This chapter is not going to be a dissection of various ailments and how to treat them. An entire book can and has been written on the treatment of every type of physical injury. Knees, back, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists etc. Everybody has their problems, and like genetics, you just have to suck it up.

When it comes to injuries I believe in erring on the side of “go for it.” This doesn’t mean do something stupid and make a bad problem worse, but rarely is it a good idea to sit on your ass for an extended period of time.

It would be both impossible and irresponsible of me to try and recommend a course of treatment for your various injuries. Forget the fact that I’m not qualified; you need to have a specialist lay hands on you to determine how to deal with specific problems. Instead, I’m going to try and make this chapter a little more inspirational in nature, because the fact is that if you don’t conquer your injuries, you allow them to conquer you.

Be aggressive and declare war on your injured body parts. Don’t be stupid, but don’t settle for limitations either. The way to fix physical problems, in the majority of cases, is NOT bed rest: it is action! A lot of injuries don’t fix themselves; they need to be forced to recover through hard work. Talk to your doctor first because your injury may require a medical specialist, or it might be something that a physiotherapist, registered massage therapist, or a chiropractor can help you with. Do your homework in these areas and don’t settle for physical limitations.

Like I wrote in the genetics chapter, don’t be a victim.

I’ve recommended running to many people and heard the same lame excuse again and again: “I can’t run. I have bad knees.” They are convinced they will fail without even trying. Maybe for a small percentage it really is the case that running would be a bad idea, but for the vast majority running actually improves things. I’ve had a whole host of physical ailments over the years that have all been improved through punishing my body and sending it the message that: “I’m going to make you do this shit, so you damn well better adapt.” And adapt it does. You have to take things gradually, pushing it slowly into moderate levels of discomfort, but you will find your abilities grow consistently.

As you might have guessed by the number of footnotes in this phase I am not one for anecdotal evidence, and I hate those “If I can do it, so can you” type stories. Nevertheless, I’m going to tell you my own story just because I like talking about myself.

My Screwed Up Low Back

I have a low back that is the envy of 80-year olds everywhere. I’ve had problems with it since I was a teenager; I think it stems from being unsupervised in doing dead lifts in tenth grade gym class. In about 2002 I had one of my rare personal training sessions with a knowledgeable trainer (more on PT qualifications in Phase 4). He asked me one simple question that changed my approach to working out. I began exercising in 1993, but for nine years I avoided doing squats because I feared for my low back. I often suffered low back pain and had been bedridden on narcotic painkillers after a disc blowout more than once prior to meeting with this trainer. During one particularly bad episode I was hospitalized with IV morphine to get the spasms to stop. I have bulging discs between L4 and L5 and between L5 and S1, and I’ve got the CAT scan to prove it.

Anyway, my trainer was extolling the virtues of the squat when I informed him I wasn’t interested in it because of my low back. He asked some probing questions about what I’d been doing as far as treatment, and after filling him in on the situation he said, “So for the last several years you’ve been taking it easy on your low back. You’ve been babying it, right?

Me: “Uh, yeah.”

Him: “So, how has that approach been working out for you?”

Well, a big light went off. The fact was that approach hadn’t done shit to make my back any better. From that day forward I chose a different tact. Rather than babying it, I declared war, and I won. I won big, because my back is far stronger than it used to be. Even though I was in good shape before I lived in fear of things like a little slip on the ice causing my back to go out. There were certain acrobatic type movements that I wouldn’t dare do because I had this sixth sense about my back not being able to handle it. I always worried that a wrestling match with my kids could cause another disc bulge.

I don’t have those fears anymore. Yes, I still have some pain, but not as much as I used to, and my back feels strong and able to perform just about any challenge I put to it. I can tear through large moguls and catch big air on skis, run on icy surfaces, jump over fences, do cartwheels across the lawn, or let my kids use me as their personal jungle gym all without fear. All of this I can do because one trainer inspired me to no longer accept my physical limitations. I owe him big.

My Clumsy Teen Years

I broke both my ankles as a teen, although fortunately not at the same time. In both cases it was through the growth plate, and in both cases I required surgery to repair it so I didn’t end up with one leg shorter than the other.

Did I mention that I can do 10km (6.21 miles) in under 45 minutes and run at least 20 miles a week?

Getting to this point wasn’t easy. I was successful at becoming a runner for two reasons: determination and pacing. The first few times I tried running I had pretty good cardiovascular shape because of my weight training and was able to go about three miles. That was a mistake, because I hurt like hell for a week afterwards, mostly in the ankles.

Then I tried a different tactic. I started off with just one mile, and added a quarter mile each week. Now my ankles give me no problems at all. I can run at a high speed down a steep and uneven dirt path without fear of twisting an ankle. This is a prime example of how intense exercise can fix certain physical ailments. Your body is programmed to heal, but you have to make it want to. You have to send it a message that there is work to be done and it better adapt.

Temporary Asymmetry

In 1997 I broke my left arm through the middle of the ulna while skiing. According to my best friend, who saw the whole thing, it was a spectacular crash. I spent 4 weeks with a cast to my armpit, and another three weeks with a cast on my lower arm that didn’t allow me to twist my forearm. During the entire time I still went to the gym and worked out the right side of my upper body. When the cast finally came off I measured my upper arms and the right was 16 inches in circumference and the left was 13.5.

I should also mention that I was doing some aerobic training on a stair climber as well. That cast smelled like the inside of a hockey bag when it came off.

I started working the left arm with five pound dumbbells, pushing it a little more each day. Within two months my left arm once again matched my right in both size and strength. I did have some lingering wrist pain for a few months from the lengthy period of immobilization, but that eventually went away as well.

Shoulder Stuff

You’re probably getting sick of my tales of overcoming physical adversity, so I’ll wrap it up. In my early twenties I had some bad shoulder issues, and I have no idea what caused them. They just seemed to hurt a lot and I couldn’t do things like throw a baseball, and even reaching into the back seat of my car from the driver’s seat sent shocks of pain.

Then I started weightlifting and it all went away. Within a couple of months they just got better. Years of shoulder problems were cured and I didn’t even do any specific kind of physical therapy for them. I just started working out, and in the subsequent 15 years my shoulders have given me almost no problems at all.

Pain Killers

Be careful with these. They can come in handy sometimes, but don’t become dependent upon them. When I ruptured the L4-L5 disc in my low back I was in so much spasm I could not walk. I went to the emergency room in a wheelchair and they gave me lots of IV morphine to get things to calm down. Then I had a two-week prescription for Percocet (which makes Tylenol 3 look like Smarties) to keep me from going back into this pain-spasm death spiral. It was the heavy-duty narcotics that allowed me to start moving again and fix my back through stretching and physiotherapy.

By the way, don’t mix Percocet and beer. Holy shit is all I can say.

I only took the narcotics long enough to get the spasms under control, because the things are NOT something you want to take long term. They make you dopey, constipated, and they wipe out sex drive. They are also highly addictive, but for me I couldn’t wait to get off them because the thought of not wanting sex anymore scared me into weaning myself off them as quickly as possible.

Hopefully you never have to worry about taking that kind of stuff, but you quite likely will take something like ibuprofen. My advice regarding this drug is to use it sparingly. It can have negative side effects, most notably rotting your stomach. It also becomes less effective the more you use it. If you save it for times of more desperate need, then it works quite well.

INTRO / PHASE 1 / PHASE 2 / PHASE 3 / PHASE 4 / PHASE 5 / PHASE 6