When you’re injured
So, injuries suck. Anyone disagree? If you raised your hand, you’re probably into that pain stuff…aren’t ya? Anyway, last Friday I was participating in a company Punt, Pass, and Kick competition. Of course, before something like this, I didn’t think to stretch out. “Meh…I don’t need it,” is most likely what went through my mind. Finally, it was my turn to kick. I took a few steps back, lined up, approached the ball and HOLY WHAT THE!?!?!?! I got this amazing pain in my left quad. It hurt pretty bad, but I just kinda walked it off. I didn’t want to be “that” guy.
The next morning though, that sucker was really hurting! It hurt so bad it made me walk with a weird hobble, which in turn made my screwed up knee hurt. I tore my ACL like 10 years ago and even though its been repaired, it seems that any small thing will bother it. When it came time for our Sunday workout, I thought I would just train through the pain. The very first exercise was lunges. I took two, maybe three lunges and WHAM!!! That’s all she wrote. I was done lunging for the day. I decided its probably better to just skip an exercise, than it is to injure my muscle further. In fact, I also skipped our Monday HIIT session to allow it to heal even more. Today, my quad feels great! Its amazing what a little R&R can do for an injured muscle. And as a perk, since my quad is better, my knee stopped hurting. Its a win/win situation.
I guess if there’s a point to this post, its that sometimes its better to give your body a little break instead of just pushing and pushing. I probably could have just pushed through the pain I was having during the lunges, and I probably could have done the HIIT session. But there’s always the possibility that one of those activities could have left me with a much worse injury that would have taken much more time to heal. Taking a few exercises, or even a few workouts off isn’t going to destroy your progress. Your body will repair itself, and you’ll be ready to come back strong and ready to keep making progress.
