This blog post is dedicated to the topic of knowing your body and understanding its limitations. I pushed myself the past two days because I knew the workout would be hard, I knew I would be sore, and I knew that I could push through. However, because of that mentality, I pushed myself too far and did not listen to my body. Now I have a strained muscle in my back. It is inflamed and it hurts like crazy especially when I bend over of twist. I am assuming that it is due to the hyper extensions that we were doing with a 15lb weight.
Now what are you supposed to do when this happens? Well just from what I have learned through schooling (I majored in exercise science....FYI) it is extremely important for you to REST that muscle. Use the acronym RICE which is Rest, Ice, Compression (heat), and elevation. As I said rest is very important because you do not want make the injury worse and prolong recovery. Ice is useful as it decreases inflammation and should be put on for about 10-20 minutes. Compression is good to help ease the pain and decrease swelling as well. I like heat better because it is very comforting. The last part is elevation. If you have strained a muscle in let's say your leg, you would want to elevate it while you are sitting down RESTING.
My suggestion to you especially if you are starting a new workout or getting back into it....don't push yourself too hard because you will hurt yourself. Start out easy. Seriously. It takes time to lose weight, bulk up, etc. So listen to your body. If it is too much weight, back off. If you are working too much, your body will tell you.
Just be...careful.
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