Compliance Fail

Let me tell you something, this year has been a beast on ye olde broad’s body.

It all started with the knee, which had been an ongoing problem for the last year and finally came to a head in August.  If it wasn’t the knee hurting then it was hip.  The sports medicine doctor called it bursitis.  I call it old folks hip.  The latest body fail? The back. I felt it coming on at the end of last week.  Made a wrong move and bam there it went.  I am almost completely upright now but a few days ago I was cross-eyed with pain.  What gives? My body for sure, but it’s mostly my mind, giving into temptation and this freaky competition that I have with myself.

Whenever I have an injury, my healthcare provider/trainer  prescribes the following:

1. Do not participate in X activity for # amount of time
2. Follow X treatment plan for # amount of time
3. After treatment is complete you may return to activity but do so gradually and build up.
4. At the first sign of pain stop.

For example, the downtime for the knee issue was supposed to be a 1 month per the trainer (who had torn both of ACLs and knows pain).  My primary care physician said 2-3 weeks along with a treatment plan.  I did not follow the treatment, I laid off for 2 1/2 weeks and started running again, gradually and with this

but I went back.  Only for my body two months later to say NOPE.

Good habits can be difficult to form and bad habits difficult to end.  Starting an exercise program and staying consistent can be difficult. However once it becomes habit, stopping is not an option even though sometimes it should be, as in the case of injury.  Folks who worked hard to get where they are now, competitive folks and folks who just want to have a good quality of life within their own body can have difficulty with stopping, reducing or adjusting activity.  Swallowing the pill/complying with the doctor’s orders has been difficult for me, but the old broad is learning.  I’d much rather do what they tell me to do and go for the long-term, then do what I want to do in the short-term and pay for it by being laid up.

What about you? Does your mind over power your body and make you exercise when it’s probably best for you to refrain?  If so were you able to break out of that pattern of behavior? What did you do. Let me know in the comments and until next time,

See you on the trail or the gym or…