Last night, arriving at the gym later than I wanted, being much more tired than was good, I knew the first thing I needed to do to warm-up was 10 minutes of kicking (roundhouse, high kicks, modified kicks, all kicks!). Excellent source of cardio and use of legs, though now I know to do it AFTER leg workout and maybe not so much before.
As I’m looking around, trying to figure out where I’m going to do this (new gym doesn’t have a punching bag), I notice a lady on a treadmill that is walking and kicking. I thought this idea was GENIUS. Then you don’t have to worry about jumping back and forth. Just step and kick with the other leg! Then by the time you put the kicking foot down, the other foot can just go up for the kick. No walking or jumping included!
So naturally, I go into the woman’s workout room to try this (no need to make a fool of myself in front of more people should something go wrong). I set the treadmill on a low speed, and begin. At first it was all adjustment of learning how fast to kick vs. how fast the treadmill was going. But it seemed AMAZING. More focus on the kicking, less focus on the extra foot movement.
It was kind of like this picture except I allowed my body to go back a little further, and had full extension kicks instead of just knee lifts.
I thought it went well, albeit I know I’m a little awkward when kicking. I really should get some more training with this. But it was after, when I went to start my squat warm-ups, that I realized an all-of-a-sudden strip of pain down my quad. Oh my goodness. I stopped, waited a minute and tried again. The pain kept pulling. So I stopped again. Waited another minute, tried again, and realized it was just getting worse.
I had to stop. Which is something I rarely do. The pain was not going away. Did I do it during my squat warm up? No idea. Hasn’t happened during a warm up before… Did I do it during my kicking? I’m thinking so. It’s something I don’t normally do. Could it be a result of hardly sleeping leading to very little recovery? Also a possibility. It’s really hard to say.
Naturally, I went and rolled, and rolled, and rolled. It hurt, it was painful, but it needed to be done. Then, I stretched, and stretched, and stretched. Again, it hurt, it was painful, but it needed to be done. Did the pain go away like I had hoped? Nope. In fact, it almost felt worse afterward, but nothing can help repair an injury like stretching can do. So instead of doing my leg workout, I ended up doing my back workout. Even though I was able to complete it, it still was modified since I was shifting most of my weight on my uninjured leg. Even though my lower body was shifted, I tried my best to centralize my upper body. You gotta do the best you can with what you got.
I couldn’t do the cardio I wanted, and even though I left the gym last night feeling defeated and upset, I made myself question the whole thing. I can’t push my body to destruction. It’s better to recover now than not be able to fully recover later. And missing one cardio session will not make me fat. My body needed recovery, and that’s what I had to do.
If you get an injury, don’t give up, but don’t push it to the max. Remember that some recovery (which does require minimal work) is what will help you in the long run. Listen to your body as it knows best (notice there is a difference between body and brain!!). And most of all, take recovery seriously. Your body cannot build, repair or produce the results you want if it does not get the down time to do it. You only get one body, so let’s treat them the best possible.
Calm in Christ and Fitness 