That Hurt.

I work out a decent amount throughout the week. I attend BJJ classes two to three times, I lift weights three to four times, and I do some sort of sprint/plyo work once a week. Not to mention my job requires me to be on my feet, load and unload weights, and demonstrate exercises regularly. Why am I telling you this? No, I’m not trying to brag, and it's not a motivation thing. It's an injury thing…

Busy, behind, I feel better… those are the excuses that keep us from actually taking the recovery time we need. I'm as guilty of it as anyone.

Months back I tweaked my lower back in BJJ training, rested for a little over a week, and got right back into everything. The issue was I didn't take into account how bad it was. Then one day that "minor" tweak turned into a big tweak during one of my lifts. Then I was out for about two months... yeah. Which is a long time when your hobbies and career all revolve around being active. So the moment I felt better, I got back to it.

Not to say I didn't do rehab movements, recovery methods, and all that jazz. It’s that I still didn't take the necessary time to heal completely. I still feel the minor tweak once in a while, reminding me that I need to still keep up on my rehab movements. Which does help, and I do everything normal with the minor ache here and there, but haven’t had any problems. Yet.

The overall issue is this could again hinder my training and job. Being something that could be dealt with by utilizing rest and recovery. With the high possibly that it’ll come back and I’ll have to take time off a lot longer than I would have the first time…
Now, to clarify (so you don’t feel as if I am being hypocritical) I have dialed back on my training intensity/volume, implemented more rest periods, deloads, and I listen a lot more time my body on taking rest when needed.

Therefore, my advice to everyone (because I know everyone has experienced this at least once in their lives) is to take the rest and recovery time. Even if it seems like a long time… understand that a few months of recovery will pay out so much more in the long run. Still do your rehab exercises, corrective movements, and light activity because it all does help.

But the reason is if you heal it now, with whatever time it takes, you shouldn't have to worry about it down the road. For example, say you only do the bare minimum recovery, like I did. The recovery time that was actually recommended was four months, but you only did two, and got back to it because you were feeling better. Now every few months, that tweak puts you out for a week or two.

Four months is only sixteen weeks. Unless you're well into your nineties, those two weeks every few months are going to add up to way more than sixteen weeks…

A good way to think of it, is if you take that time to actually recover, implement a solid rehab and mobility routine, and dial in other aspects of your fitness, you should come out even stronger.

That's especially true for those of you who are athletes or in physical hobbies like BJJ. If you get a tweak somewhere, develop a minor injury, or feel overly strained, take the recovery time. You're not going to be any use if you're mid-game or mid-fight and that "minor" issue pops back up. It sucks now, but it'll pay off later. Use some common sense and willpower, and rest. Also make sure you're taking rest periods and deloads every so often anyway, tweak or not.

Because the sixteen weeks always come due. Better to pay them all at once than a little at a time for the rest of your career.
There are always going to be different periods in your life and training. Injuries and recovery will always happen… let’s aim to ensure none of them become reoccurring for the same issue.