I have the stupidest injury.
In fact, in the last 2 weeks, I’ve had 2 of the stupidest
injuries…
I’ll let you in on a little secret…
Today is the first day in 11 days that I’ve worn real shoes…
 |
| ...not my shoes... |
Yup, I’ve been wearing flip-flops for the past 10 days.
After a day of practicing over cross-country jumps, I
finished my horse chores in my tall boots.
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| I live to do this stuff! |
My tall boots are nice and soft and flexible at the ankle,
but they have a zipper that runs up the back.
As the ankle has softened, the zipper has, too. Now, it rubs the back of my ankle on one
foot.
I learned a dear lesson…
Change out of these boots as soon as I’m done riding!
All that walking around rubbed the WORST blisters on my
ankle, and before I even knew they were there, they had bubbled up and burst.
 |
| Lesson learned!! |
Then, today, I woke up with the strangest soreness in my
chest… It feels like a pulled muscle,
but it’s such a small area…
Yup. I pulled a tiny
muscle right in the middle of my chest.
How does that even happen?
(I’m pretty sure I just got a little enthusiastic while
doing a windmill stretch…)
So, what do I do about my workouts when I’m injured?
Well, since my daily workouts are with a video in my home, I
decided I was just going to do them barefoot.
This is not my general recommendation!
I decided that, because of my dance background, I have
strong feet that don’t rely on my shoes for all of their support. I paid close attention to what I was doing
and made sure I wasn’t straining anything in my feet while I was working out.
It’s been working out pretty well for
me!
And my landing are so much softer when I have to jump…
Go figure.
So, this little muscle in my chest? It runs from my sternum to one of my ribs. It’s a tiny little thing. It only hurts if I move just wrong. (as in, when I engage said muscle)
So, while it’s healing, I’ll make sure to use a little bit
lighter weights for upper body work. I’ll
only do push-ups and planks if it doesn’t hurt.
I’ll let my body be my guide and I’ll just focus on lower body, core, and cardio for a few days while it sorts itself
out.
I know my body, so I can make these calls confidently.
If you are working out around an injury, always consult with
your doctor first!
Remember, I’m always working out around an injury, and I will
be for the rest of my life.
Bulged discs never completely heal and are always at risk
for re-injury.
I’ve learned that it’s very easy to overdo it when I do too
much plyometric work or if I push too hard in certain exercises. I’ve learned to modify the things that will
hurt later in a way to still work the muscle group but to take the strain off
of my back. I don’t jump with weights. Instead, I’ll step.
Some days I can’t squat as low enough to touch the
floor. That’s ok. I squat as low as I can without sacrificing
good form. Sometimes, I’m just too
tight, stiff, or sore in my back to do any of my usual routines, so I hop on my
recumbent bike, instead.
I buy into the statement “There is no bad fitness”.
However, I do believe that there can be *unbalanced*
fitness.
That’s one of the reasons I use the home fitness programs
that I do. The guesswork is taken
out. The balance has already been done
for me. Strength, flexibility, cardio,
core stability… It’s all built in, and
all I have to do is follow the program and push play every day.
And when something comes up…
I just modify to work
around it!
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