In the last six months or so, I have really focused on consistency and discipline and I started to feel kind of invincible. It seemed like no matter how hard I pushed myself, I was making huge improvements in my performance and I was able to recover well, but last week it all caught up to me and I got injured. Luckily, the injury isn’t serious and all I need is some time away from the gym to rest and recover, but it’s frustrating nonetheless. The physical benefits are a huge part of why I take the gym so seriously but it’s also one of the main things I do to take care of my mental health, so having to take a couple weeks off has really taken a toll on me. Setbacks are inevitable, especially if your fitness journey is a lifelong one, so learning how to deal with or cope with them is going to help you out a lot in the long run.
If you’re dealing with something like an injury, of course, the first step should be to take care of yourself physically. Whether it’s resting, going to the doctor or a physiotherapist, or just adapting your training until you recover, listening to your body is the most important step. Even minor injuries need care so that they don’t turn into major injuries, so listen to the warning signs from your body and don’t push it past its limits. A few days, or even a few weeks, out of the gym to recover is not going to kill your progress, so take the time when you need it.
I find the mental impact of these types of setbacks to be harder to deal with than the actual injury itself. Filling the time that I would normally spend in the gym with other self care activities has been the most helpful thing I’ve tried so far. Personally, I love to read, write, and crochet, so I have been dedicating at least an hour a day to these things. While they are super different from working out, they help me stay grounded and keep my mind busy, which is exactly what the gym does for me. I have also been trying to stay active in other ways. The injury that I’m dealing with allows me to go for walks and stretch, so I’ve been trying to do a little bit of that every day to keep my body moving and blow off some steam.
Long story short, injuries suck and are super frustrating, but it is so important to take time to recover so that you can get back to working toward your goals.