Go Long, Go Hard, Even When Injured

Before the doctors perk their ears up (I see all of you!) and prepare to argue, this post is about working with your injury, not in spite of it.

When I injured my arm, the main concern doctors had was whether it was broken. My CrossFit coaches had different concerns. They wanted to know about every movement I tried, how it felt on my wrist before, during and after. They checked in with me the next day on every workout I took part in, the modifications, if I experienced pain afterward and where. It was because they kept calling my attention to it that I realized, yes, my arm was better in some ways but, whoa was it worse in others.

Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash

I sought my chiropractor's opinion. I should have gone to her first. She has yet to mislead me in any way. It took her approximately 60 seconds to determine I had a tear in my tendon, show me where it was, and prescribe a device to stabilize my tendon in order to stop re-tearing it. Even simple tasks like pouring out a cup of water were compromising the healing of my injury. She was my third opinion, and the first to consider injury beyond a break and what that means for an active CrossFitter like me.

Basically, both chiropractor and coaches considered me holistically. This continues.

Knowing I have a tear means I had to stop doing many of the moves I can complete without pain in the gym. No pain doesn't mean a movement is healthy. Pain is a great indicator of when to push harder and when to stop, but no pain for me was actually because the pain was delayed. It crashed down on me 24hrs later, or showed up when I randomly lost my grip or couldn't pick up a fork because my fingers weren't closing.

Photo by Maria Fernanda Gonzalez on Unsplash

It is very frustrating to not be building muscle at the level I want to right now. As I said, now that we know there is a tear in my arm, I've had to move backwards in all my movements almost as though I am a CrossFit beginner. But this doesn't mean I'm not getting a good workout.

In fact, today my workout was more strenuous than many I've done because I had to scale down. I couldn't do barbell lifts or hold a jump rope. I couldn't hang from the cage for toes-to-bar, so I was doing 25 sit-ups, 50 plate hops and 15 (13, 11, 9, 7) 10# medicine ball cleans. If you've never done plate hops, they are about twice as difficult as jumping rope. We had 4 minutes to complete each round of work. Most class members ended at 2 rounds plus a few reps. I completed 5 rounds almost three minutes under the time cap. The only other person to complete the full five rounds? Also injured and heavily scaled.

Photo by Juan Jose on Unsplash

Long story short, the workout was extremely challenging and I am sore everywhere. I went long and hard by working WITH my injury. Had I tried to do a barbell clean, I would have easily re-torn my tendon and possibly exacerbated the problem. Had I tried to hang onto the jump rope? At the very least I would not be typing right now. And had I tried to hold onto the cage? I wouldn't have made it past round one, my workout would have last 4 minutes instead of 17, and I would be disappointed instead of proud.

It's important to keep moving when we are injured, to keep challenging ourselves, but to do so within our abilities. Choosing safety can be inconvenient, but it's worth it.

For my part, I'm glad I pursued a third opinion on my arm. It hurts worse than ever, but it's pain that tells me it's healing, not the horrible, aching, tingling pain of reinjury.

Go Long, Go Hard, Even When Injured

How are you challenging yourself?

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