I woke up with some back pain again.  It’s been a week now and I still haven’t fully moved past it. There have been a couple instances where it’s felt better.  Even good enough that I managed to get to the gym twice but ultimately it’s still trying to heal up.  I’d call it a pain in the ass but technically it’s actually a little above that region on the right hand side.  I pulled it while testing dumbbell rows five pounds heavier than usual and now I’m that guy writing about his slow week of injury recovery.  Oh well, at least there’s food.

I’m writing this over breakfast, seven days later, astounded to admit that my injury went from almost healed to actually worse following a hard cough in this very chair.  That’s right, I coughed and it sent a shudder through my nervous system and made my back injury worse.  I just wanted to eat my yogurt and drink my espresso so I could go to the gym and BAM!  Back sprain by sudden cough. 

If it weren’t already feeling like history may repeat itself I have a bowl of Ratio vanilla yogurt in front of me next to a glass of chocolate milk with four shots of espresso in it.  Prophetic jokes aside, this breakfast has definitely become a staple.  There’s something about chocolate milk that just makes it appropriate at any time of day and I definitely need to keep up the protein having only made it to the gym twice in the last eight days.

Alongside the yogurt and espresso infused chocolate milk I have Kashi Crunch cereal.  This breakfast is no joke and since I’m going back to the gym today I really needed something like it to get this new week started.  Earlier this week I managed to get in a lighter weight, higher rep day without triggering any new back issues.  After two days off I went in for a heavier day and again managed to get in a great workout without re-injury.  I’m at the point where I know I can lift as long as I’m avoiding anything that relies too heavily on the lower back stabilizers.  For obvious reasons I’m not doing rows again until this area is fully healed.

Doing an intentionally lower weight gym session is a sort of weird experience.  While I’m not a body builder or professional athlete I am used to putting up 280 pound leg presses and moving more than I weigh.  On the lighter weight day I had to get over the worry of being judged for obviously lifting far less than I was capable of.  It’s strange how at the gym you never stop to think “oh that person is weak” but the second you have to lift lighter you’re worried about being that weakling over there to someone else.

The real trick over the past seven days hasn’t been a lack of wanting to work out though.  It’s really been quite the opposite and I’d imagine a lot of people feel this too.  I didn’t go twice this week because I had to, it was more like I got to go.  Over any other week I would have gotten to go four or five times instead of kicking back and writing a sad story about the cough that threw out my back.

Was this week all bad though? Of course not.  While two days of exercise isn’t a lot over a week long period it’s definitely enough that I broke up some of the sedentary monotony.  I’m happy to report that I didn’t only drink chocolate milk and eat yogurt the entire time either.  I still managed to hit a protein target of 175g and a hydration goal of 100oz of water per day.  Looking for these little wins definitely helps when you’re feeling like the lazy loser who can’t even go to the gym right now.

A week ago I overdid it and pulled a muscle.  Seven days later I’m close to recovering from a worsened injury because I coughed in the kitchen.  With the back closer to being healed my mood has improved and I don’t feel nearly as pathetic as I did a few days ago.  This was a week of recovery and unfortunately I really needed it.  I’m looking forward to the upcoming week and hope to have better news when another Monday rolls around.  In the meantime thank you for reading.  It means a lot and I can’t wait to share more.