Like magic? Injury fixed?

Photo from http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/

When you exercise or participate in sport type activities there is always the risk of injury.  Everything from a hurt finger to monumental accidents can happen.  As you get older you get smarter (hopefully) about what to do and what not to do.  But there will still be the occasional accident.  If you don't live life then you won't get hurt but that's no way to live right?  So, I have had my share of lifting incidents; most have hit me due to stupidity but not all.  The most recent one hit me from a blind spot.  I don't know when it happened or what happened; one day I had a painful shoulder.  It didn't hurt all the time, just when I lifted my arm straight up in front of me and rotated slightly to the left.  Many people offered that it was a rotator cuff injury and may need surgery.  But I was sure that it wasn't.  I could do everything; even lift heavy as long as I didn't put my arm in that one specific position.

So this injury plagued me for months and months until a couple of weeks ago.  I was doing light flies, where you lie on your back and basically fly with weights.  I'd only done them once the week before; testing the shoulder to see if all was okay and it seemed good.  So having finished I went to get up; but two guys had decided to take up the spot literally 3" from my feet to chat; so I was unable to get up properly.  I had to do a twisty type thing instead, not good.  (Another chapter for Gym Etiquette)  Anyway when I did I felt it popped and I heard it.  I was sure that I'd screwed myself for a year of more pain.  I was fuming at these guys who had caused it.  I grabbed my arm in sling position and head for home, brewing.

It hut, it hurt really badly; but as the days passed I forgot about it.  Until one day as I reached for a glass in the kitchen and realized that it didn't hurt anymore.  The shooting pain that was associated to the very movement I was making was absent, gone.  I moved my arm around, testing the weak spot that I had grown accustom to over the last months and it had vanished.  So I've done some thinking.  Was it a tendon that had slipped out of place and slipped back in on that fly day?  After much research I think that I had an impingement that wiggled free somehow.   The pain I felt was exactly as described, but is now gone.  I do still have a very tiny weakness there that I am very aware of.  I am ultra careful when lifting anywhere near it.

Not everything needs surgery.  So many people will jump to a "you need surgery" conclusion.  A couple of years back I had injured my shoulders when I first got back into lifting.  I lifted too heavy too soon, it was all my fault.  I visited the Dr., had an MRI and she told me that I had an extra piece of bone on each shoulder that needed shaving off.  She said it was rare but something I was born with.  That extra bone was causing all sorts of problems, including pain.  Well, I'm not a take advice from Dr's., type of person so shook my head and left.  If I had always had it then why was it just now bothering me?  I rested, really rested my shoulders and presto.  It did take about three months to get them back to normal but I'm fine and feel no pain there anymore.

That extra bone point was a turning point in my lifting.  From that moment I took extra precaution when lifting, form and poundage.  It was my lifting "ah ha" moment.  The moment I realized that I was no longer 23 and lifting.  :)

I don't want to get bulky.

                                        Honestly, if I hear the phrase "I don't want to get bulky,"
                                               one more time with regards to lifting weights.....

First, it's really great when someone says it to you; knowing full well that you lift weights.  Well, thank you very much for confirming that you most definitely DO NOT want to look the way that I do.  Nope, it's not a compliment.     But the great thing about LIFTING AFTER 50 is that you don't give a s&*t.  I am bulky because I need to lose weight, fact.

Second, lifting doesn't make you bulky, fat does.  I know that you think you will look like The Incredible Hulk if you lift weights but you won't.  The woman who do look like men; well, they actually try to look like that by taking anabolic steroids.  Woman are naturally different than men, we cannot get big like men do unless we take these horrible drugs.  Of course some woman can get bigger muscles than others; just due to having great genes but typically we just get strong and fit.

Thirdly, the bulky look that everyone is referring to?  Well, that's fat.  The fat that covers the muscles which make you look bulkier.  Of course if you don't lose any weight and grow a bit of nice lean muscle then you will look bulky.  That is where the weight loss comes in; which is where I am at now.  I know there is muscle in there somewhere; and I am determined to find it.  Muscle helps you to lose weight as it boosts your metabolism.  

Myths about women weight lifting.  

As we age we lose muscle mass, fact.  Sad but true and if you have little of it; then you are in trouble as you age. The only way to fight the natural occurrence of losing it; is to gain it.  I cannot tell you the difference in how I feel now compared to before I got back into lifting.  Sure in the beginning you might be sore but lift through it and you come out feeling and being strong.

Honestly ladies, do you really think that you will look like Arnold Schwarzenegger if you hit the weight section in the gym?  Not going to happen, I promise you.  What will happen, is that you will be taking control of how you look.  By lifting weights you can actually sculpt your body to look the way that you want it to.   Getting strong is a good thing.  Being a physically strong woman is great not bulky.