Overuse Injuries Part One

An overuse injury is exactly what it sounds like: an injury you get because you've over-used a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament. Overuse injuries include twists, sprains, pulls, fractures, and tendonitis, among other things. If you're overweight or just beginning an exercise program, you're especially likely to sustain an overuse injury.

Overuse injuries sound scary. Mine is called "Traumatic tendonitis" but it's really just that my tendons have swollen because I over used them and they couldn't cope. I also managed to sprain and strain a few of my muscles. (ouch!)

It's very common for people under 35 to sustain overuse injuries because they aren't fully in tune with their bodies and limitations yet. Being so young, we bite off more than we can chew and frequently under prepare for the task we are trying to take on. That's certainly what happened for me! I know that my body starts really protesting what I'm doing when I've been walking for ten miles, but I decided to go 14 anyway. I didn't take along extra water because I didn't want to carry the extra weight, which meant that after 4 hours of walking I was quite dehydrated. I also didn't take into account the effect that the sunlight and temperature would have on my body when I decided to walk 14 miles on a particularly hot day and later on in the day than I'm used to. As a result my body started seriously protesting with sharp pains and muscle spasms at mile 6.5, and I still had to walk back to my car.

By the time I'd gotten to the car (bringing my walk to a total of 13 miles), I was biting my lip to keep from crying and looking even more like an idiot in front of everyone else on the trail. Even lifting my foot over the tiny amount of space between the ground and the floorboard of my car put me in excruciating pain. On top of that, I was dehydrated and my blood sugar had plummeted because my body was working too hard to push through the agony and keep walking. I sat in my car knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had injured myself - and it was probably pretty bad.

How do you avoid overuse injuries? The short answer is: Don't be stupid. If I had taken the time to check the weather, packed extra water, or accepted that at my weight and after only 7 weeks of having an exercise habit 14 miles is still pretty unsafe, I wouldn't have injured myself so badly. If I had listened to my body when I noticed that I was slowing down and feeling woozy at mile four, I wouldn't have made the injury worse. Instead I plowed through and pushed on, telling myself things like "no pain, no gain" because I didn't want to just wimp out.  Listen to your body, and learn the difference between wimping out and being safe.

While you're learning your body's signals and limitations, do your best to always have someone with you when you know you're going to be exercising intensely. Sometimes other people can pick up on our body's limits before we can. In my case, I couldn't find anyone who wanted to go 14 miles with me and my husband was sick. I knew that it wasn't safe to go 14 miles alone, but I did it anyway because I didn't want to let other people's limits keep me from my goals. If I'd had someone with me I have no doubt that they would have called attention to the fact that I'd started to limp, and I would have considered it a more serious problem and turned around at mile 4 instead.

Moral of the story: Overuse injuries are common but completely avoidable. Be smart and safe about the way that you're exercising.