Woot! Woot! For the first time in over two weeks, I was able to exercise. That may not seem like something to celebrate, but for someone who is not only used to but needs to work out seven days a week, it’s huge.
A couple of weeks back, I re-herniated two of the disks in my lower spine. Doing what? Who knows? That put an immediate stop to all my exercising. There are a lot of injuries that I’ll continue to train through—always have. But back ones aren’t amongst that list.
I’ve had two serious injuries to my lower spine. One destroyed a vertebrae in my lower back when I was fourteen years old, the other created herniated disks above and below that degenerated vertebrae when I was twenty-five. I’ve spent the past thirty-one years learning how to function with those impairments.
In the process, I self-trained my body to mend, rebuild and become stronger than it was before—something a host of specialists and therapists could never accomplish. Part of that has been to strengthen all the muscles around my injuries and to create the best built-in back brace I can—rock solid abs.
But to maintain those, takes continuous training. So when I get injured, I grow distraught, knowing that each day that passes without my being able to train is a day closer to an even worst injury as things can weaken, allowing old injuries the chance to surface.
Although I have tweaked my back from time to time, this is the first time in many years that I’ve had to stop all training to let it heal. Not fun, but necessary. As an athlete, I’ve had to teach myself how to recognize which bodily aches and pains are safe for me to ignore and train through. (Athletes always have something or other that hurts—part of the territory.)
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