People hurt their bodies. It sucks, but it's true.
The most common occurrence of people hurting themselves (for my clients) is skiing -
...but there are also soccer, basketball, water slide, luggage, frisbee, kettlebell, getting-hit-while-biking, weightlifting, jumping and trampoline related knicks, dings and injuries. The list doesn't stop there. "Picking my kid up the wrong way" is a common one too.
It's an unfortunate but real part of being active.
The good news is, the fitter you are, the better your nutrition, the better your rest, the better your hydration, the quicker you recover from this stuff.
The last injury I had was sustained by putting a 35 pound kettlebell down after carrying it on my back for lunges. My right shoulder, my "weak" shoulder popped. It hurt immediately and I knew I'd done something.
The time before I was trying to string together flips on a trampoline, failed to rotate and landed on my hands, then head and neck. I felt a pop in my neck. It was not pretty.
The time before that, I was playing an intense game of Ultimate Frisbee. We were hours deep into a game, I went up for a touchdown catch, so did my very athletic -and much younger- defender. I caught the frisbee, then I caught his attempt to slap the frisbee - directly in the face; hard - and his cleats landed, full force, on my foot as we came down together.
The pain was covered by the adrenaline, but a few hours later I could not walk or apply pressure to my right foot.
I was in pain and pissed that it had happened. Pissed at myself.
I was fit, had been on a great run of training and NOW THIS.
I took advil, put my feet up, tried to watch TV but couldn't. The pain was too much. I was sure that I had broken my foot. I was ready to go to the ER, but realized it was late and. didsn't want to drag my family there in the middle of the night. I took another advil and elevated and applied heat and ice. Finally, I fell asleep.
...and then I woke up.
Most of the pain was gone. The swelling had gone away. The exact locations of the cleats were visible and tender, but I was walking - no problem, and jogging later that day.
This most recent kettlebell 'ding' on my shoulder, from a weird rotation, is different. It's hung out. It's nagged. Because I let it. I kept doing push ups and pull ups and hang power cleans and burpees. It didn't get better (duh).
So, last week I stopped all upper body work. Now it's almost completely healed.
I guess the theme is, you can make yourself more resilient. You can 'bullet-proof' yourself. Sure, it's scary when it happens - that will never change - but you will recover, you will get better, and you will get fitter.
Progress isn't linear. There are peaks and valleys.
When the knicks & dings happen, honor them, take them seriously, but realize that they are not permanent and as you get fitter, they will be less and less - and you will recover and get even better.
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