While Whitelock was frustrated at missing a big chunk of the season with a badly sprained ankle suffered in London during the Crusaders' win over the Sharks, it meant time out from the game and a chance for a pause before the World Cup.
He showed in a standout performance against France on Saturday night that he is reaping the benefits.
"It was pretty tough to be sitting on the sideline for that amount of time,'' he said. "But having that time away you really get a mental break as well. So that's quite good to just take a couple of steps back and relax and try not to think about rugby too much. But the body's feeling pretty good at the moment and four more games would be awesome.''
The All Blacks lineout, so maligned several years ago, is functioning well at the moment and lock Whitelock said that was all about combinations and understanding between players.
"I think it has gone really well. But in saying that there's still a lot of things we really want to work on. But I think the combinations between hookers and our nines right through the lineout has been getting better the whole time and I think we are just demanding a higher accuracy and higher quality ball to our nines and which is really helping.
"There's good combinations that people have brought through from Super Rugby so that always helps and the majority of the squad's been together for a while now so some players know what other people are thinking and know their strengths and can really use that.''
The All Blacks' next opponents, Canada in Wellington on Saturday afternoon, possess an efficiency in the set pieces which will provide a reasonable test for Whitelock and his fellow forwards.
"They've got some really good players there and they're big and strong. And I think that brings a big challenge for us. We've got to prepare for that and we've just got to make sure we master our set piece first and obviously look at theirs after that.''