Rest and Rehabilitation

By Michael Krueger

Even if you are a serious, consistent exerciser, it’s a fact that you need to regularly schedule a break. For most in this category, it’s a very difficult fact to accept, but not accepting it doesn’t make it any less of a fact. Ignore the requirement to rest at your own peril, for it will catch up with you, and when it does, it will be ugly.

At this moment, I’m sitting here writing with an ice pack on my right shoulder and a contrite look on my face; I am paying the price.

 

Mindless Consistency

The vast majority of exercisers are not all that consistent. I’ve talked of this before, but this column is not directed at the average trainee who misses a workout on a fairly regular basis. This one is for people who are often called “gym rats” for their propensity to spend a lot of time every day in the gym, and not just talking but actually working out. These people are generally in superb shape and very happy with their (somewhat compulsive) lifestyle of fitness and exercise.

These people do not like to take any time off. When they go on vacation, they make sure the hotel where they are staying has a decent gym or, even better, a deal with a local gym where they can go and find free weights, squat racks, and kindred spirits. When they check in, they make a beeline to the concierge to get a map of the local running trails or find out where they can find the nearest lap pool or bike rental.

At this point, I’m going to stop referring to “these people” and just use “we,” since I am one of these people. I hate to miss a workout for any reason. I have been lucky since I have sustained very few injuries, and those few injuries were minor and cleared up after a few days or weeks. When they happened, I had the sense to force myself to take a few days off from my exercise routine to give them time to heal. It probably would have been better if I had taken a few more days off, but even passing on a couple of workouts was a big victory for rational thinking.

When it comes to fitness, people like us are not all that rational. We are afraid that if we miss a workout for any reason, we will lose strength, get fat, and never exercise again. This isn’t even remotely true or logical or even sane. Of course, this isn’t about the realities of physical fitness; the big issue is that it messes with our head. Being injured or sick conflicts with who we believe we are: Aren’t we fit, strong, and invincible?

 

Self-Image

When we get injured, whether it be from an acute incident or chronic overuse, we blame ourselves but in a very odd way. We assume that if we had worked harder, longer, or more often, this injury never would’ve happened. We think it was caused by a weakness (either physical or mental) or an imbalance (again, either physical or mental) or just a lack of character. I won’t say that it isn’t possible that any one of those may have had a part in an injury, but for us the cause is almost always overtraining, overreaching, or good old fashion hubris.

We invest a lot of physical, emotional, and psychic energy in whom we are and in the image we choose to project to the world. We are justifiably proud of what we have accomplished in relation to our fitness, but if it becomes the most important thing, it becomes a problem. To be willing to ignore time-tested advice about the need for rest, as well as all the warning signs that accompany overtraining, indicates a need for some reflection on our priorities.

I have known athletes who refused to acknowledge that they were injured and insisted on playing even though they were less than 100% and a drag on the team. I know very high functioning and talented firefighters who have hidden an injury to avoid being placed on light duty simply because they (erroneously) believe that others will see them as weak. They couldn’t perform at their best and therefore placed everyone at increased risk. For the sake of their ego and to save face, they risked everything.

 

Abusing Exercise

Our bodies can only repair and grow when they rest. This means not only adequate and regular sleep but time away from exercise as well. There is a thing known as active rest that generates a lot of controversy for something as simple as it is. Active rest means that you may do all the activities you normally do during the course of your day, including walking. What is does not mean is cross training or doing “just a light workout” or “just a couple of sets.” Rest means rest, and that means no formal exercise.

My problem is that I will occasionally misuse exercise. Rather that lifting weights to build muscle and running to train my heart and lungs, I will sneak in extra work to help control stress. Despite my own behavior, I believe that using exercise to control stress is a poor strategy. Many health professionals would disagree with me and that’s OK, since this is strictly my opinion. I fully believe that regular exercise does help deal with stress because of all the good things it does for you, but that isn’t its primary function; it’s merely a side effect. Exercising even more to relieve stress is like thinking that your headache is caused by a deficiency of aspirin because when you take a couple of aspirin it goes away. It may temporarily help with the pain, but you need to find out what the root cause is and address that.

As I write this, it is the week after Thanksgiving. I’m not big on holidays, since they disrupt my routines and I make myself a little crazy in general during this time of year. I wrote about “Holiday Streaking” last time, and obviously I’m a fan of it in part because it allows me to maintain at least some illusion of control and temporarily helps with the added stress. Using exercise in this manner on a limited basis is fine, but applying it year-round is a recipe for disaster.

In an ideal world, I would be able to maintain my schedule, revel in my running streak, relax, and enjoy this time of year without doing anything stupid. This hasn’t happen yet, but I’m still hoping.

 

How I Did It

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we were invited to a party to watch the Wisconsin Badges lose a game against Penn State. I am not a party guy, so these things cause a small amount of stress in addition to messing up my normal Saturday routine.

My son was visiting from college and, of course, needed some laundry done. My home gym is adjacent to the laundry room, and while waiting for the washer to finish its spin cycle, I thought I would burn off a little nervous energy. I put 135 pounds on the bar and set out to see how many reps of the bench press I could do. Of course, I thought I could break my personal best (42), and off I went without a warm-up or a thought as to whether or not this was a good idea; it wasn’t.

I got up to 31 reps and felt a slight twinge in my right shoulder, but that didn’t stop me from getting reps 32and 33; it should have. I knew right away that something bad had happened, and I felt like an idiot. The thought that popped into my head was “Pride cometh before the fall.”

To make matters worse, I wasn’t willing to accept that I had really hurt my shoulder, so I didn’t ice it right away. We went to the party, and I couldn’t get comfortable no matter what I did. I self-medicated with a few beers and a couple glasses of wine and wallowed in self-pity. The Badgers embarrassed themselves, and the evening ended.

Sunday morning came, and I went off to run my scheduled hill intervals. Every arm swing hurt, but I looked at it as just punishment for having acted recklessly the day before. Of course, this just made it worse, so in a moment of clarity I actually cut the workout short and headed home. I spent the next 20 minutes icing my shoulder and being depressed.

This morning I was scheduled to lift, and I actually tried a couple of exercises with just an empty bar… and now I am writing this cautionary tale of a compulsive exerciser.

 

Take-Away Lesson

So it’s a few days later, and my shoulder feels better than Saturday or yesterday, and if all goes well, I may be able to lift next week. This is a bitter pill to swallow, but the situation is of my own making; lesson learned.

If you are an extremely consistent (obsessive) exerciser, heed the need to schedule a week off every eight to ten weeks. Make it part of your program so it isn’t a miss; rest is training as sure as intervals and multiple sets are.

As we head toward the New Year, promise yourself that you will rest and rehab just as hard as you work; I know I will.

 

 

Michael Krueger is an NSCA-certified personal trainer. He got his start in fitness training while serving in the United States Coast Guard. He works with firefighters and others in and around Madison, Wisconsin. He is available to fire departments, civic organizations, and athletic teams for training, consulting, and speaking engagements. He has published numerous articles on fitness, health, and the mind-body connection and was a featured speaker at the IAFC’s FRI 2009 Health Day in Dallas, Texas. E-mail him at MKPTLLC@gmail.com.

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