The Art of Setting a Personal Challenge

I love to challenge myself. Surpassing personal goals reminds me that I am a fierce survivor with warrior capabilities. I rise to the occasion, whether the challenges are physical or mental. And while I'm no athlete, I rise even higher if the challenge is both.

Note: This empowering post is a throwback. I'm now injury-free!

Last week marked the beginning of me using my left wrist and shoulder again. I've been waiting for it to heal since November. The tendon tear is mostly repaired. I went to my doctor this morning hoping I'd be cleared for overhead lifting. No such luck. It was absolutely devastating as what I was actually told was that she believes I shouldn't pursue overhead work at all given my history of shoulder (and now wrist) injuries. And she would know. She's adjusted my shoulder enough times in the last eight years that I trust her assessment. But it makes me angry.

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First of all, I'm not angry with my doctor. I'm angry because she's right. Overhead work is not good for me. I've always struggled with my shoulders. Aside from being yanked when I was younger, I had shingles in the left side and repeat rotator cuff injuries. I regularly have flare-ups on the left, and now it's far worse given the level of bursitis I have currently. But I adore overhead lifts. I love pushing my body. And I'm being told to challenge myself by not doing it instead of by trying.

Grr.

To be honest, I certainly will do overhead work again, but I will set low, modest goals and focus on form. And my doctor will support my choice even if she disagrees. She knows I get a lot of sensory input from the joint compression weightlifting offers. Plus there is that challenging the mind aspect of focusing on quality over quantity. I've got this.

Still truly bummed, though. I can't push yet, although I can pull. I'm allowed to do cage work, but I can't clean a bar due to wrist rotation. I'm in pain constantly. That's part of healing. I could go on. By now you know the whining is not what I'm all about.

Here's the deal: today I did a CrossFit "chipper" workout of:

60 alternating pistols on the box,
50 squats with a 14# med ball,
40 box step ups at 20",
30 45# deadlifts,
20 power cleans with a 14# med ball and
10 squats with the 14# med ball.

I completed it in 14:40.

I could be grumpy about all the modifications I had to do to complete this workout, but it was hard. I worked hard. I did my best. I showed up. And I am very proud of the work I did. It demonstrates improved fitness even though I had to work with lower weights and avoid partial motions. Further, choosing to scale down instead of risking reinjury took some serious grit. I really wanted to do cleans (where you bring a barbell from the floor to your shoulders by turning your wrists quickly) with a barbell. I stuck with the med ball because that was safer.

Why is it so hard for us to be proud of doing what we can? That's what this is really about. I did a fantastic job completing my workout today. There is no reason for me to feel let down. I'm celebrating because I chose to take myself SAFELY to the limit of what I can do rather than what I wanted to do.

How have you respected your body today?