Injuries: A Source of Strength

"At my age, no pain IS gain."

--Jeff Martone

"And I'll re-define anywhere."

--Metallica

Unfortunately it's injury time again. This inevitably happens when training hard, and definitely happens when training stupid. I have a tendency to be somewhere in-between hard and stupid, and so come the injuries.

This time my guess is that it's a form of golfer's elbow, or at least that's what some hasty internet research makes it sound like. I never knew golfer's elbow existed, but I guess it is akin to tennis elbow, only in the opposite direction. Huh. We learn something every day.

Injuries are certainly frustrating, but they are also a source of strength. Through the process of recovery we are forced to redefine ourselves. Ironically, the greater the recovery, the greater the potential redefinition and accompanying new strength. Of course, the strength I am referring to seems usually more mental than physical.

When I was much younger I learned (or so I thought) the best way to value something was to have it taken away for a short while and then restored. The brief "doing without" period makes us not take "the thing" for granted and causes us to value it even more. Or so it seems. Buddhists, on the other hand, would say to just let "it" go; the strength comes from the independence of doing without.

Several years ago I was really into CrossFit (which is probably not a surprise) and ended up tearing up my shoulder pretty bad. I went to a speciality doctor.

Doctor: "How old are you?"

Me: "38".

Doctor: "How did you get hurt?"

Me: "Working out on gymnastics rings."

Doctor: "How long have you been 38?"

It took me six weeks to understand his joke. It took me a lot longer to recover. The doctor's prescription was to not do anything "overhead". Really, it hurt to do most things except run. And so I did a lot of running--at least more than usual.

The idea of not being able to ever do CrossFit again really bummed me out for what seemed a long time. Then I realized that CrossFit was an activity I enjoyed, but it wasn't who I am. Big, big difference.

Realizing the difference was a huge source of self-empowerment. Even when I returned to CrossFit, I wasn't as hung-up or anal about the workouts. If I missed a day, or performed a workout with less weight than outlined, it wasn't the end of the world. I still kept accountability of my performance, but I was a lot less rigid about it. Again, CrossFit is an activity I enjoy, but it is not who I am.

This story pales in comparison with dear friends who have dealt with some real significant injuries: heart surgery, spinal, ankle and foot problems, and stomach ulcers. However, they all have one thing in common. Like the Phoenix, they have returned from their "setbacks" stronger than ever by redefining who they are.

Just as injuries are going to happen, so will "failure" in life. It is never any fun, and we surely would rather it not happen, but it inevitably will. But the gain that stems from "post-traumatic growth" is disproportional, especially in the long run. The mental strength increase will eventually cloud any losses, temporary or permanent, in the physical department.

(At least, this is what I tell myself as I ice my elbow for the next few days...) : )

Lifelong Learning

"The world is my training hall, and my time to train is now."

--The Art of Peace

If you embrace the idea that fitness can be achieved through many different ways, you are down with the process of constant evolution, then the only danger is becoming intimidated by the sheer number of seemingly endless endeavors to pursue, accompanied by the silly notion that one has to master any of them. The irony is that a love for lifelong learning will probably keep you alive, whether its content comes in the form of intellectual or physical activity.

"Studies have shown" (I use quotations because I don't have these studies handy) that practicing new physical skills, regardless of the outcome, can have a positive transfer towards mental activity, even in elderly individuals. For example, if a right-handed person were to attempt 40 layups left-handed, then read several paragraphs 30 minutes later, they would probably recall more words than if they performed the layups with their right-hand, and especially if they performed no layups at all. This positive transfer happens regardless of the amount of layups that went in the hoop--it is the attempt that matters most.

Personally, I don't really need to see brain-scans that depict neurons firing in the brain to be sold on the value of trying new physical things. I just know my own feeling of accomplishment, or dissatisfaction that comes when I don't "get it" (which is the majority of the time). This is also works well if you get bored easily (which also describes me a majority of the time).

The opportunities expand even more when we abandon ideas that fitness has to happen at a particular place, under pre-arranged conditions, or with specified equipment. About a week ago, while traveling on vacation, I decided my new goal is to perform a human flag. It will probably take me a year to do, but why not? The neat thing is that one can do it many places: from a pole, a deck, a tree, a ladder, you name it:

(No, this is not me).

And of course there's all sorts of other cool stuff out there. I don't really get into watching organized sports, but I could watch "Ninja Warrior" for hours on end. The athletes are really incredible. The obstacles are simply insane. For example, "The Curtain Climb" requires competitors to traverse a 15 foot curtain that has no handholds. Ouch! In search of a Ninja Warrior sort of thing I could get going in the garage, I found pegboard climbing. This looks pretty rough as well. Probably easier to implement is slacklining--the art of balancing on a line 3 feet from the ground. NDSU offers free classes each Thursday, so Jennifer & I will head there for a date sometime in the future.

The possibilities are endless, as are the opportunities for us to experiment with these possibilities. We are only limited by our imagination and discipline to keep on experimenting.

Return to Strength

"I've grown through this pain

Too late for apologies.

Resistance--return to strength."

--Terror, "Return to Strength"

Today was my first day back in the garage after a two and a half week vacation, so I had to do something involving weight. I chose the "CrossFit total", a protocol involving three of the major compound movements: back squat, shoulder press, and deadlift.

It's been awhile since I've done this particular workout, so I flipped through my old training log to find a previous performance I could use as a benchmark. Ironically, the last record I could find was four years ago to the day (August 30, 2007)! How weird is that????

Things went well. I was able to shoulder press significantly more than I could four years ago. My attempts at nutrition are little different now, and back then I had an evolving shoulder injury that would eventually lead to shots on two separate occasions (ouch).

On a side note, I found that training logs are pretty important. When I was much younger I used to laugh at dudes in the gym who would write down how many curls they did. Now I am the one writing things down. (I'm positive that someone somewhere is laughing at me). Anyway, it only makes sense. How else can you assess your performance and progress?

Also today I return to classes here at NDSU--my last one. So getting back into the garage helps me get back in the routine. I may not necessarily be able to hang with scalars, vectors and matrix functions, but I can at least attempt to move that barbell.

Day 1

So I'm going to give this a shot. I enjoy different aspects for fitness, for various reasons, and I enjoy writing, so I decided to begin a new blog. I'll explain more later, but for now my goals are relatively undefined. I have several other writing endeavors that are primarily meant to help people through sharing thoughts. I'm not sure how much this blog will help people, but it may help them understand me more as a person, if that's something worth reading about. Regardless, this blog may help me "keep writing", which is always a healthy thing.

Training, or "working out", has been something I have spent a significant amount of time doing, for the last 25 years. This is not to say that it is something I am "good" at. There are countless who spend much less time than me and enjoy much better results. But it is something I enjoy doing (at least, when it is over), so perhaps it will be easy to write about.

My latest quest is to determine a foolproof plan for working out through the North Dakota winter. I am a "garage gym" type of person--I like to wake up early and train in the garage. When we moved to Fargo in the summer of 2010, this was my plan. It worked OK until December, when the warmest I could get the garage was a meat locker "32 degrees" from an electric heater, which eventually quit working several days later.



Because I enjoy CrossFit as my physical training protocol, my workout plan went in the gutter. We were members of the local YMCA, but it isn't exactly CrossFit friendly. Really, my own lack of discipline was the culprit. Without beginning the day by "facing the struggle" (something I will discuss in a later post), the winter became long--very long. Now that we have our first North Dakota winter under our belt, my wife and I have decided that we need some better fitness plans. I have decided that by the end of September, I will have my primary plan set: either to heat the garage better, or to join a CrossFit facility.

While I salute those who run CrossFit facilities, I have never been a member. When possible, I have enjoyed the convenience of working in my garage. I can wear whatever I want, do whatever I want, and play the hateful music I want. The convenience is very nice, plus I don't have to mess with travel time to and from, and when I'm done, I'm done. I don't have to lug around hygene stuff or clothes to change into afterward. However, I have come to realize that these niceties may simply not be possible, and the price of not continuing to train is too great (weight gain and bad mood).

So today I checked out both of Fargo-Moorhead's CrossFit facilities. I spoke with the owner of one (the other was closed) and things look pretty promising. Of course they do not have a shower (very few affiliates do), and I would have to use the University gym. I checked out the University Gym (free to me as a student) and it is quite nice. They do not have CrossFit type setups, but do have an awesome climbing wall, which is something I would like to get into eventually.

Our other option is to heat the garage. Not wanting to repeat my amateur attempt from last year, we asked one of our neighbors, who does a lot of home improvement, for some help from their contractors. Not surprisingly, our neighbor has a "heating guy", who hopefully will contact us this week for an estimate on how to heat the garage effectively and at a low cost.

The comparison of options resembles something I learned over the last year of decision making models: a comparison of finanical and non-finanical cost. I'm betting the CrossFit gym membership alone will be cheaper than the cost of installing and running a heating device for the garage; however, there is also the "inconvenience cost" of having to drive to the facility, then to the University gym to shower, then to school. Also, having to leave the house early in the morning would leave my wife alone to prep the kids for school each day. Not that she isn't up for this, but I would miss seeing them as well.

So, more to follow. We'll see what the heater man brings.