Any athlete from amateur to professional can share a story
of injury and rehabilitation. Whether
it is as simple as a pulled muscle or something more severe like a torn ACL,
every athlete experiences setbacks in their journey. My first major setback came this summer with
strains in my pecs, traps, paraspinals, intercostals, and clavicle along with
tendonitis in my bicep. (All on the
left…) By the time I got to the doctor,
he declared my entire shoulder area a “mess” and asked if I had ever thought
about taking up competitive chess. This
visit to the doctor culminated in three weeks of physical therapy and (so far) twelve
weeks of no activity. How did this get
so bad? Well….that’s where the lessons
come in.
Pay
attention to your body…ALWAYS and HONESTLY
This was probably the hardest lesson for me
to learn. These muscles didn’t strain
themselves in one shot. The very first
time I set up for a barbell squat in January, I had discomfort in my shoulder
area. It was diagnosed as a shoulder
flexibility issue and I worked through shoulder flexibility exercises to try
and work through it. Eventually though,
I decided it was a mental issue and just pushed myself to ignore the
discomfort. I consistently told myself
that it always felt better after the first couple of sets and it was just the
muscles needing to warm up. And,
although it continued to bother me throughout the months, not once did I
mention it to anyone, including my coach.
STUPID! (There’s not really
another word for that…) Eventually,
yes…I mentioned that I thought my squat form was having issues but I never
thought that the squat could injure my shoulder area. STUPID! I spent months ignoring discomfort because it
went away. So, I assumed that meant it
wasn’t really hurt and that it was all mental.
Had I paid attention to my body and been honest with myself that there
was actual pain setting up and during the lift (and then been honest with my
coach), probably I could have fixed this before required daily ice, a month
of hopped up NSAIDs, and at least three months of no activity. But, as imperative as it is to listen to
yourself, it’s also vitally important to....
Listen to Your Coach Too
My coach has accused me multiple multiple
times of having what he calls Exercise ADD.
Basically, this comes from a desire to do anything and everything that
sounds fun. I like to push myself to try
new things and to constantly be better at everything I do. I know that I won’t excel at everything
(lifting, running, cycling, swimming, you name it…) but I like to try
everything and I want to train for everything all at the same time! More than once, he has told me to stick to
the training plan and stop going “off book.”
BUT….I have an attention span on training plans that lasts about four
weeks. So, after two months of the same
training plan, I got bored….and looked for something fun to try. I have chased after Fitocracy quests (hello
tri quests and widowmakers) as well as achievements (I wanted those stupid
first level lifting achievements even if I wasn’t really ready to hit them
yet). And, the dumbest thing? I knew that he wouldn’t approve so I used the
“easier to ask forgiveness” policy and didn’t ask. The result of throwing myself
into everything and not listening about overtraining? Hello physical therapy. Listening now.
All that said, I completely
understand that injury is a part of life as an athlete. But, for me, this is an injury that could
have been easily avoided with some honesty and listening on my part. In my enforced inactivity, I’ve had some time
to think about my goals going forward.
I’m still aiming for that half in May 2013 and I shall be listening
carefully from now on. That’s a promise.
