All Connected

Look at that posture. No wonder my back hurts now. I think I was 20 in this photo.

My back hurts.

At Nationals in July, I tweaked my left knee. I’m not exactly sure what I did, but on Saturday morning (day 2) it felt slightly unstable as I warmed up so I borrowed a knee sleeve and wore that. After a couple games, I sat down to watch a match and took the sleeve off. My knee was swollen and hurt to bend. So I iced it and had the trainers look at it. There was no structural damage, so I was told I could play as long as it didn’t hurt. 

So I finished that day’s games and then Lorraine looked at it, and agreed that there was probably nothing major going on, just some swelling. Two years ago I had torn my meniscus slightly and this may have been a continuation of that. 

I wore a sleeve when I worked out and played ultimate for the next couple weeks, then just tried to take care of it. It flares up when I run a lot, but it is manageable with ice. It’s annoying but so far not too bad. I need to keep strengthening the muscles around the knee to take pressure off and hopefully it will slowly go away.

But, anyway, my back hurts.

Usually when my back hurts it’s the lower right back which has some residual damage from my tae kwon do days. I have stretches I do to manage that when it flares up. Right now, though, it’s my lower left back and stretches aren’t helping much. Lorraine treated it and I’m focusing on maintaining good posture and it’s easing off every day.

So what do these two injuries have to do with each other? I reffed a playoff AUDL game this past weekend in DC. My knee flared up and on the flight home I tried to keep it at an angle that felt good, raised up a little on my backpack. I rarely sit like that, so my back was not particularly thrilled with the position I put it in. Any time you hold a new position for an extended period of time, your body will adapt. That’s basically what exercise is, forcing your body to adapt in good ways. This was not a good way, and now my back hurts.

It’s a good reminder to be conscious of how I’m holding myself and what that is doing to my body as a whole. Just because my leg feels better doesn’t mean I should stay in a new position for over an hour. Had I simply alternated how I kept my leg, I think I’d have escaped the trip with a happy lower back. 

I am fortunate to have an excellent physio at my side to help me navigate my proclivity to find new ways to injure myself. If I am fully aware of what I’m doing with and to my body, though, I should not have to lean on her as much. That is a good lesson for me as I continue to train and age.