Coming from a competitive sports background, it has always been really hard for me to admit that I'm tired or injured or can't do something athletic. This is a particular problem for me because, as I mentioned, I'm more than a little bit injury prone.  

I mentioned a few posts ago that I recently experienced a minor knee injury in my persistently bad knee.  Now, just some background, I injured this knee the first time (ya - there's been multiple times) when I was in high school playing Varsity soccer. I blew my knee out when we were playing our rival high school.  I tore my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), which, for those of you that aren't too familiar with knee anatomy, is one of 3 very major ligaments in the knee, and is arguably the most important ligament that runs down the center of your knee. It's really important for stability.  So, I tore that, and I tore meniscus (the cartilage that pads your knee joint) on both the inside and outside of my knee. I got surgery, and rehabbed for the next 8 months before I could play soccer again. This time with a fatty knee brace - which I liked to call my bionic leg.  See how awesome it is! 

High school soccer - knee brace!

Since then, I injured it again two years later in a more minor injury, but one that still needed surgery to remove a large chunk of meniscus that was interfering with my ability to run.  This was followed by the more recent injury that I mentioned. This most recent injury was very minor in comparison. I don't have a lot of meniscus left in my knee to cushion the joint when it experiences an instance of extremely high impact, so when that happens my upper and lower knee bones hit each other inside of my knee joint, resulting in what's called a bone contusion.  Relatively minor, but very painful.

So, why I am writing this post? Because I just finished my summer league of soccer, which consisted of playing a lot more soccer than my body is used to last week, since we got into playoffs and ended up playing a round robin tournament on Friday night.  Now, I thought I would have some time to rest and recuperate before fall league started, but it actually starts on Tuesday.  So, I decided to stop beating myself up, and take it a little bit easier this weekend to give my knee a chance to relax.

Usually on the weekend I do the following workouts - 
Saturday - CrossFit WOD
-Run 1.5 mi
-100 Push Ups (Knees if necessary), 100 squats, 100 sit-ups (Do this in whatever form you need - 20 per circuit for 5 circuits, 33 per circuit for 3, etc. - just do 100 each)
-Run 1.5 mi
Stretch

Sunday - Longer run 
-As I mentioned, I've been injured, so I'm only back up to about 2 miles, but before my injury I tried to do at least 3-6 miles on Sunday

Now, if I was feeling strong, healthy, with no pain or discomfort, I'd go ahead and do this - no problem. But, my knee has been bothering me. I feel it a lot when I go up and down stairs. Not necessarily pain, but discomfort, like it is just exhausted.  So, this weekend, I switched it up a little bit.

Lighter weekend workout:
Saturday - Arms and Abs
Daily HIIT Reps workout
http://www.dailyhiit.com/videos/toned-lean-arms-workout-hiitreps-16
I love this workout! My arms feel like jello when I'm done. I did just this workout about 3x a week while I was injured and my arms feel so much stronger and I can see the difference.
Jillian Michaels - No More Trouble Zones abs (I believe it's the third circuit in this video) - ~15 reps for 2 circuits of 1) crunch + chest press, 2) leg lifts +chest fly, 3) bicycles, 4) squirms, 5) push-ups

Sunday - Yoga
Daily HIIT has some yoga videos. I've never tried them, because I usually like to do stuff more high intensity than yoga, but I'm going to try today.
If you have access to P90X videos, I really like the P90x yoga video. It's really long (about 90min), but it's great and really challenging.  
Stretch and ice my knee.
**Important - notice that I'm still working out. I didn't just stop working out. I'm doing lighter alternatives, instead of my usual, high-intensity workouts!

So the moral of the story is listen to your body. If you've been pushing yourself really hard or are suffering from an injury, give yourself a break.  If you have any sort of competitive streak, we all are so inclined to say "No I'm fine! I'm fine!" because we don't want to admit, to ourselves or other people, that we are injured. Nobody wants to feel weak.  I'm totally guilty of this. But I've come to the realization that I'm not doing myself any favors by thinking this way. So I'm giving my body a break this weekend before I pick things up again.

Until next time! Have a good Sunday everyone!