Too Tired

Last week I was not sleeping through the night. My little girl (bless her heart) was constantly waking up during the night.  This wore on me out and I was not able to sleep soundly.  I woke up with a stiff back. My body just didn't feel refreshed and energized. I went to work feeling tired. This is a common symptom of sleep deprivation. As the day progressed my back got more stiff.  Feeling that I could work it out and stretch it, I decided to continue with my leg workout.  I was doing my normal routine, when all of a sudden during a set of front squats my back locked up.  I could feel both Ilio Psoas muscles freezing up.  The shortening of these muscles forced the lumbar vertebraes to  shift forward into an anterior slip.  It felt like someone had hit my lower back with a baseball bat.  Fortunately, I was able to hold the weight long enough with my upper body strength to avoid a catastrophic mishap.  I re-racked the weight and walk around the gym.  My back was wrecked. Knowing what I had done, I immediately ceased any further exercise. The one good thing about knowing alot about the muscles is that once I tweak them too much I can do perform the appropriate therapy modalities. Needless to say, I save a ton of money on not having to go to a physical therapy clinic.  After resting and doing a series of self prescribed rehab exercises I am able get back on my feet. 

The moral of this story is, you must listen to your body and avoid over doing it.  I realized that I was tired from the start and probably shouldn't have trained that day. My back was already stiff from poor sleep.  Once my back buckled I knew I had over done it.  But rather than pressing on I stopped.  Sometimes folks will try to push on working through the pain. This is not always the best choice.  If I continued to do another set of front squats,  I probably would have broken my back. Injuries can happen to anyone at anytime, it doesn't necessarily matter if the person is incredibly fit or sedentary.  It is knowing what to do once the injury occurs. You must listen to your body and be aware of the symptoms.  Next time I am that tired and get ready to train, I will choose an exercise that is not so demanding on the central nervous system.  Even after all these years of training I am still learning. 

tags: daryl conant, vince gironda, ron kosloff, phil mickelson, scott stallings,