I think my lack of recovery days put my immune system in a difficult position and now I have a cold. It has been a strange one, kind of up and down. As soon as I think I am better, the next day I am worse. Today I was able to rest for a while so hopefully I am beginning to mend. I really don't want to be sick for the holidays. Been there, done that - and it is no fun.
One of things I notice when I get a cold or any flu like symptoms, is how much my nagging little aches and pains tend to get more achy and painful. All in all after suffering an injury such as mine, I have been pretty fortunate to the overall amount of pain I have. By and large, my hip does not hurt very often. I have some soreness on the inside of my leg but even that comes and goes. My low back will get stiff but only after long bouts sitting in a car or a meeting. And my only other area of pain is my elbows, in particular my right one. I have written about this briefly before, as it was caused by doing daily pull ups and dips while on crutches. I have been off crutches for almost six months now and haven't done any pull ups since, but the elbow is still aggravated.
I don't think I can do much about the hip and leg pain beyond what I am already doing. The strength training and massage have the hip and leg improving so I am not overly concerned. The back will continue to get better and get less stiff as the leg and the rest of the core get better. The elbow, however, is where I have made some dumb mistakes. In order for it to heal, I really need to rest it and lay off any exercises that aggravate it.
I have continued to to do heavy presses and this has put some strain on the elbow. It doesn't hurt when I press but it bugs me a bit the next day. And this is just plain silly. I need to avoid any exercises that strain the elbow and work around it. It is pain that I don't need to have and can reduce stress on the body. I can't entirely control when the hip and back will get better and in some regards I can't I control when the elbow will get better but I can control doing activities that will make it worse.
And I am sure I am not the first person to make these counter-productive decisions. How many have run on a bum knee or sore ankle or lifted with a bad shoulder? And just because we can't miss a workout or are afraid to gain weight or getting out of shape. But letting injuries that linger for months become more of a liability to resurface when we get older.
That's the thing about pain, it may never really be over. You can get it better but the longer the pain existed in the first place, the better chance it has in coming back as you age. Thus, if you have pain, treat it right away and try and help it heal as quickly as you can. Remember, in the end most of us aren't professionally athletes but all of us are going to grow old so if something is painful when 20, 30, or 40, it is going to hurt like hell when you are 70.
So if you have pain in the form of a "bum" knee or "bad" ankle or whaetever it may be, take the steps you can to make it better. You will thank yourself years down the road. The goal is not to set athletic records but to live a long healthy life with energies devoted to our work and our loved ones. So don't make the mistakes I made. And I am going to lay off the presses for a while and maybe in a few months I hope I will have one less nagging injury.
Thanks for reading...
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