Injury, Injury, oh how you mess with me

Had my first serious injury this week, since starting my regime in earnest. From what the experts say, I should probably have taken more notice of the causes of injury in the first place, so I would not be here, sitting on the sofa, unable to go to the gym and in pain.

The things I should have been doing to prevent injury were the following:

• Have a good 10-15 minute warm up, this could be on the treadmill, cross trainer or stationary bike

• Keep a good posture

• Maintain a good technique. If you are not sure how, have someone show you, like a gym instructor.

• If anything starts to hurt, stop.

• Always finish your workout with a good stretch [10-15mins involving all the major muscle groups]

Now I did all of those things apart from maybe the technique and stopping when it hurt [because I am a muppet]. I was doing a Kettlebell workout and I thought that looking on the internet at instructions would be sufficient in turning me into an expert, er, well, no not exactly and because of it, I really hurt my back. So much so I’ve had to not go to work, to avoid sitting at a desk all day and making it worse.

The best I can do just now is rest it, which involves not sitting about too much or my back just stiffens up on me and makes me walk like a special case of ‘riding legs’ [if you have ever been a horse for an extended period of time, you’ll know what I’m talking about]. When I do get back to the gym, I have an appointment with one of the personal trainers, so he can give me some pointers on how to not make the same mistake again.

And in the meantime, I’ll not be quite so ill prepared when taking on a new workout!