I've spoken a lot about discipline, and sticking to one's workouts in my Fast and Furious Fitness book. However, there are times when you need to listen to your own body, and today was definitely one of them.

If you've read the blog post from yesterday, you know that I went through a hard, hard workout yesterday morning. Felt great afterwards, and was planning on doing something different today. Decided to a get a hard sprint workout in instead of an indoor routine, so off I went. There was this little voice in the back of my head telling me "Rahul, it's not smart to do super tough workouts DAILY", but of course I ignored it and headed straight on to the  local park.

Started my sprints, and the first thing I know is that my lower back feels all wonky and strange after the first "all out" sprint. Now just so you know, I may be hurting and sore in other areas from my workouts, but my lower back is usually NEVER sore - I make it a point to follow strict form in my exercises, and also make sure I work my core regularly with some of the exercises found in Fast and Furious Fitness. So this should have been a red light to me; that something was WRONG, and I needed to stop.

And being the blockhead that I can be at times, I ignored it. I massaged the area a bit, and ran the second spring. Felt OK, so I went on to a tougher incline, and started my sprint there. Before I was even starting to hit full velocity, I felt a sharp "ping" in my left calf muscle, accompanied by a stabbing pain.

OUCH - now THAT got my attention. Stopped the sprints right there and then, and started to walk back home - and even that felt like a chore. My lower back was screaming by now, and I could barely straighten my leg. Tried doing some dips and pull-ups, but that didn't work out too well (as you can imagine), so threw in the towel, called it a day, and headed back home. Was admonished soundly by my wife for not listening to my body, despite my advice to others - boy, that one hurt, but I deserved it. I would likely not have been in pain as bad as this if I had stopped after my first sprint (when my body first started to talk to me), but that's no longer an option.

Just goes to show that I'm no different from you guys in that I need a good "kick up the kiester" once in a while, just to make sure I follow my own advice and do the right thing for my body. And this morning served as a stark reminder to this.

Anyway, got the lower back and calf massaged with hot mustard oil (one of those "traditional" recipes for aches and pains), and will use magic spray as well. I think it's safe to say I'll be out of action tomorrow for sure. Was planning on doing some hard pull-up workouts tomorrow, but I'll certainly be asking my body before I do so.  .  .

So, moral of the story - listen to your body. It's always trying to tell you something, and it's not smart to ignore what its saying.

Back tomorrow again.

Rahul

PS: If your looking for a REAL tough workout routine such as the one I followed yesterday, you can find it here in Fast and Furious Fitness.