A Story of San Francisco 49ers guard Joshua Garnett's Return, Struggled to Be In-Shape After Knee Surgery

James
Wed Aug,2018
A Story of San Francisco 49ers guard Joshua Garnett's Return, Struggled to Be In-Shape After Knee Surgery American Football

Gaining your physique back from 326 pounds out of which 27% is your body fat isn't a joke, but when you are a high-level athlete like Joshua Garnett, it's very important to get back in shape as soon as possible or else escaping two straight seasons can cost you a whole career.

CAPTION: Joshua Garnett previous season's shape SOURCE: US Today

As we all know recovering from knee surgery means a lot of bed rest, constant rehabilitation. It is a super slow process in its own regards. Every active human body reacts to a sudden decrease in their daily activity reacts in a different way, and in many cases, they start preserving fats. This phenomenon directly affected  San Francisco 49ers guard Joshua Garnett. He was walking around at 326 lbs after his knee surgery. 

Joshua Garnett was absent from the entire 2017's season due to his injury and if he hadn't taken necessary stapes he could have missed this one too. In an ESPN interview, Garnett shared his experience as:

"The hardest part was really the mindset, A lot of times, football-wise, I think I'm going to go as hard as I can on the field. But you have got to think about it like, 'Oh, when I'm at home, I'm still gonna go hard.' Things like not eating this after 8 o'clock and I'm going to drink the protein water instead. Or maybe if I want to eat those Skittles, this time I'm going to put that down and I'm not going to eat that this time. It's those mental battles."

2016's first round pick for 49ers Garnett, was mostly talked about being out of shape in times where most of the players are seen talking how good their physique is in between the season breaks and Garnett set a phenomenal example by appearing in the training sessions in 304 pounds reducing his body fat from m27 to 21 percent.

To his incredible recovery, offensive coordinator/coach of the San Francisco 49ers Kyle Shanahan said:

"He took care of his body in the time away, Where he is right now is much further ahead to where he was last year in OTAs when I met him. He's in better shape, he runs better, he's stronger, he's lighter and he is giving himself a chance to compete now.”

Joshua Garnett said that he had to change his perspective of what food meant to him, rather than consuming food for the sensory pleasure he made some huge adjustments in consuming things like soda, candy, and alcohol, even at night he would restrain himself from fast food and look for options which seem to have worked for the athlete as he is lighter, more efficient and positive as per his teammates.

Nutrition coordinator Jordan Mazur and director of functional performance Elliott Williams are the two most valuable people who helped Garnett with devising meal plans and putting the new workout plans as per his body's requirement.

Garnett further explained the scenario around him as:

"The coaches asked me, 'Hey, we want you to be here and we want you to be this body fat and this weight', It's like, 'Well, I'm a professional athlete, it's my onus. They are not going to hold my hand.'"

But what is Garnett doing differently this time? As per Joshua Garnett, he ate healthy from Monday to Thursday but as soon as he had an off day, he would return home and end up eating unhealthily but now his meals are pre-packed for the rest of the day by his team. His rehab includes dietary plans and for off days, his breakfast, lunch, and dinner are pre-packaged and all he needs to do is to carry them home. 

Even at home he has tried opting out to see his food options and goes grocery shopping to a nearby place and buys his necessities which would include a healthy diet.

He also has a positive way of taking his 2017's knee injury, as he thinks that injury taught him a lot of things:

"I really felt like this injury was the best thing for me to where I can come back a new player, new body, new physique and if I can learn and get the techniques back that I had and get the power I had back with all these things I know now, I can really be that player that I know I can be"

But, even after all the rehabilitation, Garnette still has some doubt about his freshly mend knee, he needs time to adjust his mentality and figure things about his new position as he was recently re-positioned as a right guard from his former position as a left guard by his coaches.

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