When working out I've always had one problem. I have a tendency to push myself too hard. I have the constant feeling that I am not pushing myself hard enough because my body fails at certain things and it is when the body is tired and at the point where you feel the lactic acid burn that the real work is done. Because of my anger at those failings I push myself whenever I get the chance. My weakness in working out has always been core stability. It is because of this that I attack that weakness with plank jacks and mountain climbers. I find them difficult and need to push myself to get through it, and once I get into the mindset of pushing myself I don't stop.
That first paragraph is a lot of rambling to get to the point of this post and that is that the week before last I pushed myself to three workouts a day. It was a very hard week. I ended each day more tired than I'd been in a long time, but I made it through. The next week wasn't that difficult and I decided to continue doing three workouts a day, but I would make the second workout more intense. This could have been a mistake or the other mistake could have been to ignore what had been until this week a minor pain.
My right ankle had started to have some discomfort, and my first thought on it was it was just a minor pain. I had no loss of strength or use of the joint, but the pain was there and then this week it became constant. the pain wouldn't go away and something had to be done. I had to ease back. So I went back to one or two workouts a day. For the most part this has been a great idea. The ankle pain is mostly gone and I've been able to do all the workouts this week to the best of my ability.
The point is that I got ahead of myself. I was starting to get close to wearing a pants size less and all my belts but the ones that don't fit me are broken and I am so close to fitting into one of them. My mentality on this was to fight. To work harder in order to get there faster. I could see the finish line and I started sprinting to it. The only issue is that finish line was still miles away. I was close to getting to the next goal but I wasn't close enough to jack my workout program beyond the abilities of my body.
We can feel and know certain things about or bodies. I can feel when I'm getting tired or when muscles are getting sore, but it is very hard to feel the extra stress being put on joints and bones, but that stress exists. It is when those pains crop up that we should ease back, and that is what I've done. Hopefully next week I can ramp it back up to a higher intensity. Probably not the intensity of doing an Insanity or P90X workout in the morning and a second 40 minute high intensity workout in the afternoon. I was able to do it cardio and muscle wise but my joints weren't ready for that stress.
When working out the results don't happen during the workout. They happen during the rest. The working out is tearing the body down and the rest is building it back up. Too much working out without enough rest isn't a path to improvement. I saw the finish line and wanted to get there quicker than I could, but I forgot that the only finish line is death. Life until then is a series of goals and my current one is to wear a belt that isn't broken without having to buy a new one, and while I am close I am also far away and if I don't use proper rest I will only get further away.
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