Hey everyone,
I’ve been out for a couple weeks with a nagging shoulder injury and a slightly less nagging hamstring injury. Both happened a couple weekends ago while I was out bricking in the patio in our back yard (actually, I think the shoulder thing happened somewhere between the truck and the patio while I was trying to impress The Fiancee by schlepping my bodyweight in pavers. Ass, wheelbarrows were invented for a reason!).
So I’ve been grumpy, irritable, and basically living on Advil for a few weeks now. Yesterday, after a day of sitting at work, wallowing in self-pity and basically mourning the state of things, I got really pissed at myself.
I mean really pissed. Had-to-leave-work-early-without-telling-my-boss pissed. I’m still wondering why it took so long to happen. I’m still trying to figure out what exactly flipped the switch from “woe is me” to “what the fucking fuck is wrong with me?” Was there some stimulous, or was it simply some internal timer that clicked?
At any rate, I went straight to the gym. It was a totally unstructured workout because of the spontaneity, but I managed to get in good benches, deads and cleans. The cleans were especially satisfying.
And you know what? I woke up this morning feeling great. For the first time in weeks, my shoulder doesn’t hurt, the ham isn’t throbbing, and everything’s comfortably sore. It really makes me wonder how much of my supposed injury was mental, and how much disuse contributed to it.
So there’s no great advice or punchline here, I just wanted to share a mental victory I had, and a pretty minor one in the big scheme of things. I obviously can’t recommend “walking it out” for all your injuries, but I know that I get dragged into a blue funk every now and then, and it’s good to know I can bust out of it with a little extra mental toughness and a little extra gym time. With experience and practice, maybe I can identify and demolish these walls before they ever get built in the first place.
This weekend, I can finish the patio.
Thanks for reading,
Chris