Hurt

It has been a while since I had a good old fashion sporting injury. Sure I have had my heart issues over the last few years, but that is more of a condition that an injury. I haven't really been doing enough sport to injure myself though. Changing all that now though.

I have a bit of a sore back at the moment. I have had back issues for years and so it isn't really anything new, pretty annoying though. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was my return to the gym last week that did the trick. After hurting it last week it was healing up all nicely and then I tweaked it again yesterday, so it has been pretty sore for the last 24 hours.

As with all good coaches I am currently managing my injury by ignoring all the advice I would usually give an athlete. Usually I would tell and athlete to stop any activity that aggravates the injury and then go and see a sport medicine professional, probably a physio. So far I have done none of those things, which might explain why the injury is still causing me an issue a week later. Given that I thought it might be time to start listening to my own advice.

For this particular injury I haven't seen a physio yet and I probably won't. I have been tweaking my back for a few years now and so I have a fairly good idea of how to treat it and the sort of maintenance I should be doing (and haven't). This mainly has to do with stretching and general mobility exercises that I have been given by physios over the years. Given the injury is currently pretty acute I am not doing these mobility exercises right now, but once it calms down a little I will be.

What I am doing at the moment is taking a bit of ibuprofen to reduce any inflammation and actually giving it a bit of a rest. I have rested the back today and I have to say it is already feeling quite a bit better. This current niggle isn't bad, rather I think its persistence was mainly due to me stubbornly training with it. I am on the bike tomorrow which doesn't tend to aggravate the back so that should bring further improvements and so hopefully I am all good to train properly part way through the week.

Turns out I probably should have been listening to my own advice a bit sooner.