On a different note, I’m going to give my 2 cents on injuries. Now, I’m sure anyone reading, at some point, as been injured. Assuming you fell into that group, you also probably played a school sport. Coaches always give rants on the difference between injured and hurting. The difference, for someone who, at 16, has been plagued with an expansive list of injuries. Being injured, is when something is physically wrong, probably needs to be repaired, and impairs one from performing a certain action. Being hurt is soreness, very heavy soreness, or a sprain or strain. The biggest issue I have is when people make something out to be much worse than it really is. Being sore, or sprained, strained, whatever it may be, is not worth not putting the work in the helps one imrpove. Perhaps, for some, it’s not so hard, taking the easy road;for me, an injury is a bump in the road: you can either stop/slow down, or you can keep going, risk damage, but ultimately get to the ending location faster.
In my experience, the worst injuries always come when everything is clicking on all cylinders. At the end of my last wrestling season, I tore my rotator cuff and rear deltoid. I tried to finish out the practice, I tried to keep going the next day, but I couldn’t wrestle. For those of you that have wrestled/fought MMA, it’s obvious as to why I could no longer be on the mat. For those who don’t, one of your two rotator cuffs is 25% of your base on the ground, and 50% on each side. In other words, if one is torn, you’re fucked. When I took off for this, it was the first time in 3 years I had taken off for injury(the other being 3 compressed discs in my lower back, lucky I can even play sports anymore). The next 2 weeks of practice, were more mentally painful for me than any physical pain I could possibly endure.
As I sat on the sides, doing nothing but sitting, my teammates were running sprints. This lasted 30 minutes the first day of my injury. That was everyday for 2 weeks, wathing my teammates do all the work I wanted to, and probably getting called a pussy by everyone on the team. It was during these 2 weeks when I realized, that no pain could possibly give me the anger and dissapointment I had felt. The point of the story is no matter the pain you can physically feel, there’s no pain like be denied the right to do what you want and watching everyone else do that very thing. The real lesson, however, is that you should never deny yourself the right to doing exactly what you want, whether it be wrestling, bodybuiling, sex, music, whatever. It’s an attitude some most give themselves, for me, it’s not even a thought. If you have to think, “do I really want to do_____” than maybe you should reconsider what it is you’re doing, because it may not be worth it.
The reason I had listed my injuries in my first post, was not to make me seem like some badass, it’s just a shred of proof that I practice what I preach, in this case not letting an inconvenience hold you back. Like I said, a bump in the road gives you 2 choices:stop/slow down or keep on chugging. I choose the latter because I refuse to roll over and let some injury stop me from doing what I please. No matter how shitty, how painful, or how unfortunate your injury is, it can only stop you if you let it. Trust me, unless you can’t process information, have no limbs, or are paralyzed, your situation isn’t that bad. It’s only that bad if you want it to be that bad. Stop feeling bad for yourself, get off your ass, and then kicked the freshly de-sedated ass! “the difference between who you are now, and who you are 5 years from now is the mass collection of decisions you make”-Alpha. There’s no point in feeling sorry for yourself or anyone else, no matter the situation. You will do yourself a diservice by not acting upon the situation you are dealt.
In closing, never let anyone or anything hold you back from what it is you want. If you do, you’ve made the choice to be like everyone else, and give up. If you give in to these “speed bumps” you have effectively thrown away any progress you have ever made. Failure is only giving you limits, it’s your choice whether you let these limits be you, or whether you smash them like the walls they truely are. My advice to anyone that constantly faces adversity or pain, is to go right back out and get back into the swing of things. If you don’t you might as well be one of the billions of sheep that live in this world.
Signed,
BHulk99 aka Ben