Having decided to join the team again back in October, I knew that I would need to get a head start in order to increase the quality and number of push ups that I could do in a set. In previous years I had been able to build up to 20 - 30 decent push ups, but that was no longer the case. I also knew that my push ups had gotten a bit lazy. The quality was not where it needed to be.
It is surprising how quickly everything gained can be lost without the proper attention. After about 4 weeks time I was able to build up to 10 proper push ups. Now I just needed to slowly add until I could again do 20 reps of proper push ups. This was much harder than I thought it would be and was also taking much longer. I was able to add an extra push up here and there but not consistently.
Finally I was able to do 11 push ups at a time every day for 1 week. The following week I added one more for a total of 12 per set. Slow, but consistent results. After some initial frustration, I was finally feeling some momentum. By the second week in February I was up to 13 per set and then on February 12th as I finished my first set of the day, something tweaked on my right side. It didn't feel too bad, but I listened to my body and took it easy for the remainder of the day. The following day things felt worse and so no push ups again. Instead I focused on gentle stretching as I felt the momentum sliding away.
After doing a bit of research my best guess is that the injury is in the pectoralis minor muscle. I am back to doing only 10 pushups at a time with some soreness and still being very careful. Most of my push ups are done on the counter or wall and still with caution. I know that I can regain my momentum and look forward to when I can do a set of 20 push ups again.
This year will be about taking time to listen to my body, progressing wisely to hopefully avoid injury, and progressing wisely during and after an injury.
Namaste
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