Order me to be sensible, please?
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ceiswyn
Posts: 2,256 Member
So I'm an idiot. Last Sunday I had to lug a slight quad strain around the last five miles of a hike; I rested on Monday, everything felt fine after, and then I proceeded with a significantly heavier week of exercise than usual.
You can see where this is going. Yesterday I had the entertaining experience of my legs slowly falling apart over the last two miles of a gentle six or seven mile stroll. By the time I got back to the train station, the quad strain had resurfaced, my hip flexors on the same side were feeling sore, the opposite ankle was behaving as though slightly twisted, and the quads on that side were starting to feel stiff as well.
I cancelled today's planned gym class and drove into work instead of walking; so far, so good. The difficulty is the BodyPump class I've got booked on Wednesday. From past experience, everything will feel fine again by then. From past experience, feeling fine is not the same as actually being 100% healed. From past experience, if I overdo it during the class I will not be aware of it until afterwards.
But I get twitchy when I skip classes. There are a lot of complicated issues bound up with that, but the upshot is that I'm telling myself that BodyPump will be fiiiiine if I just go lighter on the weights and bunk off half of the lunge track.
What do you reckon? Will it actually be fine and indeed a good idea to give all my muscles some 'gentle' BodyPump action? Or is it a stupid idea and I should take another rest day instead?
You can see where this is going. Yesterday I had the entertaining experience of my legs slowly falling apart over the last two miles of a gentle six or seven mile stroll. By the time I got back to the train station, the quad strain had resurfaced, my hip flexors on the same side were feeling sore, the opposite ankle was behaving as though slightly twisted, and the quads on that side were starting to feel stiff as well.
I cancelled today's planned gym class and drove into work instead of walking; so far, so good. The difficulty is the BodyPump class I've got booked on Wednesday. From past experience, everything will feel fine again by then. From past experience, feeling fine is not the same as actually being 100% healed. From past experience, if I overdo it during the class I will not be aware of it until afterwards.
But I get twitchy when I skip classes. There are a lot of complicated issues bound up with that, but the upshot is that I'm telling myself that BodyPump will be fiiiiine if I just go lighter on the weights and bunk off half of the lunge track.
What do you reckon? Will it actually be fine and indeed a good idea to give all my muscles some 'gentle' BodyPump action? Or is it a stupid idea and I should take another rest day instead?
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Replies
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I vote rest day.5
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Rest day. If you don't recover enough you will be seriously twitchy for more than just one missed class. Speculate to accumulate.
Listen to and look after your body, you only have one.4 -
Ceiswyn, here is a total-internet-random-strangers' permission to take a rest day and let your leg heal so you don't do more damage on it:
TAKE THE DARN REST DAY!8 -
My experience (and also the advice from a physio) is that if the original recovery period turns out to be insufficient and you reinjure the same muscle you need to DOUBLE the recovery period.
Injure it again and double up again. You can see this very quickly escalates into a prolonged period of downtime.
Weigh up the risks and then the benefits of a single class versus the possible downsides of a repeat injury.
I vote train upper body, I'd also avoid class/group environments until you are sure it's better as it's too easy to get carried away rather than go at your own pace.8 -
So that's five votes for BodyPump, right?
(OK, brain. You and I need to talk about how exercise is not an absolute moral good. And also how rest days can be a good thing to do even when they coincide with your desire not to get up early...)5 -
So that's five votes for BodyPump, right?
(OK, brain. You and I need to talk about how exercise is not an absolute moral good. And also how rest days can be a good thing to do even when they coincide with your desire not to get up early...)
One missed class does not a slippery slope make.6 -
My experience (and also the advice from a physio) is that if the original recovery period turns out to be insufficient and you reinjure the same muscle you need to DOUBLE the recovery period.
Injure it again and double up again. You can see this very quickly escalates into a prolonged period of downtime.
Weigh up the risks and then the benefits of a single class versus the possible downsides of a repeat injury.
I vote train upper body, I'd also avoid class/group environments until you are sure it's better as it's too easy to get carried away rather than go at your own pace.
...err, yeah, so, about that... <looks a bit shifty at the longstanding shoulder injury that's been playing up lately, and the slight pec strain>
Overtraining? Me? Crazy talk!1 -
My experience (and also the advice from a physio) is that if the original recovery period turns out to be insufficient and you reinjure the same muscle you need to DOUBLE the recovery period.
Injure it again and double up again. You can see this very quickly escalates into a prolonged period of downtime.
Weigh up the risks and then the benefits of a single class versus the possible downsides of a repeat injury.
I vote train upper body, I'd also avoid class/group environments until you are sure it's better as it's too easy to get carried away rather than go at your own pace.
...err, yeah, so, about that... <looks a bit shifty at the longstanding shoulder injury that's been playing up lately, and the slight pec strain>
Overtraining? Me? Crazy talk!
Can I amend my vote then?
My Inner Chimp thinks the answer to every exercise or training problem is push harder (or more like "PUSH HARDER!" as my chimp is a bit shouty....).
I have to use my logical brain to overrule the chimp and data helps enormously - elevated RHR, declining power numbers on the bike, lifts stalling.
It was my chimp that reacted to straining a hamstring football training on a Monday by insisting that rugby training on a Wednesday was fine - AND DON'T LET THOSE SLOW FORWARDS BEAT YOU IN A SPRINT!
You can guess the outcome.8 -
rest.
as someone who hasn't been able to run (or any real cardio) since august due to a random knee/hip/quad (?) injury/strain (three physios, a chiro and a sports doctor and tons of time with an RMT with no diagnosis i feel is really getting anywhere).
oh and working upper body? yeah like you said, about that...(injury to elbows in like June that perks up whenever i try anything).2 -
My experience (and also the advice from a physio) is that if the original recovery period turns out to be insufficient and you reinjure the same muscle you need to DOUBLE the recovery period.
Injure it again and double up again. You can see this very quickly escalates into a prolonged period of downtime.
Weigh up the risks and then the benefits of a single class versus the possible downsides of a repeat injury.
I vote train upper body, I'd also avoid class/group environments until you are sure it's better as it's too easy to get carried away rather than go at your own pace.
...err, yeah, so, about that... <looks a bit shifty at the longstanding shoulder injury that's been playing up lately, and the slight pec strain>
Overtraining? Me? Crazy talk!
Can I amend my vote then?
My Inner Chimp thinks the answer to every exercise or training problem is push harder (or more like "PUSH HARDER!" as my chimp is a bit shouty....).
I have to use my logical brain to overrule the chimp and data helps enormously - elevated RHR, declining power numbers on the bike, lifts stalling.
It was my chimp that reacted to straining a hamstring football training on a Monday by insisting that rugby training on a Wednesday was fine - AND DON'T LET THOSE SLOW FORWARDS BEAT YOU IN A SPRINT!
You can guess the outcome.
I think our inner chimps must never meet!
I keep hearing the echoes of PE teachers past telling me to RUN FASTER (despite being completely out of breath because unfit and asthmatic) and TRY HARDER (after skinning my palms on the rope because I physically couldn't hold my bodyweight) and STOP LAGGING BEHIND (when I finally got to take my hiking boots off, that blood blister wrapped right around my little toe), or of doctors telling me there's nothing wrong with my ankle, so stop limping (ten years later someone finally took an x-ray and it turned out to be broken). So my judgement may be a bit... based on poor foundations
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So I would like to address Mr. Elephant in the room (~~~>>> over there)
Is this really about weight and food? Or is it about the actual physical and mental benefit of exercise? Or both?
The food and weight part becomes more difficult when sidelined, but it is still possible to eat well on less and not gain weight. You're at maintenance, right? You know how to do this.
Take the rest day.6 -
cmriverside wrote: »So I would like to address Mr. Elephant in the room (~~~>>> over there)
Is this really about weight and food? Or is it about the actual physical and mental benefit of exercise? Or both?
The food and weight part becomes more difficult when sidelined, but it is still possible to eat well on less and not gain weight. You're at maintenance, right? You know how to do this.
Take the rest day.
It's about the benefits of exercise, and a bit about weight and food; but it's more about the internalisation of a cultural narrative where 'fat' and 'physically inactive' are intimately linked with 'lazy' and other pejoratives. Even my issues got issues
I'll, err, take the rest day. Um. And maybe not do that eighteen mile hike I was planning this weekend.7 -
cmriverside wrote: »So I would like to address Mr. Elephant in the room (~~~>>> over there)
Is this really about weight and food? Or is it about the actual physical and mental benefit of exercise? Or both?
The food and weight part becomes more difficult when sidelined, but it is still possible to eat well on less and not gain weight. You're at maintenance, right? You know how to do this.
Take the rest day.
It's about the benefits of exercise, and a bit about weight and food; but it's more about the internalisation of a cultural narrative where 'fat' and 'physically inactive' are intimately linked with 'lazy' and other pejoratives. Even my issues got issues
I'll, err, take the rest day. Um. And maybe not do that eighteen mile hike I was planning this weekend.
Oh, I didn't get those messages. Or I didn't hear them.
However since I lost the weight I've been benched a couple times by broken bones and it's not fun. I found that the attitude that helped was to spend that time researching and trying new vegetable-heavy meals and practice eating at precisely maintenance. I really wasn't even sure what maintenance without exercise was, numerically, so it was a useful experience in that way.
One broken foot bone kept me on the bench for nearly eight weeks. That was hard, psychologically. In hindsight if it happens again I'll get into some other exercise - swimming, kayak, something. In the intervening years I've learned to eat at maintenance quite well without exercise. I'm older and I really can't go hard five days per week any more so food had to change.
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I suggest you step around the negative associations you have linked with inactivity, by not calling it a rest day. Cross Body Pump off the calendar, and pencil in Muscle Regeneration Period instead.11
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So that's five votes for BodyPump, right?
(OK, brain. You and I need to talk about how exercise is not an absolute moral good. And also how rest days can be a good thing to do even when they coincide with your desire not to get up early...)
May I add a suggestion?
If you can afford it, schedule a massage with an actual credentialed massage therapist (sports/rehab type, not just relax-y).
With what you describe feeling after your hike, it has the potential to improve some compensatory imbalances and stresses that may cause discomfort (or other problems) on top of the injury; it will seem like you're doing something positive for your body (like exercise, but not exercise); and it still counts as a rest day.
As a bonus, I've found I can grill my MT about stretches that will help the areas they've found tightened up, without aggravating the injury.5 -
So that's five votes for BodyPump, right?
(OK, brain. You and I need to talk about how exercise is not an absolute moral good. And also how rest days can be a good thing to do even when they coincide with your desire not to get up early...)
May I add a suggestion?
If you can afford it, schedule a massage with an actual credentialed massage therapist (sports/rehab type, not just relax-y).
With what you describe feeling after your hike, it has the potential to improve some compensatory imbalances and stresses that may cause discomfort (or other problems) on top of the injury; it will seem like you're doing something positive for your body (like exercise, but not exercise); and it still counts as a rest day.
As a bonus, I've found I can grill my MT about stretches that will help the areas they've found tightened up, without aggravating the injury.
Ooh, that's a good thought! I've been meaning to look into finding someone along those lines anyway, and failing to get round to it. I have a suspicion that one of the reasons I strained that thigh to start with was that I was compensating for my permabroken left ankle. I'm probably reaching a stage where I actually need to find some expert that I can rock up to saying 'Hi, my body is broken in these ways, how can I best work around that without breaking it in exciting new ways instead?'3 -
I vote for 3 months of AthleanX Xero.
I mean, if you're going to hurt yourself do it right!
You're one of the folks here who has made some incredible progress over the years, aren't you? Why would you want to sabotage that? Get some rest, a nice massage. Heal up so you can keep going strong. 3 -
I get it. I HATE not being able to exercise. I have trouble taking a full rest day because I feel both antsy and guilty, even though I know that the rest day is necessary for my performance and health.
So, repeat this with me: "Sit your kitten down and rest!"
(And another vote for seeing a sports massage therapist! It's not just about healing current injuries, but also preventing future injuries.)1 -
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