Don't ingnore what your body is telling you

“You need to listen to your body because your body is listening to you.”

Phillip C McGraw

A few days ago I was reminded of how important it is to listen to your body...

Over the last month my focus has been on gaining mass and power.  My workouts have been strength focused and have produced positive results in the form of heavier 1 rep max loads and managed pack on over 6 lbs of body mass.  Unfortunately I made a costly mistake...

The higher volume of training was not balanced with a higher volume of mobility and recovery work.  I was maintaining a 1:1 ratio of training to recovery.  That means for every hour of training I was spending one hour of recovery work.  This was clearly not enough and during an intense workout I experienced a muscle tear in the trapezius. At first it only felt like a tight muscle but after a few days the pain increased to the point of limited mobility and loss of range of motion.  Bring on the ice...then heat...then recovery work.

Its interesting how our bodies communicate needs through pain, limited mobility etc...My body is clearly telling me to increase my mobility and recovery work to the point of forced rest.

Travel roller @ Fitness Town

Forced rest has given me the opportunity to listen to my body a bit more and spend some serious time on recovery and mobility.  My new recovery ratio is 1:2.  Twice the amount of recovery work in relation to training.  And while I recover I am spending much time working on some skills; including improved running technique, deeper yoga poses and improving on my golfing short game.

Time to get out the roller, release some tight muscles and head down to the the putting green...