My Latest Injury and Recovery Plan

Guess which body part made this hole?

Since I started blogging at the beginning of 2011, I have sustained several exercise-related injuries to my shoulders, knees, and feet. A few days ago, I experienced my most embarrassing injury so far. I have to blog about this one, right?

I use a chin up bar similar to this one from Beachbody, which hangs around the top of the door frame. I usually check that it’s secure before I do any pull ups. Well, this time, either I didn’t check it so well, or maybe I was  “kipping” (using body motion to help me get up there). The chin up bar fell off the door frame, and down I went. As you can see in the picture, my butt hit the wall on the opposite side of the hallway, and then I landed.

I lay there on my side for a moment, trying to figure out what got hurt and how much. My wife came running upstairs because of the loud crash. I was fortunate that my only injuries were the area near my tailbone (apparently not the tailbone itself), and my right elbow (scraped), and of course my pride. In the hours following the  accident, I determined that if it was a serious injury, I would be in much greater pain than I am. What I feel is a low level of pain, somewhere between annoying and uncomfortable, with an occasional groan. (I still won’t say, as Tony Horton did in P90X2’s X2 Core, “There’s fire in my buttocks!”)

This happened on Christmas Eve, so I had a built-in recovery day after that. (Despite my Beachbody friends’ encouragement on Facebook, I did not attempt to work out on Christmas, although I have done it on occasions when I was awake early enough.) Immediately following the incident and overnight, I applied an ice pack to the affected area. Yes, I had an ice pack up my butt, OK? With some clothing in between… I did the same on Christmas night when I went to bed.

Jillian Michaels Body Revolution (Amazon)

On December 26, it was time to evaluate what kind of workout I could do, if any. Even a minor injury can get in the way of physical activity. I decided to try the Cardio 3 workout from Jillian Michaels Body Revolution. There is a variety of exercises in this 30 minute workout, including lunges, burpees, plyometrics, and more, so I decided to see what was possible for me while remembering the difference  between soreness and pain. I got through the entire 30 minutes, at a moderate pace. Here is a summary of my findings:

OK: Upper body, plyometrics (small jumps), push ups, jumping jacks, lunges (carefully!)

NOT OK: Jumping lunges (or any big jumps), lifting heavy objects with one arm, sitting down/standing up, difficult abdominal exercises

That’s not a complete list, but you get the idea. The pressure point is down at the base of my spine, so any movement that presses or rotates that area is uncomfortable.

The lesson here for me is 1) Be careful when you set up your equipment, and 2) When you are injured, find your workout limits without delaying or preventing your recovery. I could “fight through the pain” but who knows what kind of additional damage I could do, or how long it would take to feel better. In the meantime, I am learning compassion for those who have chronic conditions which cause pain or discomfort, and find a way to overcome them.