My first month general experiment has been thrown off course slightly because I was only able to get one SotCF class in this week. Why, you ask? Come on, stop making excuses, you say?
Well I legit got injured at my first (and only) class this week. It's my back y'all. It's such a pain in the "back"..haha. get it? "back" instead of "neck" or ***. Yes I just censored myself.
So long story short:
I was chillin' with my homies crankin' out some back squats when I made a bad decision. I tried to keep up with my partner with the amount of weight being squated. We had to do 8 sets of 5 squats in which each set increased by whatever amount of weight we could handle. On the 4th set, something went wrong and my lower left back did that stabbing pain thing. Like the pulled muscle pain thing.
Did I stop? Of course not. This was definitely not one of those things I could just work through and make it better--I made it worse. Dummy
I finished the entire workout (like a champ) including two 400m runs...that's 800m for those of you who don't like math, and THIRTY ground to overheads (GTOs). Guys. Thirty GTOs is a LOT!! I'll explain those in more detail in a later post after I master them.
So I've spent the last several days taking it easy, treating the injury, and layin low. It's tough for me to not move so this was not an easy task. Except for when I took my Flexeril. That makes it really easy to NOT move. Just to put the pain in perspective: Apparently when I was a baby, my leg got broken or something and I didn't cry. True story. Ask my Ma.
Long story short (listen, I know that was just a long story...I can't tell short stories...it's impossible for me), I'm recovering slowly but surely. I will definitely be able to be back next week. In the mean time, I've been walking very slowly to at least get a little activity.
So...what can you learn from this long-winded story? Two things:
1. Always be aware of your form and your limits.
You have to make sure you push yourself but only to the point of maintaining good form and within your capabilities. If you don't, you'll get injured and there's no one to blame but yourself (that's me in this scenario. There is no one to blame but myself. womp womp.)
2. The importance of core strength.
I talked to my coaches at Charles River CrossFit (the most awesome CrossFit gym evah!), J-Snizzle and DJ Jazzy Jeff (his name's not really Jeff, but this is now his nickname), and they were soooooo helpful. Just like my coaches always are. The suspicion is that my core was not engaged like it should be when you lift. Squats are my base--they're what I excel at (dancer legs). My legs are way stronger than any other part of my body (other than my brain. bam!...actually, that's a lie but let's pretend), so I was probably relying solely on my two stems and not on my core. I'll be the first to admit that my core is nowhere where I want it to be.
Do I hear another challenge approaching??
Challenge accepted.
So my second mission is to improve my core strength dramatically. My goal is not appearance-related, but instead is awareness and strength-related. I want to be as familiar with and engaged with my core as possible to prevent further back injuries, and I want to develop my core muscles more so it is easier to rely on them.
How:
I will be doing 50 ab mat sit-ups every single day moving forward. So this is my second little experiment. Can I get more "in touch" with my core? ya know...give it a little more love?
Stay tuned to find out!
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