At one time, I ran a blog called Fitterverse: A universe of fitness. This post originally appeared there. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I’ve been able to recapture the text. I’ve published them here on their original publication dates.
For the third time since I started my fitness regimen, I’ve managed to develop tendonitis. The first time I managed to get it in both quadriceps simultaneously, making my knees hurt like hell. Lowering weights helped a little, but I ended up in the orthopedist since my right knee kept getting worse. Turns out I have patellofemoral pain syndrome, where your kneecap essentially rubs against your femur.
Eight weeks of no quadriceps workouts and physical therapy helped. Eventually the insurance ran out and I was left on my own. I rested another four weeks and took my PT’s advice and stopped doing quadricep extensions. Knees and quads seem fine now. I’ve started doing extensions again, but only the bottom half, keeping my kneecap away from my femur.
The next time was tennis elbow from playing racquetball. I learned to play left-handed. Awkward as hell, but resting my right arm did the trick.
Now I’ve got bicep tendonitis in the tendon closest to my elbow, so no bicep work for a month, and limited back work, since I can’t do rows, either. I’ve changed my back regimen completely for the next month.
I’m terrible at dealing with injury! I hate slowing down anything in my regimen, but I have to be considerate of my age, and remember that a month of not working a body part is better than never working out again. I also despise going to the doctor. Luckily, most of what I’ve done so far has been easy to self-diagnose and treat with information found on reliable medical websites.
How do you deal with injury? How do you avoid it?