Injuries and illnesses can really impact your fitness plans and goals. A major injury or illness might not only set you back in your fitness goals; but be a major disruption in your life, and can even have long lasting consequences.
Avoiding the worst consequences of an injury or illness is something I take very seriously. If I get seriously injured or ill it affects not just me but my family, friends, and coworkers.
I have been very lucky; I almost never suffer from bad infections and have had few significant injuries.
About 25 years ago I did – through carelessness – have a serious bicycle accident. I was cycling down a steep hill at high speed not looking where I was going. I hit a speed bump and according to a witness, “flew 20 feet” landing on my head. I did go to the hospital, and I did need to get a new helmet. My bicycle helmet was cracked – fortunately it was not my skull that was cracked.
I broke my ankle back in 2020 hiking up a muddy steep trail. That did set me back a great deal in my fitness efforts; however I was fortunate to have access to great medical care, I had surgery within a few days and worked hard at getting my ankle strong again once it healed. In just a few months I was back to hiking challenging trails.
In my work environment I am exposed to various infectious diseases on an almost daily basis – but I can count on 1 hand the number of days I have missed work due to infections in the last 2 decades. I am guessing that part of my good fortune is good genetics – my son made it all the way from kindergarten through graduating from high school missing only a day and half total due to illness. However, there are things I do to keep myself from getting really sick.
While we can’t avoid all injuries and illnesses there are some simple things we can do to minimize our risks. I wear a bicycle helmet, buckle my seatbelt, and get vaccinated against infections.
In the next article in this series “Staying in the Game” I will discuss reducing one’s risk of suffering from respiratory illnesses.
Please let me know if there are questions or concerns you would like addressed.
I will also be continuing the series of articles on fitness and nutrition. You can check out my last articles in this series here:
Training 4 Life: 9 Adaptations
Problems with Protein Digestion & Absorption
In case you missed it one of my favorite articles I have written describes a really cool story from the world of sports:
Thanks for listening. Please share.
Russ
