Sports injuries are real buzzkills.
I've had a small number of these over the years. I'm far from an athlete, but I have exercised intermittently over the course of around 20-25 years. For my bodyweight, I'm at least above average in terms of strength and endurance compared to the average guy. This is not intended to brag, but to give a bit of context to these injuries, since I have a little bit of experience.
My first one happened around college age, when doing pull-ups. My form wasn't ideal, and I injured my wrist slightly, if I recall correctly. I paused for a while, recovered rather quickly, and was able to resume again.
The next one was a little bit more serious - it happened when I was doing weightlifting exercises a few years later, specifically during squatting. I did try to focus on form, but I'm not sure that it was optimized. I did hurt my knee a little bit, but this recovered in a matter of weeks. I wore knee wraps after that incident.
The next one was even more serious. When I hit 30 years of age, I was starting my job in residency. I used to walk to the bus stop several blocks from where I lived, just over half a mile. I'm the person who's always a little bit late and mistimes how long it will take me to get somewhere on time, so I transitioned from walking to the bus stop to running/jogging. I actually got better at it, and started jogging/running longer distances for health reasons.
At my peak, I ran 5 miles in one go (pausing only for red lights). The subsequent time that I tried to replicate this run, I felt a tiny pain in my knee (which I later attributed to possibly turning a little bit more than my joint could handle). I kept going for a while and ended up walking the last half mile because the pain kept getting worse. This was, for a while, the end of my little running "career." I definitely injured something in my knee, and it would be about a year before I ran again. I'm able to do so now without any pain, but once in a while, that old injury reminds me that it's there.
More recently, I was increasing the number of chin-ups that I was doing. My strength and endurance was building up very quickly, and my muscles took a while to fatigue. However, my tendons and ligaments were not catching up quite as quickly as my muscles. While doing a ridiculous number of chin-ups, I injured one of the tendons in my left elbow. That was the end of my chin-ups and pull-ups. It's been over a year, and I'm still extremely limited in doing them. That injury still has not fully recovered. Chin-ups and pull-ups were my favorite exercises, so this was quite a blow to me.
What's the lesson in all this? Listen to your body. If you feel a pain that's not your muscles tiring out, stop. Don't push yourself through. And focus stringently on using proper form.
These days, I'm more cognizant of form and doing exercises in a way that minimally stress the joints. Your joints should not be bearing the brunt of the force that you're using for your exercise. That's the muscle's job. The joint must simply be the turning point between forces.
If I feel a tiny pain, I pause, adjust my form, and do one more slow, careful repetition. If it's not painful, I continue. If it still hurts, I stop altogether. I may try again the next day if the pain is gone; if it returns during the repetition, I stop and take an even longer break. I had this situation with my knee this week, so I'm letting it rest until the pain is completely gone. There are always other exercises I could do.
I'm hoping that the elbow injury is going to subside enough over time that I can resume doing my favorite exercises. I wanted to do physical therapy at my hospital, but they made scheduling with them very difficult. Hence, I haven't even had an opportunity to get it fixed on a timely basis. I fear that the long-term ramifications of not getting physical therapy on time will have long-lasting impacts. Thanks to my job and to my hospital's physical therapy department (I now understand why people choose not to go there!).
Anyway, I'll always find some workouts that I am able to do. Despite any odds that may go against me, I'll find ways to stay healthy and keep my strength up. Never give up. 💪
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