Taking a break

I have to admit that energetically I have been feeling pretty darn awesome lately.  That said, I've been having some bad elbow pain.  The pain sort of crept up on me over the last month and then BAM! - we did a workout that was 10 sets of 10 pull ups and 10 push ups.  The pain at it's worst wakes me up at night with numb fingers and burning nerve pain.  I have had to really focus on keeping my arms straight - pretty much at all times.  The movement that really pisses them off - you got it - chin ups.

To me, chin ups are more than just an exercise at CrossFit.  They represent progress and progress is always forward.  Well, except when it isn't...

Last Saturday, I was feeling great, and decided to check out another local box.  The WOD was 25 deadlifts (135#), 50 pull ups, and 25 deadlifts.  I mentioned to the coach that I was having elbow pain, which granted me an opportunity to modify the WOD to accommodate my "issues".  I bet it is obvious where this is headed.  I chose to do the full WOD using blue bands for chin ups instead of pull ups.

Needless to say, I've been suffering ever since....

This brings me to the point of my post today.  I mentioned what I had done to Joe and he basically called me "immature".  I tried to correct him into instead calling my actions "stupid," but he wouldn't budge.  After talking more about it, I am clear on what he meant.

There are mature athletes and immature athletes.  Since getting rheumatoid arthritis, I have been essentially an immature athlete.  The only way I've known to move forward is to push through the pain, ignoring my limitations.  The reality is that progress may involve taking a break from time to time.  I have RA and am finally growing up enough to know that I need to own that.  That means that a flared up elbow, if not attended to, could turn into a systemic flare -- which it did.  A mature athlete pays attention to the warning signs and backs off or modifies his/her workout to allow room for the pain or strain to recover.  An immature athlete does what I did last Saturday - do the very thing that makes the pain or strain worse in an effort to "look" as badass as possible.

Did I learn my lesson?  I think so.  I've also got a whole new perspective and luckily a great coach to help me out when I need to take a step back.