No Lifting...Now What?

The goal of this blog was to be real and raw with you...so here you go. I'm beyond frustrated right now.  The gym is a place I love to be.  It's the place where I can be away and process through all the thoughts in my head; put my headphones in and tune out everything else. It's where I go to help de-stress.  I've been going at it for so long now, its part of me. Weightlifting or doing cardio is my activity.

With my recent back injury I can't be lifting in the gym, until I heal.  I went to the doctor on Friday because the pain was not going away with pain meds and it was coming around to the front, so I was also tender and sore just under my pec muscle. The doctor did not believe I had broken a rib based upon my recollection of the injury or the symptoms I experienced afterward. She instead believes I tore, pulled, did some kind of injury to a major back muscle when I fell and that I have been experience muscle tightness and severe muscle spasms since.  What happens now...the same thing as if I would have broken a rib, let it heal on its own. Keep taking pain meds and she prescribed a muscle relaxer for me which has really been helping. But if I move just the right way I can feel that muscle go into a spasm and it hurts. The worst is when I sneeze- that brings about an intense amount of pain which last a few minutes in which I can not move or barely breathe.

(Experiencing pain in the Infraspinatus, Teres Minor, and Teres Major region)

So obviously I can't do any kind of lifting in the gym that uses that back muscle- if you have ever done any kind of lifting you know that you use your back muscles in a lot of lifts even if it's being used as a secondary muscle or to help stabilize your core.  That means a huge block to my training. So frustrated and angry.  But to be able to lift again I have to let it heal completely- I'm going to have to be patient. I think I may venture to the gym sometimes this week and see if I can find something that I can do where my back it completely stable  and I'm not using any of those muscles...most likely will mean that I'm doing a lot of leg stuff. Ahhh, just so disappointing.