So now I have managed to run 5km’s without dying and then I did what everyone does – started getting too cocky and started pushing myself.
Guess what – I injured myself – I hurt my Achilles tendon. Hugely frustrating, so thinking I was invincible and succumbed to peer pressure, I pushed through the pain. Until I couldn’t anymore.
I didn’t understand my injury, I consulted WebMD, spoke to other runners and even changed my running shoes. I tried special stretching exercises that I found on YouTube, nothing worked.
Eventually I went to a Physiotherapist. She basically told me what I did wrong, even though deep down I already knew. I didn’t listen to my body. I did not warm up properly and did not cool down and stretch afterwards
She explained to me how the running process works and that certain parts of my body were weaker than what was needed and hence there was over-compensation happening in that although my Achilles tendon had been injured it was caused by my gluteus maximus (my butt) was weak. A hard pill to swallow, my gluteus maximus had always been small, tight and pert (or so my wife kept telling me…).
She told me, nicely, that each person was different and that blanket advice on the Internet would get me into more trouble. I had to undergo a program to rehabilitate my gluts and give my tendon time to rest and recover. This program would take 3-4 weeks. So far, the program is working and I keep catching myself looking in the mirror to see if my butt looks any better – no luck.
I see the same issues appearing in small business when things go wrong, we take the advice from people who don’t know our unique circumstances and offer blanket advice.
If your business has an injury, then seek help as quickly as possible and do not try push through the pain and make things worse. Most times the hurt or injury is not the cause, it is something else in the business.
For sports injuries we go to the Physio because they know and have studied anatomy and do a thorough examination before taking you through a rehabilitation/treatment plan, so we should also seek advice from a “Business Physio” to do the same.
RLActive is such a “Business Physio” where we look at your unique circumstances, identify what is causing the injury and work out a plan to rehabilitate the weak part of your business.