So, I haven't had a chance to blog in a while. Mostly because I've been pretty busy at work this week (I have one of those feast-or-famine jobs that's either insanely busy or insanely slow, depending on when in the month we are at. Yay finance!)
Today I want to discuss something very relevant to me: injuries. One of the main tenets that I wanted to address on this particular fitness journey of mine, was doing everything the RIGHT way. Not the quick way, not the "I'm an impatient schmuck and want to results NOW no matter how much damage I do to myself!" way... I promised to take the long road, experience the slow-burn, and enjoy the journey while I'm on it.
That said, I have been slacking. For the first 2 or so months I was doing yoga twice a week. I have since stopped doing it (haven't been in a month!) because I train 6 days a week to the point where my muscles are too weak to hold poses, and then on my one rest day, all I want to do is rest... as well as do laundry, my cooking, my grocery shopping, and everything else I've let pile up so that I can sleep the max amount of hours possible on a training day. I understand I'm due for some "life organization", but I digress.
Anywho, aside from not going to yoga, I haven't been stretching properly post-workout. In fact, I haven't been stretching at all. I've been good about doing a solid warm-up before any cardio routine (which, in turn, warms me up for my weights sessions), but I have not made friends with the foam roller in ways I promised I would. So, I'm formally declaring that my goal for next week (which will be the beginning of week 17!) is to use the foam roller after every gym session, to warm up and STRETCH properly prior to (and after) volleyball practice and games, and to go to yoga once a week no matter how sore or exhausted I am.
With all of that said, I am injured. I hyper extended my elbow many moons ago (almost a month ago?) and it has gotten so progressively worse that I wake up in so much pain that I can't straighten my elbow. I know I don't have bursitis, so I'm fairly certain I strained or possibly tore a bit of ligament in there. In addition, my 8-mile sand run last Saturday proved to be a little bit too much for my bad knee, and I have been having a little bit of bursitis pain there. On top of these, I did some blocking exercises in my volleyball lesson last Sunday, and woke up this Monday morning with excruciating pain on my infraspinatus tendon. Here's the anatomy of the rotator cuff:
The structures are usually weak and take a lot of careful time and attention to strengthen, and tendonitis is very common and difficult to get rid of. The rotator cuff easily builds up scar tissue which limits range of motion, tightens the structure, and can cause a lot of debilitiating, lasting pain.
When I played soccer in college, I always had a mantra - the day my knees went, I would retire immediately. And when I blew my knee out, I held true to that promise. I felt like my life was over, but if it weren't for that injury, I would have never discovered volleyball. And while it was a long and frustrating path to get to where I am today, if I could go back and change anything, I wouldn't even dream of it. But now, I have a new mantra - the second my shoulders go, I would quit volleyball. Because of my soccer experience, I am much more freely open and accepting of the fact that I am getting older, I will sustain injuries, and some of them may be career ending. But not to fret or panic - there will always be something new to put my efforts into, and in the meantime, I would strive not to push my body but rather allow it the healing time it rightfully deserves.
So this past week, I have put myself on a careful regimen of Ibuprofen, ice, compression, elevation and massage therapy (for my shoulders). I have refrained from doing any impactful cardio, upper body weights (for the most part), and I have decided to forgo my volleyball lesson tomorrow, as well as any games - even just for fun - this weekend. I noticed that on the nights I drink an amino acid-packed protein shake, I wake up with remarkably less pain in my shoulders. All in all, after just 4 days of self-healing techniques, my knee feels about 95%, my elbow has got to have improved by about 60-70%, my left shoulder is about 90%, and my right shoulder feels to be at about 80-85% recovered. So, by next monday, I should hopefully be all better and able to start back up on my weights routine, and get back to volleyball lessons and games by a week from tomorrow.
There is a silver lining in injuries though, as I've come to discover. And it's more than the dramatic turn of retiring from a sport you've played since you were 4 and happen upon a new one that you fall in love with - it's more subtle than that. It's a matter of adaptation. I've come to find that if I keep my spirits high and remain hopeful, and choose to adapt to an injury instead of freak out about how it will spoil my routine or the activities I love doing, great things can happen. For instance, I couldn't workout legs yesterday because I had already worked them the day before, but I didn't want to just do cardio when I knew there were things (other than abs) that I could work on that didn't affect my shoulders.
So, for all the years I have been a die-hard gym rat, I tackled something I've NEVER done, never factored into my weights sessions (don't ask me why!), and made me feel more accomplished than I have ever felt so far in my journey: I did my first bench press :D
All I pushed was the weight of the bar plus a 5lb weight plate on either side, but it didn't matter to me - I wanted to get the feeling down, the range of motion that would be required (wanted to make sure I didn't strain my shoulder), and I wanted to practice technique. Despite the lack of weight, however, my scapulars are SO SORE today! But good-sore, not bad-sore :) And it got me thinking about my infraspinatus pain, and perhaps that I didn't necessarily injure it, but just over-worked an under-worked muscle. And the pain was my shoulder's way of saying, "Hey! Take it easy! You've ignored me for 28 years so give me some attention before you throw me to the dogs!"
And on that note, sometimes when I'm running and listening to my motivational playlist, I imagine the songs are my body singing to me, and I really like that :) Like Train's "Drive By", when it goes "Oh I swear to you / I'll be there for you / this is not a drive by-y-y-y-y". I like to think that the way my body feels, is it's way of talking to me :) That it is here for me, and isn't going to give up on me. I like to envision the lean, toned, healthy part of me, encouraging me and motivating me as I push through tough workouts, begging for me to keep going and stay strong so that it can come out from the dark place I have hidden it for all these years. And on this journey, I'm in the business of listening to my body, and responding accordingly :) <3
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One final random thing I thought I'd share (assuming you've read this far!) is a helpful thing I affectionately call the "Celery Test". It's quit simple - I find it helps distinguish between hunger based on real physical hunger, versus hunger based on emotions or boredom, during those times where I'm not sure if I'm just super hungry that day, or just want to "sport eat". This is all you do: Ask yourself, "If celery was all I was allowed to eat right now, would I even bother?"
When I respond "yes", I know I am physically hungry and just need to increase my caloric intake for that day, for whatever reason. When I say no, though (99% of the time), I know to ignore my gut and listen to my mind - I'm not really hungry, I'm just bored. I love celery, don't get me wrong. But it's just incredibly boring, and if I am going to eat out of boredom or if I just want something just to chew on, it's usually all I'll allow myself to have ;)
Mid-month progress photos to come in the next day or so!
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