It’s been almost 5 months since I wrecked my right foot in an attempt to qualify for the Olympics in potato sack racing. I say this to be funny and lighten the mood of a very dark post-foot injury recovery, but also so I can provide context for my level of competition. I hate to lose, but man, I love to win.
Before I injured my foot, I had injured my back while exercising and injured both hips while innocently driving to Target – to say the least, my body is tired of recovery. So is my brain. I haven’t thought much about exercising my lower extremities in so long, that I actually don’t know what this post-foot injury recovery is going to look like. Even if it had only been a month non-weight bearing, I was out for almost 2 straight years. I’d never been out for more than a month before.
So I’ve been choosing to allow myself the joy of upper body days and getting a little more into cardio, which is not my favorite and actually, still pretty painful on my foot. Recovery time is going to be so fun – I have to remind myself often that this is the life I chose and I’m grateful that the foot didn’t actually fall off or require surgery – God is GOOD y’all.
So the friend and trainer at my old CrossFit gym suggested I come in to see what I could do – not expecting much, I started the day with delts and took whatever time she could offer (open gym can be crickets or chaos, today it was chaos). She talked about cross-over, where you work out your good side and there is some actual benefit to the injured side. I didn’t want to overtrain my left side, since I still have a lot more muscle on that side than my poor atrophied right thigh and calf. But she suggested single-leg exercises to help with the post-foot injury recovery, and I’m happy to oblige.
Anything to get back to my identity as an athlete – I never thought I would want to run after I left Dallas, but all I want is to know that my body can and will do whatever I ask it to do. That’s the part of the gym I miss the most, seeing the progression of what I can mentally and physically perform.
Lower body mobility, upper body strength, and cardio – I’m training for a chest press competition as part of my 2022 goals and praying that this post-foot injury recovery goes smoother now that we’re over the “hump” (the only hump I’ll allow).
