about 5 or 6 days of stretching in total. You feel the consequences when you do this. These days it’s easier to stand up and move around.

 I feel like now the real journey is about to start. My girlfriend thinks that I will never be as fast, strong, or explosive as I used to be. Most people on the internet feel this way about cosmetic LL. I am desperate to prove them wrong. At 5’8.5 or 174 cm, I was able to dunk a basketball consistently. I ran sub 50 seconds in the 400 meter sprint and I ran sub 23 seconds in the 200m. My deadlift was 450 and my squat was 335. Obviously it may take years to achieve these marks again but I’m certain I’ll find a way.

I take a bunch of supplements. I think they help out. Here is a list:

Multivitamins & Minerals - vitamins A C D K, Magnesium, Zinc & others. I’d recommend getting a brand that contains all of these packed in a pill.

Collagen - Type I, II, III, V, & X

Calcium Citrate

Turmeric with Ginger Tablets by

Biotin - This is really more for hair and nails. I do feel like my hair got much longer after taking these.

Omega 3 - DHA & EPA. You MUST get the brands that explicitly state DHA & EPA. Some may have other natural oils and water but a majority must come from DHA & EPA to get the full benefits of Omega 3.

Boost Fiber & Protein nutritional drink - this drink also has vitamins & minerals.

Fiber - I add Metamucil flavorless fiber to my drinks at least once a day.

I have been taking these supplements everyday for about a year now.

They are both extremely competent doctors. I don’t think you could go wrong with either.
You may be happier with Dr. Assayag because his surgery is significantly less expensive. Tbh, I don’t think Assayag’s prices will continue to be this low for much longer. That’s just my opinion.

During my lengthening process I did not run into any issues. It did get pretty tight during the last 14 centimeters. After I finished lengthening, I continued to stretch for 2 hours a day for about a week. Then, I stretched for 1 hour a day for another week. I have been stretching for 30 minutes everyday since. I would say my flexibility and range of motion is the same as a regular person now but I’m not currently as flexible as I used to be pre-surgery. I currently walk with one cane (No more crutches, wheelchair, or walker) while one leg continues to consolidate. I will be full weight bearing exactly 6 months after my first surgery.

 One thing that has been tough is standing up from a sitting position with no hands. This is something I accomplished for the first time yesterday. I did this from my bed which is just slightly above parallel. I have been working out a lot. Within the last week I’ve been using weights and I do see a lot of improvement. I am super sore though. I’ve noticed that my hips feel like they have a lot of pressure when squatting. This has been slowly going away. My walk is pretty regular even with a cane.

My left IT Band and knee were not been feeling the best initially. My knee issue was most likely from preexisting issues. My knee would grind a little bit when I would squat. That went away by just exercising I guess. I’m honestly not sure what caused it or why it went away. The pain in my left IT band is also slowly fading. It doesn’t bother me as much as it used to.

I get into the pool at least once a week. When I was lengthening swimming just wasn’t possible because my groin was incredibly tight. It felt like I pulled my groin every time I kicked. Now, I swim about 500 meters per session. I also run laps and do dynamic stretches in the pool.

I think one thing that I have not addressed is growing 3 inches in my mid twenties while only telling my girlfriend about the procedure. It’s pretty obvious that people are going to notice. However, if you wear shoe lifts pre surgery you may be able to make it less obvious. I purchased shoes from ShoesThatMakeYouTaller.com & TallMensShoes.com and these shoes would make me 2.3 inches (5.84cm) taller. I also always opted to wearing thick sole shoes and inserted lifts in them. I knew years ahead of time that I was going to do CLL so I would wear these lifted shoes every time I went out or I had people over. I slowly increased the height of my lifts until I got to 2.3 inches. Now that I’ve gotten the procedure I wear barefoot shoes. I actually faked it until I made it. So far only one close family member has noticed my height gain. I obviously deny the allegations lol. Other friends and family have not said anything. It’s possible that people noticed and just don’t say anything or people really just don’t care about what I have going on. Honestly, I will never tell anyone because people can be extremely hateful about this. It also really helps that I’m a pretty solitary person.

In terms of my explanation of why I was in crutches, I just told them that I had an injury from an accident. I came up with a specific story that really matches my personality. I also made sure the timeline of healing matches the fake injury. My experience with this is that I ended having to tell the same lie over and over again. I prefer not to lie and I’ve considered just telling it how it is but my girlfriend and I really thought that would be a horrible, terrible idea.

My progression has been kind of crazy. Just on the 3rd of this month, I could not get up from a seated position. Yesterday I hit full body weight, ass to grass squats for 2 sets of 6 while resting at the bottom.  When I first started squatting from 2 chairs (1 stacked on top of the other), I felt like I was about to pass out because of how hard I had to push just to stand up.

My flexibility: I can sit on my ankles with no issue. I can sit there for 5 minutes for no issue. I can garland pose with no issue and then stand up from the position. I can’t touch my toes yet but I’m pretty close. I’m like 5 inches off. I think my flexibility already exceeds the average person.

My strength: I am still very weak. I cannot do lunge walks yet. On the horizontal leg press machine, I do 50 to 85 pounds for 8 reps. On the 45 degree leg press, I do 118 pounds for 8 reps with no issue. I could probably do more. I deadlifted 105 yesterday for about 6 reps.

My Stamina: I walked a mile last week and it was hard. I do all sorts of cardio like cycling, rowing, walking, and the elliptical machine.

My standing: I think I’m in a great position because I haven’t been cleared for fwb on my right leg. Once I get the clearance, I’ll be able to slowly and carefully do more explosive training. I feel really soar a lot. I got a pretty bad charlie horse yesterday in my right hip. My right leg is weaker than my left. I still use a cane.

I am now 9 months post surgery. I took a 2 week break from working out for personal reasons but I still got stronger which is a little odd.

It’s been a while since my last update. I’m just going to list the things that I couldn’t do before that I can do now. I will also mention how long it took me to do these movements with day 0 as the first day of weight bearing. I’ve been full weight bearing for exactly 3 months now.

Lunges - They were extremely difficult at first but after many reps, I can do them with weights now. It took about a month to do lunges comfortably again.

Side Lunges - I just started doing full/deep depth side lunges like two weeks ago. These are not easy at all. I have not added weights to this exercise yet.

Body Weight Leg Extensions - These are difficult for like 95% of the able bodied population including me pre surgery and I was someone who was athletically gifted (I was dunking at 174cm tall). I can do these for 3 reps after a warmup. It took 3 months to do this.

Duck Walks - These were not too difficult for me. It took 2 weeks to do them and 4 weeks to do them with 45 pounds.

Side Plank Hip Abduction - I accomplished this prior to full weight bearing. Do not do this while lengthening. It can irritate the muscles around your hips.

Jumping - I can jump right now. My vertical jump is probably 12 inches lol. It used to be 40 inches. I can do things like jump onto my 2 feet high bed or couch. I did this for the first time in the last week.

Running - I am capable of running. It feels like a lot of effort. I ran for the first time earlier this week as well. I did about 2 miles or 3.22 kilometers.

Sprinting - This is still very awkward. I tried sprinting in the past week but I’m not sure if the speeds I accomplished would qualify as sprinting lol.

Single Leg Dead Lift - From the moment I started full weight bearing, my left leg had no issues doing this but my right leg took 2 entire months to finally do it as well as my left.

Body Bridge - This took 2 months to accomplish. My legs just didn’t have enough strength before that.

Back Squats - I am doing 135 pounds for reps. Front Squats - Same here. 135 pounds. My squat progression has been extremely gradual. I started out barely able to do bodyweight squats. I had to use support to do squats because I couldn’t support my body weight. Eventually I didn’t need the support anymore. I progressed like dumbbells and then a 45 pound bar and I eventually started adding weight to the bar. I could probably do more but I’m in no rush.

Conventional Deadlifts - Not sumo deadlifts I deadlift 205 for reps right now. This was gradual as well but my starting point was much higher.

Single Leg Body Weight Squat - I am still working on this.

As more time passed I noticed my legs felt less heavy and more explosive. My main goals right now is improving my middle split, squatting 225 for reps, and deadlifting 305 for reps. Once I accomplish this I will switch my focus to sprinting faster and jumping higher while lifting less and doing the same amount of yoga.