Injuries and the Traffic Light

Kodama · Post by **Kodama** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:05 pm

(Apologies if this post is in the wrong section.)

I twanged my upper back today doing degraded beasts (Yes, those are all medical terms

). It might just go away by the end of the day.

If it doesn't and I feel it best to skip shuggin tomorrow, I suppose that would count as a Red, Failure day. Hmmm, maybe not. It's not like I'm avoiding the shovelglove, I'm trying to do what's best for the injury. Perhaps a Yellow day, because it's special, it's exempt from failure or success? I'd have to be careful not to use any old little body ache as an excuse to skip and calling it yellow...

Anyone have any thoughts?

Pewari · Post by **Pewari** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:27 pm

I had a knee injury and on my habitcal exercise tracker I marked it as yellow for a week, and then after that I tried to do *some* exercise, just not leg related (so upper body, or going out for a gentle walk that wouldn't put too much pressure) and even if it wasn't for my full time marked it green. Third week I went back to short versions of normal routines but listened to my body carefully.

I don't see why it should be red, tbh - more of an exempt situation, as long as you're genuinely injured/ill (me having a slight cough and a case of the "can't be bothered"s doesn't count

) then you'd be doing more harm than good carrying on, imo.

Post by **reinhard** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:40 pm

Yellow, no question. And take as many as you need.

It's BAD to force yourself to shug if you're hurt.

Quoting the home page:

Shovelglove shouldn't hurt. If something does, stop immediately, and take the next day off.

Since I started in early 2002, I've never shugged even slightly hurt -- and thanks to that, I've never been hurt for more than a few days at a time (and I don't think I've had a shovelglove induced pain worth mentioning that lasted longer than a single day, if that).

Reinhard

dittany · Post by **dittany** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:43 pm

I use the white squares for injuries and sick days, just to make them easily visible. Apart from one week where my hip joint hurt I haven't had any pain doing shovelglove though.

DC++ · Post by **DC++** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:32 am

I definitely treat exercise missed due to injury as an exemption rather than a failure. As for your fear of this leading to the slightest ache letting you get out of exercising, my way of dealing with that is to rely on my personal honesty (such as it is). Deep down I know when I am really injured and when I am just being lazy and/or disorganized enough to miss a session, so I try my best to mark the day accordingly.

sherlock · Post by **sherlock** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 6:52 am

Along these same lines, I'm going on vacation in a couple of weeks. It's only for five days, but I am not bringing the sledge.

I'm torn between marking it as a yellow or a red. On the one hand, it's a vacation. On the other hand, marking a full week yellow seems like cheating when I could just as easily do fourteen minutes of shadowboxing, burpees, jumping jacks, pushups, etc.

Thoughts?

Pewari · Post by **Pewari** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:02 am

sherlock, I go on the basis that I can't fail at anything on vacation, so the worst I can get is a yellow (for No S, exercise or glass ceiling). I can, however, limit the wall of yellows by trying to get greens throughout - so if I do some extra exercise (like going for a long walk or managing some other form of exercise) then I get a green.

winnie96 · Post by **winnie96** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:17 pm

Sherlock -- when I go on vacation I don't take my sledge either, but what I do is this: run through my Shovelglove routine with an imaginary sledge or some substitute (light hand weight, broom, regular hammer, whatever might be available) in my hands. Although this isn't going to do much for my muscle-power, at least it keeps me in the habit groove. And I mark my HabitCal with green -- I consider keeping "on program" instead of just chucking the whole idea a success. And if I don't do the pseudo routine on N-Days, I mark it red.

dittany · Post by **dittany** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 5:30 pm

I just had two day's holiday and I've marked them yellow and not felt guilty about it.

I think the idea is that you don't sicken yourself with always doing it. Holidays are supposed to be a time of rest and recuperation which are also important if you are exercising regularly.