Grinding through injury. Diagram of the knee from the front, illustrating the lateral and medial meniscus.

Grinding through injury. Yes, I’m working my way through an injury at the moment. After an intense block of training, my knee has started to complain. A visit to the excellent Rebecca Root tells me that I have “upset” a meniscus – the inner medial meniscus, to be exact. I guess my 64 + 6,400 training month resulted in some damage which eventually caught up with me.

A short daily routine has been prescribed. Early days as yet, I still end up each day hobbling and with the knee visibly swollen. Knee injuries haven’t been something that has troubled me. The rest of me has been falling apart for a long time, but not the knees until now.

Taking it easy doesn’t suit well. There’s a price to pay early, I get a bit glum if I can’t stay active. Not that I’m a super athlete. But because wellness for me is underpinned by a combination of both mental and physical stimulation. An hour at the gym levels me.

I saw this interesting New York Times article that describes the benefits of weight training on depression. As you can see, you don’t have to be reaching Schwarzenegger levels to reap the reward, which is just as well in my case.

So off I went to Gymbox yesterday. Physio exercises. Mobility exercises. Some upper body weights and a few abdominal crunches. Then some stretching. Job done and feeling a lot better. Even if I was hobbling.

In no way am I recommending blindly pushing on through injury and making things worse. No grinding through injury please. Listen closely to your body, don’t set yourself back by stubbornly “working through the pain”. But don’t succumb and make it an excuse to do nothing.

It’s a mind and body thing, people. Keep them both fit. Be curious, be active.

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