I've been doing Shaun T's Insanity! workouts for over a month. It's hard, but rewarding. Yesterday, however, while I was doing the warm up, I felt a very sharp pain in my back and had to stop.

Turns out, I pulled a muscle in my back. It's feeling A LITTLE better today (yesterday, it hurt to breathe deeply), but it still hurts a LOT. I'm taking today off working out (not very willingly, I'm pretty upset I have to miss a day), and I'm using ibuprofen and icy hot.

But here's my question: How long do you think I should take off? I don't want to injure myself, but at the same time, I don't want to take too much time off. I want to keep up my momentum, you know?

Does anyone have an experience with this sort of thing?

It depends...if someone touches that spot...does it hurt? If it does (and I'm speaking from experience) go to the doctor. The last thing you need is to tear it. If it doesn't hurt when someone lightly prods the area, I would take 4 days off of lifting anything over 10lbs (per arm). I use an ice pack and my heating pad in 15 min. intervals. after 4 days, do some light streching and see how it feels. Theoretically it should be better in 2 weeks. (a long time i know, but its better than making it worse and losing more time).

Hopes this helps. and again I know from what my doctor told me.

Take it easy for a week, do something different to burn calories for that week. If it persists definitely see a doctor.

Nah, it doesn't hurt when it is touched. In fact, when my boyfriend rubs it kind of hard it feels better. I keep trying to get him to do it constantly, haha. I'm pretty sure it's just pulled/strained, as it's getting better and not worse, but it still sucks. I think I'm going to try to do some yoga instead of cardio until it feels better, but I'm not happy about it.

At least i keeps you moving and that's a biggie. yoga will help you safely stretch out the muscle and can give you just as good a workout (and depending on your level) a better workout than just cardio. after 20 or so minutes your heart rate will increase to a point where your body will start to burn calories and you will still have accomplished something.