Competition, training and injuries.

There is a huge difference between training for competition and training for general health and fitness.I have spent most of my life training to compete,regardless of whether the upcoming meet was 3 months off or a year, or if I didnt even know when the next comp was. I really didn't know how to approach training any other way; there was always a meet in my head I was working towards when I got to the gym. Goals and deadlines, it's the lifeblood of a competitive athlete.

Many athletes have a very hard time digging up the motivation to just get to the gym, much less train hard, once their competition days are over and there is no meet around the corner. Any corner.I was no different, and in fact it was even worse for me as I couldnt train hard without tweaking myself. So I knew I had to force myself to go to the gym to train so I didnt dissipate any more than was happening already but I couldnt really push or test myself either.One foot on the gas and one on the break. Lots of fun.Training for competition is great, training as rehab sucks.The only thing that sucks more is not being able to do anything,so from that vantage point rehab is great. And as all real athletes know in order to make progress you MUST train your weakpoints first and hardest or you will not go forward.SO you do what you need to do, not what you want to do. If you can't manage that level of discipline you won't do very well at training, nor life.

There have been more than a few blogs written lately about how pushing oneself for competition is foolhardy and suffering injuries in the pursuit of maximizing one's physical talents is also just vainglory. That one should always take a balanced approach to exercise and exertion so that one can lead as long a life as possible, free from injury or impediment.And in general I agree; the risks of competitive training and competition are very real, and as I often say; "glory is temporary, pain is forever".But each persons path is different and where would we be without those persons willing to risk it all in the pursuit of their own mastery and improvement?In the pursuit of some kind of greatness. Yes, most fall short but there is much to be had on the journey.Things one can never see from the comfort of the barcalounger or the treadmill.

The experiences I have had and the lessons I have learned from training for and competing at these various physical endeavors could not be duplicated or gleamed in any other way. Monks mediate under frozen waterfalls, warriors discipline their bodies to conform to their will.Athletes push themselves to achieve what was thought to be impossible just a few years earlier.

That is one of the things I like best about real deal training; whatever you get from it, you've earned. You cannot buy it , you have to earn it; although sometimes you pay for it with blood and connective tissue.Always with sweat and pain.And then it's yours forever.

Reading some of the critiques of my Restoring Lost Function dvd( of course from those who have not seen it,lol) a common criticism is why would someone take advice from a guy who has been injured so much?He must not know much to be injured so badly. Who should give advice to the injured they ask? Licensed professionals, was the reply. In general this is true and should always be the first stop after an injury.

Yet where does one go after those "professionals" don't know what to do, how to proceed and can't think outside their box to come up with ideas to get you back on the platform or even back to basic function? MOST of the people I deal with with injuries come to me AFTER their Docs and physical therapists have given up on them or vice versa.

After reading Louies interview I was struck by this quote:
"I invented the reverse hyper aftre breaking my 4th lumbar in 1973.No one was able to help me and I came up with this exericise out of desperation."

This has been my exact situation since I got out of what passed for physical therapy and rehab for my knee in 1975.I had to figure it out myself as the medical profession had such limited tools and, even worse, such a limited mindset.I had to take a piece from over here, a piece from over there and experiment,experiment experiment as to what would REALLY WORK, not just what " should work".

It's a long, slow slog bringing oneself back from the edge but what choice is there, really?Especially for those not ready for the recliner and a sedentary life.And, as Louie said, you learn from making mistakes first, then learning what you should have done. Everything I have in my tool box to help my clients got there from my own experiments on myself first.

Now that I am older and have gone through the gauntlet of almost full immobility and horrific pain I value the sheer beauty of the most basic movements of life much more .I have a very different perspective on athletics and competition now. BUt does that mean I wouldn't have done what I did, or tried to climb the athletic mountains that I tried to scale? Not at all.

What you see depends on where you stand and having been close to the top, even though having been pushed off the cliff most violently, has given me a unique perspective and some of the wisdom and truth I am constantly searching for.

It's a much smaller hill that I try to climb these days and that's perfectly alright by me, as I know now it's the process that really matters, not so much the height of the impasse.But the thought of no one brave enough to try to scale the true mountains for fear of failure or pain is depressing. I am too old now to risk life and limb anymore but I am glad that there are those still young and brave enough to try. These warriors still inspire me to keep pushing up my now gentle hill that at times seemed like Everest.