Injuries are inevitable in training. Some are worse than others and there are definitely steps one can take to minimize injuries, but in the end they come to us all in some capacity.
When I become injured, I struggle with the sudden loss of function. Recently, I strained a pectoral muscle. I know that to recover I need to let the muscle rest and not push it further or else I may make the injury worse and thus make the recovery time take even longer.
However, instead of just accepting this and moving on, my mind is now pushing every possible exercise that I should not do to the forefront. It focuses on what I can't do, instead of focusing on what I should be doing instead. This is an example of what is known as "opportunity loss." Given a set of "good" choices, when you make a good decision you can still feel a sense of loss because the other choices are now closed. This is what my brain is experiencing now. I have lots of other exercises I could be doing, but I feel the loss of the exercises that would make my injury worse, in a more immediate fashion.
Okay, yes. I shouldn't do pull-ups or push-ups for a while... The pectoral muscle needs to rest and heal. Instead, of focusing on what I can't do, it would be more useful if I focused on squats and lunges. Or... In recent years I've noticed my balance has not been as good as it has been in the past. There's another area I could spend a few weeks focusing on.
Here is a gift wrapped set of conditions that allows me to focus on another area of training for a time.
This reminds me of a story from the "Inaka Soshi (Hayseed Daoist)" by Issai Chozanshi, the author whose work "The Tengu's Sermon on the Martial Arts" was the inspiration for this podcast.
In a parable-like story called "The Owl's Understanding" Chozanshi tells of an owl who was being made fun of by various other birds for looking weird and having bad eyesight. The owl doesn't let this get to him and just calls attention to the fact that his characteristics are perfect for his place in nature. He calls it the "nature allotted to me by Heaven."
Instead of fighting to be something he is not. The owl accepts who he is and lives contentedly with both the benefits and drawbacks of being an owl.
This situation of my injury is similar. I can't magically make the injury go away. Nothing but time and rest is going to heal it. Instead of focusing on this characteristic as being a drawback, if I re-frame it as an opportunity to engage in focused training elsewhere... I can turn this "handicap" into a strength.
Listen to the podcast "Walking With The Tengu" at: https://anchor.fm/walkingtengu for analysis and thoughts on how classic works are meaningful to the modern martial artist.
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