Learning to back off

Pinkranger626

So I'm dealing with a recent injury and have been having a really hard time with it. The pain and stuff I can deal with, that will go away as I heal. The hardest part, for me, has been the mental part. I'm a runner, and I'm usually pretty active. I'm a personal trainer, group exercise instructor, and a massage therapist so I use my body in pretty much everything that I do. And I LOVE to move. I love pushing myself, I love feeling like I challenged myself, and I love the feeling I get when I move. Being stuck sitting or laying down for the last week and a half has been one of the most frustrating things to deal with. My jobs and my hobbies have been sidelined and it's maddening.

This morning I decided to step back and look at it. As frustrating and discouraging as it has been, making myself not push through the pain and actually rest and heal is the best thing that I can do for my body. I want to be able to be the runner in the pack that's pushing 90 and still going strong, not the 30 year old used to be runner who can't anymore.

My new challenge while I deal with this is to get out of my head about how I'm losing muscle, and my training is going to hell and find something else that I want to add to my hobbies. To make sure that I keep following my goal of being as healthy as I can be by taking the time to let myself heal.

BigT555

im in the same situation right now, i tweaked my back last week doing deadlifts... ive had to cut out half my routine for the past week because of it. it really sucks but youre right, the best thing we can do is take it easy for awhile and let it heal up

astronomicals

I feel your pain. I've been on crutches for two weeks and will be for another 2 while this fracture in my ankle heals. Enough about me.

Why stop training? I took 2 weeks off and finally got back to the gym yesterday. I work my arms and my non injured leg. Id rather have uneven strength in my legs than let them both go to ****. Perhaps you have a more severe injury. A back injury can rule out quite a few things.

I switched to maintenance calories cuz cutting would be a bad idea.

Id be curious to see what would happen if you did 1 legged cycling (if possible). Would you still lose endurance in the injured leg. You can speculate, but, I doubt there much in the way of peer reviewed studies on such training (is there?)

ETA:

TV sucks.. Get a book on tape or something. After a week of the boob tube I was going a bit crazy.

maizerage66

Don't work your uninjured limb if that's your case, because an imbalance in strength can just lead to more injuries down the road and then you'd have to work your limb that was injured harder to try and catch up with the other one. You're better off letting them both lose strength than creating too much of a strength and size imbalance. You just have to stay positive and know that you will get right back to work when you heal. The best comebacks are from the people who treat their recovery correctly and keep the positive mindset through the whole thing.

astronomicals

Don't work your uninjured limb if that's your case, because an imbalance in strength can just lead to more injuries down the road

Based on what?

There is research suggesting that training the noninjured leg will maintain strength in the injured leg.

http://www.poliquingroup.com/Tips/tabid/130/entryid/797/Tip-221-Perform-Single-Side-Training-When-Injured-and-Stay-Strong-in-Both-Limbs-Cross-Education-Principle.aspx

Pinkranger626

The doctor I saw about it when it first happened ( I was on vacation so it was not my regular doctor) diagnosed it as hip bursitis and said it should go away in a week. My injury is in my hip, which is causing me to walk funny, which is then causing issues in my other leg and back as well and has limited what I can do without pain. I've been swimming and training upper body. But for me going from at least 6 days a week of teaching classes and doing my own workouts that include running and heavy lifting to swimming laps two or three times a week and just training upper body/core has been a huge blow to me. I tried Spinning Tuesday since I felt pretty good and my hip wasn't hurting anymore, I figured it was low impact and should be alright.... yesterday informed me otherwise. I was back to pain and limping all over again.

I'm going to wait until I see the doctor on Monday (the earliest they could fit me in) and see what they say and figure out what I'm going to do from there. As a fitness professional I KNOW that taking a few days off completely isn't going to kill my progress and it's probably the best thing for my body as it recovers. But tell that to the runner in me lol. Hpefully they will be able to help me figure out a better training program once I know exactly what's going on.