While I never wish for anyone to be injured, there are a lot of things that injuries teach us. Rather than dwelling on the fact that I am injured, I am trying my best to stay positive and learn from the experience.

[I wrote this Sept 8th and have since gotten my shoe off this past Tuesday, more to come about how I am doing.] 

I got my shoe 2 weeks ago (as I write this Sept 8). When I got it, I was prepared. I knew a shoe or boot might be the next step for my foot and I was ready to slow down. I was ready to accept that I needed to take it easy because I needed to heal. My world wasn’t going to end from light workouts or even taking time off. Would I have to work hard to get back where I was? Definitely. But I wasn’t worried about that at the time. I was worried about my foot not being 100%. My foot that carries my body as I walk to the train, to work, on a trail, etc.

I worked out the morning of Aug 24th, knowing it was probably my last morning workout for a bit. I got the shoe in the afternoon that day and while I could still do certain things for fitness, I decided to take a break for a couple days. The only fitness I did was swimming both Saturday and Sunday that weekend. I knew swimming wouldn’t put weight on the foot and be good. I was happy I could do something and I was also happy to get a little extra sleep in the morning as I usually go to the gym at 5am 3 times a week.

I did decide to take a week off from teaching yoga. I felt I needed time to prepare to learn what I could and couldn’t do in the shoe and practice teaching without doing the flow with the class. I had not done that since teacher training and didn’t feel as confident. However as I look back, I really should feel more confident because I have been teaching for 8 months and I no longer get nervous before class. However as I resumed teaching this week I was nervous. I was nervous about telling my students how I might have fractured my foot and bringing the attention to myself. It turned out I made a bigger deal than it actually was though. As I always do. It wasn’t too bad teaching and not demonstrating. I know my stuff. I may not be able to rattle off all the anatomy queues I would like to as that will come with practice but I think I did pretty well. Hey I could even balance for a bit in tree pose on my bad foot. [Don’t worry still being cautious.] At the end of class I thanked them for joining me and being patient. They did well and they complimented me too, saying I did well for one foot.

This injury has definitely taught me to take a step back. While I can’t say what the root cause is of this injury, I can say around the time I was probably pushing too hard and I probably wasn’t warming up enough or focusing on foot stretches enough.

In yoga they say our feet are our foundation and they absolutely are. I think sometimes we forget the beating that our feet take day after day as we walk, exercise, etc. It is important to warm up properly and cool down (I really need to take my own advice here). I’ll admit when I head to the gym I don’t usually have a plan. I warm up on the treadmill or bike for a bit, do some weights and then ab work and stretching. It works and keeps me in shape but in terms of seeing results, it doesn’t always work. With this injury I decided to get some help from Susie with some workouts and exercises that I haven’t visited in a while, taking me out of that comfort zone again, but it is a good thing. I look forward to challenging my body and seeing results as I also focus on my foot recovery with stretches.

Since writing this, I can say I have done all of my workouts at least 1 time through at the gym and it is nice to be back at it and have something challenging to work on while paying attention to my body and its needs if I need to slow down.

Thanks Amanda for letting me Think Out Loud

What have you learned from past injuries?