Humbled & Injured

OK, so there has been an unusual pause in prolific blogging here lately.


Truth be told, the last time I worked out was on March 17th.

The WOD on that day was as follows:

BENT OVER ROW

7-7-7-5-5-5


3 rounds AQAP:

4 Handstand push-ups

8 Ground to Overhead, 135 pounds

12 Burpees
I did great on the bent over rows. HSPUs: no problem. Then came the 8 ground-to-overhead reps.

I’ll admit it. I was feeling kind of juiced. It was a good night in the box, the music was loud, and I was feeling strong. With a little encouragement, I decided to do the ground-to-overhead reps with a 115# bar (that’s the heaviest I had ever tried to do an overhead weightlifting movement during a WOD).

On rep 5 or 6 of the 2nd round, I felt a little pain on the lower left side of my back. But I was almost done and the music was good, so I decided to finish it out.

I did really well that night and finished the workout in under 10 minutes, but something didn’t feel right.

I woke up the next day and the pain had officially arrived. My annual physical was scheduled the following morning so I decided to ask the doc if she recommended anything. She said just to let it rest for a few days.

By the following Tuesday (March 23), I was still in a lot of pain and decided to call the doc. She phoned in a prescription for a muscle relaxer – which only knocked me unconscious for a while, the pain was still there.

At this point, I was not going to work, living in my pajamas and only picking myself up of off the couch when absolutely necessary.

By the following week, it was clear that I was not making any progress, in fact it was getting worse. I went back to the doctor and had an x-ray (which detected nothing unusual) got another prescription (for a steroid) and a got a referral for a spinal specialist.

I could not imagine that I had a spinal injury (I envisioned neck braces and life confined to a wheelchair). So I decided to see a sports medicine doctor instead. He took a brief look and put me in physical therapy.

My first PT appointment was on April 13th (almost a month after the injury occurred) and I immediately started to feel some relief afterwards. I asked the therapist when would I would be able to go back to my “normal routine”(including Crossfit) and she guessed it would take about a month. ONE MONTH!

Well, today was my 5th PT session, and the therapist and I are both pleased with the results. The therapist actually recommended that I start easing back into my Crossfit routine…YES!

Apparently, the injury involves a spinal facet. Not sure about all the details, but it sounds like I probably hyper-extended my back to far when trying to do the heavier ground-to-overhead reps.

I am planning to start back at Crossfit next week…slowly. I have lost tons of strength (and weight – thanks to that muscle relaxer prescription, I didn’t really eat much for several days). But I am anxious to get back into the routine, paying extra special attention to avoid hyper extending my 41-year-old back.