The Rehab Program That Returned Me to Full Strength

It was just a “basic jump—nothing too special,” Captain Lars Nordang says, but he made the mistake of not scoping out the landing before launch while snowboarding off-trail in Colorado. As he tells it, he was enjoying back bowls and fresh powder when he went airborne. The landing surface was completely flat, which he didn’t realize until the ground stopped his momentum abruptly, the impact tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), medial collateral ligament (MCL), and meniscus of his right knee.

A few weeks later, in March 2023, he had surgery. Then he was on crutches for the next month and a half.

There’s never a great time to blow out a knee, but Nordang’s timing was especially bad. He was in his last semester of dental school, thanks to the U.S. Army’s Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP), which offers medical scholarships in return for military service. When he reported for duty at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State that July, he had only been off crutches for six weeks, and “my military experience was basically zero,” says the 26-year-old. He still needed to complete a 10-week basic officer leadership course in Texas prior to starting his dental residency with the Army, which was still a year away. With two healthy knees this wouldn’t have been a problem, but being only a few months out from surgery made it a trickier proposition.

Fortunately, Nordang was promptly introduced to the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) program, which develops soldiers’ health, performance, and military readiness across five pillars of fitness: Physical, Mental, Nutritional, Spiritual, and Sleep. “Somehow I ended up at H2F on day one,” Nordang says. “I was given a full evaluation by H2F team members, and from that point on I was there on a daily basis. It was an all-hands-on-deck effort.”

He went through a comprehensive seven-month rehab program that was customized to his specific needs, and was cleared for officer training in plenty of time before his residency, also overcoming an unrelated medical condition along the way. Here’s how the H2F system guided him through the entire challenging but ultimately rewarding experience.

Restoring Strength, Mobility, and Mindset

The initial phases of H2F were a shock to Nordang’s system. “I was in pretty rough shape when I showed up,” he says. “I was still far behind in my healing process because I’d had such a major surgery, and I wanted to get my knee rehabbed as soon as possible.”

The first goal was to get the strength back in his injured leg with the help of H2F’s Physical readiness domain. Daily two-hour training sessions incorporated manual therapy with an athletic trainer while gradually introducing the knee to basic activities like running and agility drills. “I had to relearn all of these things I used to take for granted,” Nordang says. “It was really hard, but it was exactly what I needed to get back to where I was before the injury.”

The Mental readiness domain was a big part of the recovery as well. On top of the workouts, Nordang met periodically with a sports psychologist to help him navigate the emotional toll of the rehab. An avid recreational soccer player prior to his injury, he was anxious to get back on the field and frustrated when he felt his progress wasn’t where he wanted it to be. “I tend to be positive and not let anything prevent me from achieving my goals,” he says. “But there were definitely some days when my body wasn’t performing how I wanted it to, and it was really hard mentally. Being able to talk to a professional helped me keep things in perspective and stay on the right track.”

Nailing Nutrition

Another focal point in the recovery process was H2F’s Nutritional readiness domain. A self-described “skinny kid” at 6’2″, Nordang lost roughly 30 pounds of lean body weight post-surgery. “I wanted to break 200 pounds, and I was close before my injury—and then I had my surgery and was back down into the 160s,” he says. “The Nutrition program really helped me increase my muscle mass.”

The protocol included body-scan measurements to chart his progress, nutritional counseling to educate him on what to eat, and blood testing to monitor his vitamin and electrolyte levels to devise a proper supplement plan. Within months, he was up in the 200-pound range.

Identifying a Lurking Issue

Nordang’s last obstacle before getting cleared for officer training was an unexpected illness: In early 2024, he was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome, a congenital cardiac condition in which an extra electrical pathway causes episodes of abnormally rapid heart rate—in his case, up to 210 beats per minute.

Luckily, WPW is treatable, and the recovery time is quick. A week after undergoing a procedure to treat the condition, Nordang took the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) and scored an impressive 530 out of 600. He took the test again weeks later and did even better, with a 571. “I was very happy with that score,” he says, “and from that point on, no more heart issues.”

In February 2024, Nordang was officially cleared for the basic officer leadership course, and stepped back from his very active participation in H2F—not because he could no longer benefit from the program, but because he was close to starting his Army Oral Maxillofacial Surgery Residency, a four-year grind that leaves little time for extracurricular activities.

But that doesn’t mean the systems and skills he learned stopped being an important part of his life. “I implement a lot of what I learned from H2F into my daily routine,” says Nordang, who is now an officer with full strength and mobility in both legs. “They set me up for success and provided me with the tools I needed. H2F was a phenomenal experience. I’m so happy and thankful that they were able to take care of me the way they did.”

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