The week of the Beast of the East, I pulled my right SI joint. It was one of those silly preventable injuries. I came home from work and was a bit tight. My workout was light that day so I just wanted to get straight to working out. In hind sight, I might as well spent a full half hour warming up. Anyhow, I was still doing light weights- 60kg snatch-- when my hamstring felt a bit tight. It was one of those, "I'm not in pain but I'm not feelin' my cat like reflexes kicking in". Long storys hort, I subconciously compensated for my discomfort by rounding my back in the first pull.
Arrrghhh, the pain. It was like someone yanked a thousand rubber bands into a tight ball, centered right above my SI joint. I dropped the bar mid second pull.
My mind snapped back to advice I had gotten a week earlier from one of the elite lifters training at my gym. To paraphrase, it was "It is better to train a few days after an injury. Resting for a couple of weeks might, actually, make it worse as you become untrained".
So, I did the smart thing and stopped lifting immediately, getting some ice, having someone massauge it that night, and taking over the counter NSAID (yes, USADA approved). That night, I could barley bend over to take my shoes off. I had to sleep on my stomach!
Day 1 after injury:
Anyhow, the next day, instead of taking it completely off, we did some light bar work and stretches. Again, icing frequently through out the day. We also applied Chinese fire cups. Keeping inflammation down and keeping the muscles relaxed was key.
Day 2:
Having diligently taken care of my back, I felt about 70% better by now. I could do a full squat with mild pain. I also got accupuncture and fire cups. We went up to about 55kg and 75kg snatch and clean and jerk.
Day 3:
Day before competition, long work day and commute, very light bar work. More massauge!
Competition:
I felt a thousand percent better. I closed the women's snatch session at the 2011 Beast of the East.
Below is the result (go to about the 11 minute mark) :
The following week:
Light unloading week.
Two weeks later:
100% better!!
No comments:
Post a Comment