Hi All!!!

OK, you should know that I am trying not to freak out. I went to the doctor yesterday because I have been having some nagging aches and pains that won't go away.

Yeah...I have a sprained right knee, a tweaked right ankle, and an overuse injury in my left calf. Sigh...

I've had injuries before but never this many all at once. I'm kind of freaking out and am finding myself eating less than the best foods because I am stressing about this. So I decided that I needed to come here and ask for help/encouragement.

I was running and strength training 5-6 days a week. I need some help on what to do now. I feel a bit like a fish out of water. I am going to take today and tomorrow off and hoping to go to the gym for a light workout on Friday and Saturday. The doc said it's ok to incline walk but I don't want to aggrivate my calf any more than everyday walking around already is.

I was thinking about the rowing machine and elliptical for cardio and then really working out my upper body. But what about weight training for my lower body? Should I just try different machines to see what aggrivates it and what doesnt?

I really feel like I'm floundering here. I am really needing some of the help from the masses. Please pull me back from the Crazy Ledge!!!

Thanks everybody!!!!!

Breathe. Now, isn't that better?

It sucks that you have to go through this, but it seems to me that you are well-versed with what's available in your gym and that you have an excellent plan for dealing with this. I think you can trust yourself to try different things and see what hurts and what doesn't.

Also, remember the rule of thumb that goes around here a lot -- that it's 80% diet and 20% exercise. If you have to dial back on the exercise for awhile, then it's a good time to really nail the diet strategies down.

You're doing great! Trust yourself!

I have faced many injuries. They are frustrating as heck, but I've yet to find the injury I can't work around.

First off, if your insurance will cover it, you may want to check in on seeing a physical therapist. That will give you a good resource on what exercises are OK for you to do, and will also give you some knowledge and tools to strengthen things up and modify your form so you don't get injured again.

Without knowing the details of your injury, I can't give you details on what exercises would be OK. Your doctor, or a PT, would be able to do so with a lot more expertise. You want to follow those orders, no matter how frustrating they are or how much you want to work out. Just watch your diet more carefully while you are restricted.

I've actually never gained with an injury...I either work around it with physician/PT approval, or I cut calories a bit and give my body the rest it needs. I actually hit goal 2 months after knee surgery when my only activity was physical therapy. So it can be done and there is no reason to panic (and panic will actually slow down your healing!)

Can i be a little perverse here?
You have an "OVERUSE" Injury....
when was the last time you took a break from training?
What are you training FOR that you cant POSSIBLY take 2-3 weeks off from?
Are you afraid you will suddenly get fat/gain weight if you dont train hard everyday?

I took almost a month off from ANY training this winter after becomingSERIOUSLY burned out from running 2 marathons back to back. My weightloss had been at a standstill for months.

I lost 7 pounds that month i took off from training
My body healed
I slept
I rejuvinated

Im sure your doc would rather you not aggravate the injuries, and was merely placating your obsessive (in a good way) desire to NOT miss gym time

Seriously. Start taking walks. Stop strength training. just allow yourself to heal
you WONT suddenly gain 5 pounds or 10 pounds
i PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE. you might/prob LOSE weight
You just have to be dilligent and more careful with your food intake

good luck

I can't help but wonder if mkroyer is totally right... I would think, in the long run, it would be better to take the time off to heal than to risk injuiring yourself further.

I also agree with mkroyer.

I wanted to address this: "I'm kind of freaking out and am finding myself eating less than the best foods because I am stressing about this."

Why? Why are you eating "less than the best food"? Will that make anything better? If you can't work out, diet is something you CAN still control, and will have to. Put as much determination as you have toward working out into eating healthy! Don't use this as an excuse.

It will be okay, I promise. There are plenty of people who lost weight around here without exercising at all. A few weeks off won't hurt you. But testing your limits CAN. Injuries aren't something to experiment with.

These are classic overtraining injuries. You need rest.

I have had two major injuries from overtraining. I took the time to actually rest and they healed. I know people who had similar injuries who are still dealing with them years later because they refused to rest. I took a full -- gasp! -- two months off from all weight-bearing exercise while healing a calf strain (which is a muscle tear). It felt like I would never jump again, but three months later I was kicking *** in a cardio kickboxing class.

Rest and keep an eye on your diet. Seriously.

I'm freaking out too right now over an injury. My knee has been busted up for a couple of weeks now, but I was icing it multiple times a day to help keep the inflammation down. I'm doing INSANITY and I have a goal of FINISHING it. But today the knee was so bad that I took a Flexeril at 8:30 in the morning at work. Needless to say I was loaded at work! Ah, but it sure did help! My coworker told me I should rest it for at least two weeks. I went purchase a brace and have been icing it. I was tempted to workout this evening because it truly was not hurting. BUT I am even more paranoid to permanently damage it. Oh woe is me!

You have received such good advice from everyone, but I just wanted to add:

If you don't ease up now and allow for healing and recovery, you will, in all likelihood, injure yourself further and end up facing a longer and more difficult recovery.

Not only do you risk making your current injuries worse, but you run the risk of compensation injuries -- when your body mechanics are thrown off by injury, you tend to injure other parts of your body. For example, if you're "going easy" on your sprained knee, you are probably placing a disproportionate amount of stress on the opposite knee. With so many trouble spots at once, you are likely assuming an unnatural posture, which can injure your hips and back as well.

Can't give better advice than what you've already been given here, but I do know from experience that if you don't rest now and let these injuries heal, they well come back to haunt you years down the road. People forget that they need to look after their bodies in more ways than one; I have old injuries that got re-injured over the years, only they got worse with time.

Now, I have learned that as soon as you feel any pain ... back off. A doctor told me that "Pain is your bodies natural way of telling you something is wrong -- that you are overdoing it, so stop!" You have a choice to make -- rest and heal; or don't rest and end up very sorry down the road!