It's no secret that I workout harder than most women and even some men (guys, I hate to break it to you, but your 65lb front squats aren't all that impressive...especially when I do 100lbs). Although, as invincible as I'd like to believe that I am, I am just as prone to injury as anyone else...a fact that I've recently proven.
It's Wednesday afternoon when I meet my trainer for a full body circuit workout. The first exercise is a hang power clean. So basically, it's a dead lift to a power clean to a front squat. It's a quick and dynamic movement that offers almot a total body workout. I perform a few practice reps with a 45lb bar with ease and add 20 more pounds for the actual workout. My trainer told me to do 8-10 reps, and being the over achiever that I am, of course I don't stop at 8 and go right to 10 reps. Big mistake. By the 9th and 10th rep, I can feel that something in my back isn't right. I have back problems as it is because of my scoliosis that I've had since childhood, but this wasn't a normal pain. I finish the set and my back is absolutely killing me, but I suffer through the rest of my workout figuring it's just still sore from yesterdays back and shoulders workout and not much of a big deal (actually listening to my body is something I haven't exactly mastered yet). 60 minutes have passed and I go over to the stretching mat and it takes me a solid 5 minutes to get up from the floor. I walk down the stairs in excruciating pain and barely make it 30ft before I am completely debiliated. My boyfriend helps me over to the functional training area to help stretch me out and relax my back. At this point, I feel completely crippled. Without exaggeration, I can't move an inch without tears strolling down my face. I've broken toes, pulled muslces and sprained ankles...but nothing is anywhere close to comparable to this type of pain. It takes me an hour to finally have the strength to get off the floor. Whenever I injur myself, I tend to have hypochondriac tendancies. I start researching what the possibilities that I just did to myself are and have suddenly come to the conclusion that I need back surgery. It's ridiculous, I know, but in such a time of physical agony, I can't help but think of the worst case scenario.
Now here comes the real challenge: resting. This in itself is a complete and utter foreign concept to me. I give myself one rest day per week to allow my muscles a bit more time to rebuild, but the last time I took this many consecutive days off in a row from exercise was the last time I injured myself (which was a series of injuries actually from a pulled glute muscle, a pulled hamstring and ending with a sprained ankle). I am just like my father in the sense that I can not sit still for more than ten minutes at a time. I hate feeling lazy and I hate being unproductive. Though when you throw your back out, you don't really have a choice but to lay the fuck down. It's been three days of physical and mental agony, although as each day progresses I feel better and better.
My trainer told me yesterday that his high school coaches would take one week off completely from exercise every couple months. I instantly thought to myself "oh, hell no". I've only taken that amount of time off from working out when I was injured, and even then I'd push my luck when I probably shouldn't have. My fears were always that I would lose most of the strength and muscle that I've worked so hard to build, and I'll be honest, I don't want to gain weight that isn't in the form of muscle mass. But I'm laying here in bed, with nothing to do other than to think, and start researching why it's so beneficial to take that much time off every couple of months, and what I found was actually pretty interesting.
What you do outside of the gym is equally, if not more, important as what you do inside the gym. This isn't something I didn't already know. But why an entire week? Why every couple of months? When you train hard day in and day out for so many days, weeks, months at a time...a lot of stress and wear and tear is put on your body. Physically, your body just needs a rest approximately every 8-12 weeks to recover. Aside from the physical benefits of resting, it gives yourself a mental break as well. Because let's be honest, waking your ass up in the early hours of the morning and/or dedicating hours of intense exercise a day is enough to mentally break down anyone after a while. The above makes enough sense, since your muslces obviously need a recovery period in order to grow, but what about losing everything you've busted your ass working for? I don't know why this didn't hit me before, because really it's just common sense. You've spent months, and more realistically...years, transforming your body. Do you really think your muscles are going to atrophy in only 7 days? No, and you're a complete idiot if you think otherwise.
Even though I don't have a choice but to relax and take some time off from exercise, I'm trying to take advantage of the opporunity. Before my injury, I would have never done this on my own. I think in a strange way, throwing my back out was a blessing. I forget that I'm not a superhuman, I'm not invincible and I can't do it all. You need to push yourself in life and working out, however, I'm realizing that I tend to overestimate myself. As much of a mental challenge this is proving to be, I'll take advantage of this recovery week that I know my body so badly craves. I'll tell you what though, once I'm fully healed and able to exercise again, I'm going to step into that gym like a boss and come back stronger than ever.
In the meantime, I just need to chill the fuck out.
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