Kurt Angle has dealt with numerous injuries in his career, but the Olympic Hero is on the correct road to recovery.
The Hall of Famer spoke about his recent back surgery on the latest edition of his podcast, where admits that he worked out much sooner than doctors told him he should.
I hope my doctor is not listening to this. The day I got out of the hospital after my surgery, I when and worked out. I was supposed to take six weeks off, but I never stopped working out. I worked out the day of my surgery, the day after that, and the day after that. What I did is, I did a lot of stuff sitting so I wouldn’t affect my back, because they told me I couldn’t carry more than five pounds. Now, I was lifting more than five pounds, and I think that I probably didn’t listen to them in that aspect, but I wasn’t literally carrying it while I was walking. I was sitting while I was lifting. So I did leg presses sitting down. I did my bench press sitting down. I did my military press sitting down. Everything I did was sitting down, so I took care of my back, but I didn’t want to miss my workouts.
As for the surgery, Angle says he is happy with how it went. He adds that he is still dealing with lower back pain but it’s not nearly as bad as it was prior to the operation.
I’m good, not too bad. I still have pain in my lower back, but I don’t have pain running down my legs anymore. They kicked that, but the pain in my back is still there. It’s unfortunate, but I can deal with this. I couldn’t deal with the pain going down my legs. So, I’m happy with the surgery.
That being said, Angle still doesn’t feel like he can truly play with his kids, and reveals that he will be having neck fusion surgery in 2024, which should hopefully put him in a better spot.
The crazy thing is I haven’t been able to really play with them the way I want to because I had my knees replaced and my back surgery. Before that, it was all bothering me. I was really messed up. My neck is messed up. Next is my neck surgery. I’m probably going to have fusion next year. Hopefully, that’ll help my body, and eventually, I’ll be able to play with my kids. My knees — I’ve been able to come out of that pretty good. So once my back heals, I’ll start being able to play with my kids, throw them around the pool, carry them on my back, doing that kind of stuff. I want to be like a real father to my kids.
Elsewhere on the podcast, Angle spoke about working with fellow Hall of Famer RVD, someone he believes wrestled much better when he was stoned. You can read about that here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)