By Priya Suri

Twelve years ago, Chris Yeo, 37, had an exercise routine unlike most Singaporeans.

The co-owner of a bicycle shop in Tanjong Rhu used to cycle 50km a day, visit the gym more than twice a week and wakeboard at least three times a week, among other physical activities.

'I would say I was reckless. I had no fear at all. Even if I was tired, I would just push myself on,' Mr Yeo said.

He continually felt like he was in competition with himself, always trying to be faster and better.

'If I didn't get to exercise for some reason, I would get depressed, frustrated and bored. It just got worse and worse,' he said.

Although he was a national bowler in his teens and early 20s, Mr Yeo said he never really worked out much when he was younger. He made only occasional trips to the gym, but began wakeboarding after accompanying his wife to a water-skiing session when he was 25 years old.

'Water-skiing was fine, but when I saw a guy wakeboarding, I had to try it. From then on, I was hooked,' he said.

After the birth of his first child, a son in 2005, Mr Yeo was too busy to devote much time to exercise and he gained a bit of weight.

'I was helping my wife with our child. But once we got settled, I couldn't wait to get back to my activities so I could lose the weight.'

And get back he did, packing in workouts every chance he had.

'I didn't give my knees time to rest between sessions. Sometimes, it came to the point where I couldn't even walk.'
This came to a head in March last year when he injured his left knee while cable-skiing, a form of water-skiing where one is pulled by a cable, not a boat.

Chris Yeo, seen here wearing a knee brace on his injured knee.

'I heard a pop sound in my knee and instantly knew something was wrong,' he said.

Mr Yeo said he was in denial when it first happened. Although his knee swelled, he decided to wait and see if it would get better on its own. He let it rest for 10 days before he felt the urge to get out and be active again.

'I tried wakeboarding again but I felt as if my knee joint was coming apart.'

Dr Lim Jit Kheng, a sports orthopaedic surgeon at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, told him he had torn his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), the most important ligament for knee stability.

This is the same injury that made headlines in sports pages recently as top golfer Tiger Woods had to bow out of tournaments because of it.

Mr Yeo was advised to have surgery but he decided to 'wait and see'. He returned to wakeboarding but his knee remained unstable and the pain wouldn't go away.

He decided to go ahead with reconstruction surgery in July last year. It was a success but he had to do intensive physiotherapy for several months.

'I wanted so badly to get well that I pushed myself to do more and more physiotherapy. I think I actually strained my knee a bit and should have taken it a bit slower,' he recalled.

The surgery didn't slow him too much - six months later, he was back to his active lifestyle. He still wakeboards twice a week and cycles 50km a day to and from work.

However, he doesn't take unnecessary risks, is more careful and listens to his body. He also stops when he gets very tired.

According to Dr Lim, studies show that one year after such surgery, the risk of re-rupture is 3 per cent on the operated knee. Interestingly, two to five years after surgery, the risk of injuring either the operated knee or the opposite normal knee is the same - about 1 per cent.

This story was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times, on July 2, 2008.