I watched Freddie Flintoff’s new documentary about his accident last night and cried through the whole thing. What a lovely man. My own accident happened a long time ago and I’m okay with it, but it still comes up for me. For me these things have been ingrained for years. Watching something about trauma, or suddenly remembering it myself. It’s visceral, I can feel it in my body. I was left with no physical scars, I am thankful for that, yet I can be reminded of it often. If I see someone making slow progress, or having a lack of hope, or in pain who doesn’t know how to get out of it. I try to think what did I do to get out of pain. I can only share from my experience;
⁃ Get what I like to refer to as ‘Loosey Goosey’. Instead of seizing up, you let go. Allow your hips to rotate and get loose. Your shoulders will follow. In yoga we wiggle if we have a niggle. Animals do it to reset themselves – up Dog, down dog, a yawn. Why shouldn’t we? I do believe we can reverse getting an injury by doing this. People find their own ways with their own historical injuries. I’m very proud when I see my friends in the gym getting loosey goosey. They love to get out of injuries the same way I do.
⁃ Water. Live on the edge sometimes. I got in water to test my movement. If I was sore the next day I knew to do less or be more conservative next time. If you can’t do this on land, try and water. Push boundaries but don’t snap them. Great for trying range of motion for an ankle sprain, or break and to build muscle back up – doing calf raises in water, when you can’t due to pain on land.
⁃ Rest. Lie down often, even if you think you should be doing something more important. It’s a reset. Yoga nidra is the best. It’s a nap companion and a timer all at the same time.
⁃ Somatics is great for getting back to movement. Especially if you’ve lost faith or trust in your body. Lying on the floor doing knee ways. Have you ever wondered why simple plank, or Superman lying face down raising legs and arms are so effective? Because they’re simple. They’re not grand movements like a Burpee or an overhead press. They recruit muscles to support you.
– Support really is an important aspect. When you have an accident, people rush to try and help. Everyone loves to try and fix. I had a few come out of the woodwork. I thought oh these in my true friends then. Not really, it doesn’t work like that. These are the helpers. One of them turned up on my doorstep. I answered the door in my brace, to see the relief in her face. After 5 seconds she then went to have a coffee with another friend of ours up the road. I never saw her again mind you the ones that stick around often use you for their own benefit. Turning up when your tea’s ready. They’re often the ones who then arrange to take you out for your daily walk, then cancelled because THEY don’t feel like it. It’s not like I could rearrange for someone else to come out all of a sudden and walk me round my tiny block, or go on my own (even though that dangerously did cross my mind). So i’d sit stewing on it. Try my best to meditate and not make it all about me. But YOUR life is. It took me a long time to realise that. A life of being told that was selfish, and self-centred. But if we can’t look after ourselves, no one else can. They won’t be around forever for yours. You will.
⁃ Accepting. I found it really hard to accept help. I never could in hospital, was desperate to get out. So I pushed myself to get out of my husband‘s birthday. We had fish and chips. Despite being told if you can get up steps and into your car, you can go home. Despite being told I’d have to come back the next day to get my plaster taken off my broken hand. Getting in out of the car was hideous documented well by him out of Top Gun Maverick. I tweeted him after that scene and commended him on his depiction of that in the film. Travelling in a brace is pretty impossible. In the back of an Astra too! That handle you used to hang up dry cleaning suddenly became useful. But we did it. Me and Dd found away. We always do.
⁃ Diarising. Plenty of times in my life I’ve written things down. As a teenager I kept diaries. In my 20s even but when I had my accident a friend (also a triathlon coach) said to write down my progress. It was hard to say I had at the time as day-to-day changes were minimal. But I made massive strides. If they said 6 to 12 weeks, I heard six. The disappointment felt huge at the time. But it was only my expectations that were scuppered. No one else’s. How I came up with them I don’t know! But the main thing I heard was “you don’t do things by halves”. Granted, I don’t. I can be stubborn and a stick on the mud, but I also do things with grace. My pride is what gets me through. People would say “I could never do what you’re doing” yet what was I about to do – just lie down? I don’t think so. I wasn’t dead and at no point did I think I was going to be. It wasn’t til a lot later I felt a bit dead inside.
⁃ Journaling. 13 years on I started what they now call journalling, again. Or is it one L in America? I needed to sort my head out. Not my body – I’d already got there by lifting heavy weights very slowly, but my mind hadn’t caught up. I was fixating on others and their behaviour. Not my own. Unexpressed thoughts have a way of affecting your body that you’ll never imagine. Louise Hayes book ‘You can heal your life’ will tell you all about that. What your foot pain is trying to tell you etc.
But journaling allows you to free your mind to face yourself and all your fears. To deal with your stuff. My coach gets you to journal for three pages or 45 minutes when you first wake up. What’s in your head needs to come out, and it will always come out somewhere. It’s usually in rage, or you feel raged, or becomes internalised in your body. It eats away at you.
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