What’s the right way to rest?

Hi - I’ve been following Gymnastic Bodies unlimited for about a year, working relatively successfully through the progressions.

By way of background I’m a 45 year old amateur enthusiast / weekend warrior still doing martial arts, have boxed, do the odd half marathon and triathlon and so on.  Over that time I’ve accumulated various niggling injuries like a shoulder impingement, hip pain, kneecap pain and so on, that is no doubt compounded by the fact that I have a desk job. I try to work around these avoiding aggravating movements and do this programme because of the promise of regaining / retaining mobility, strengthening joints and working towards some interesting goals.

In recent weeks I appear to have worsened the shoulder impingement and seen that niggling pain / irritation extend into my neck and bicep - all on the left side.  I suspect the bicep pain is caused by the fact that I have moved onto planche leans and negative hanging leg lift.  

I am resting (I.e not doing the programme at all for a couple of weeks) and have set the programming down a few levels on these exercises for when i do return to this.

My question for everyone here though is - what is the right way to rest?  Complete cessation of activity until no pain or aggravation is felt?  Continue with low impact / no aggravation type activity in the meantime?

I realise that situations are individual and that it depends on the injury but I’m interested in how others manage this.  Or is it just an inevitable fact of aging and it’s up to individual to decide what level of discomfort to live with?

 Thanks 

Barry

My personal algorithm, as a 56 year old former CrossFitter and current GNB enthusiast, is that I "work around" any injury (i.e., continue with programming which does not worsen the problem) while doing rehab on the affected area.  For instance, I am battling hamstring tendonitis right now in my left leg.  So, I did a bunch of reading on the issue and designed a rehab program for myself.  I've altered my GNB programming by trial-and-error and intuition to lower the chances I'll make the problem worse.  First I didn't do anything that stressed my left leg for 3 or 4 days. Now I give myself more time to warm up for the stretch series videos that target hamstrings and I don't try to max my stretch or any strength exercise on my left leg.  The PT's I consulted said that doing strengthening and some moderate stretching is helpful for tendonitis, so I just lowered the intensity.  I include the rehab program I designed as an adjunct to my GNB workouts. After 4 weeks with this program my tendonitis is about 60% better.....my history is that it takes about 3 months before tendonitis is 90% better (at some point after that I stop noticing it at all).  I continue to make gains this way while promoting healing. 

9 hours ago, Barry Thorn said:

Hi - I’ve been following Gymnastic Bodies unlimited for about a year, working relatively successfully through the progressions.

By way of background I’m a 45 year old amateur enthusiast / weekend warrior still doing martial arts, have boxed, do the odd half marathon and triathlon and so on.  Over that time I’ve accumulated various niggling injuries like a shoulder impingement, hip pain, kneecap pain and so on, that is no doubt compounded by the fact that I have a desk job. I try to work around these avoiding aggravating movements and do this programme because of the promise of regaining / retaining mobility, strengthening joints and working towards some interesting goals.

In recent weeks I appear to have worsened the shoulder impingement and seen that niggling pain / irritation extend into my neck and bicep - all on the left side.  I suspect the bicep pain is caused by the fact that I have moved onto planche leans and negative hanging leg lift.  

I am resting (I.e not doing the programme at all for a couple of weeks) and have set the programming down a few levels on these exercises for when i do return to this.

My question for everyone here though is - what is the right way to rest?  Complete cessation of activity until no pain or aggravation is felt?  Continue with low impact / no aggravation type activity in the meantime?

I realise that situations are individual and that it depends on the injury but I’m interested in how others manage this.  Or is it just an inevitable fact of aging and it’s up to individual to decide what level of discomfort to live with?

 Thanks 

Barry

Probably the problem is more serious than expected, i personally think that it is the time to see a specialist.

meanwhile, work around the problem by avoiding exercises that cause pain.

Thanks for the responses guys.  I fear specialist help might be right.  Will assess after some sensible rest period.  Thanks.

I have a history of minor injuries, but in many different joints. One of them (achilles) got significantly worse, took me years to move past, and never quite went away - mostly because I didn't treat it properly at first. That left me very concerned about not treating issues that come up, and probably over cautious (so take this with a grain of salt). This led to a two part strategy:

1. I have a rehab program for all the "minor" remaining injuries, and ignore nothing. Worked with a great PT to build it (don't settle on quality in this regard, even though it might not be easy. A great PT vs. an ok one is the difference between this actually working or not, especially with more complex cases). This rehab program requires a lot of time (currently three full workouts a cycle), and that will probably continue to be the case for years (for some injuries, maybe forever). When I have time I do this on top of GB, when I don't - I extend my cycle time, meaning rather than doing all workouts every week, I do them over nine or ten days. Note that it's not only a question of whether you have time in the day to work out, but also whether you're getting enough rest for your training volume. 

2. Whenever a new problem comes up, I address it immediately. Start by isolating what's causing it, and stop doing that until the pain is gone (to repeat a maxim that's often quoted here - don't train through pain). Whatever it is, it's probably due either to lack of strength, or of mobility. Figure out if the progression that caused the pain could be the cure - meaning, if by reducing intensity and being more gradual, you'll build the missing strength or mobility. If so, you have your solution - but many times (for me) this means I'm missing something else, more fundamental, and I work on that first. This should in theory not happen given the structure of the progressions, but if your past limitations are severe enough, it can sometimes be the case. If needed, consult aforementioned great PT to figure this out.

Good luck. It's really annoying in the short term, but over the long term it may turn out to be easier than it sounds.