One of my mantras as I try to age gracefully is to avoid injuries. Honestly, I’ve done a pretty good job of exercising very regularly and not overdoing it to the point of injury. That said, I’ve had a few weeks of suffering some aches and pains that are wearing me down a bit.

I’ve been seeing a physio about a muscle issue in my butt that sends a painful ache down my leg. The bizarre thing about it is that it does not bother me at all when I exercise or even when I sit, which is usually my issue. Instead, this pain only shows up when I stand still. It can hit me in just the few minutes it takes to brush my teeth, shower, or do the dishes. But I can get on a treadmill, on an incline, with a weighted vest for 20 minutes and I don’t feel it at all.

Another issue that has crept up is, according to my massage therapist, golfer’s elbow. This persist pain is annoying because once triggered my workout is done for that arm. It makes no sense to aggravate it, and so I look for other things to do.

The leg pain is an annoying ache, physio/IMS seems to be helping, and exercise doesn’t aggravate it. The golfer’s elbow is different, it’s an issue of overuse and I need to give it rest. So if I want to avoid injury, I basically need to rest my arm and do other things in the gym.

Extra rest time as part of injury prevention is very hard for me. I’ll do physio, massage, extra stretching, hot tubs, I’ll do things to make myself better, it’s the not doing things to make myself better that I struggle with.

I need to learn to give my body a good rest as part of my injury prevention plan. It’s not good enough to just do things to prevent injury, I also need to learn how to not do things for the good of my body. This is a much harder lesson for me to learn.