Nursing an injury or making excuses?

The Sunday before Thanksgiving I was doing an extra workout to prep for an upcoming partner competition. The last workout of the day was simple: eight minutes to establish a max weight that the female partner could squat clean, followed by the male partner squat-snatching that same weight.  I had never maxed my squat clean (current power clean PR is 115#) but last competition somehow managed a 115# thruster so knew I should be able to squat clean at least the same.

Going into the workout, I wasn’t feeling super motivated and mentally wasn’t fully committed, but I knew physically I should be able to do the weight, so started at 85# and performed my one rep at a time until I failed at 105#. I was determined to make the lift, took a minute, and attempted the weight again.

I performed the clean, fast elbows and all, dropping way under the bar into an a**-to-grass squat, where I proceeded to get stuck in the hole. I had lost all momentum so could not bounce out of the bottom and no amount of pushing my knees out or driving my heels in the ground was going to get me to stand up. So with mental frustrations and the physical weight of the bar pushing me down, I attempted to bail. Except rather than getting out of the way of the bar, I had a bit of a moment of panic and allowed the bar to roll towards me onto my fingertips, hyper-extending both of my wrists and hearing a resounding *crack*.

Ouch.

More than ouch.

I was in a state of shock as time stood still; I had no idea what sort of damage I had done, but I knew I was in pain, tears streaming uncontrollably down my face. It wasn’t the kind of sobbing or whining crying that I have done quite a few times in my workouts when I would self-induce a panic attack, but rather it was an instinctive reaction to what had just happened, both physically and emotionally overwhelming.

Neither wrist was swollen, but the pain was pretty severe. After a quick observation from our resident chiropractor, he was sure nothing was broken. If there was a moment where I felt the strong urge to cuss (which I never do), this was probably one of the cases that I would deem it necessary. I cursed silently to myself and cried to myself the whole ride home; angry because I had hurt myself, more angry that I let myself freak out in the squat, and further upset that I would likely need to take a break for a while. I wrote before about how Crossfit is dangerous because of the athletes, and I had just proven it to myself once again that I was careless.

After the remainder of Thanksgiving week staying off my wrists (and running a snowy Turkey Trot 10k, which I finished to the same second as my last 10k, 1:00:36, compared to 1:00:16), I attempted to resume my workout schedule per usual, scaling what I needed to take the pressure of my wrists.

Push-ups were out. Burpees were out. Thrusters, cleans, strict presses, overhead or front squats, snatches: no, no, no, no, and no.

Some TLC with my new Ouch Wraps..

I rendered myself pretty useless. I have been doing plenty of stretches and heat treatments. I went for a mobility massage which seemed to help for a hot minute, then onto the chiropractor for more adjusting. After three weeks of light lifting and keeping usage to a minimum, I finally caved after the pain continued and went to see a hand and wrist specialist. 

Diagnosis: Nothing broken, nothing torn. Treatment: Rest. And if I have to workout, use machines.

Ha. When I expressed that machines were not a consideration, he just suggested taking it easy and being smart about actions, but be aware it will probably linger for another month. So here I sit, going light when I need to, but becoming increasingly frustrated that I have not regained the strength that I had prior to my half marathon training, and now my progress being stalled even more.

But now I have uncovered a new problem: because I have been having an issue with my wrists, I have been taking it easy on in a lot of WODs; scaling weight and not pushing myself hard in the metcon or endurance workouts. But at what point do I draw the line between taking it easy to prevent a further injury versus taking the eas out and not pushing myself when I should? It’s almost as if I use limited wrist mobility as an excuse to not push myself.

I have goals, big fat, BHAGs. I have major aspirations for the upcoming Open and I have a competition in two weeks to rock.

How is taking it easy going to help me achieve anything? I have no reason not to push 150% in everything not-wrist related as I let it heal. I should be working to master the skills  that do not bother my wrists, such as pull-ups and deadlifts. I should focus on back squats or pistols. Box jumps and wall balls. Rowing.

I found this quote floating around somewhere on the web and I am making it my motto for the upcoming month, taking any sort of frustrations or animosity towards my progress or training and shifting it into a new perspective:

What a great reminder to not let certain things crush you or hold you back; focus on what you can do and move forward.

Your turn..
Have you ever let one limitation affect things on a larger scale?
Have you set some big goals for the Open?
Have you ever done a partner competition?