published 9/11/08

My Very Own Athletic Injuries

A journal of my experiencesd with injuries acquired while running, cycling and hiking and playing ultimate for fifteen years

by Paul Ingraham, Vancouver, Canada MORE
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Credentials and qualifications

I am a writer and retired Registered Massage Therapist (unusually well-trained for a massage therapist, a 3000-hour program). I’m almost done with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. I am a peer reviewer for The Natural Standard, and a copyeditor for Science-Based Medicine. My most important qualification is more than a decade of workaholic post-graduate study, clinical experience, and constant conversations with readers from around the world, including many experts who have provided countless suggestions and criticisms.

For more information, see: Who Am I to Say? More information about my qualifications, credentials and professional experiences for my readers and customers.

Many SaveYourself.ca readers and customers are curious to about my personal experiences are with sports and sports injuries. Perhaps some of are wondering: is this guy just a bookworm? Is he an “armchair therapist”? What does he really know about competing? What does he know about pushing himself?

I know a thing or two.

I have never been seriously injured in my life. I have never had a fracture, never “blown” a knee, or even had a nasty ankle sprain. However, I have played ultimate for a decade, and regularly running, cycling and hiking since about 1995 — I’ve had my fair share of owies. Most recently, I did “blow” my shoulder, a full-on acromioclavicular sprain in the summer of ‘08, probably my worst injury yet, and a great learning experience (or, as they say, “another ^%@*!!$ growth opportunity”).

I’ve lost whole seasons and felt as much emotional pain as physical pain at being kept from training and playing. I’ve been too badly hurt to walk (knees and quadriceps), too damaged to sleep on one side for three months (ribs), and too crushed to sleep at all for three nights (ribs).

I’ve had to take numerous breaks from work. I once completely lost my temper — probably the most upset I’ve ever been all at once — when I re-sprained my thumb for the third time in as many months. That injury caused permanent damage to the most valuable appendage a massage therapist has.

It seems like I’ve had tendinitis in just about every tendon in my body. I’ve had cramps in every muscle in my body. Even all at once! I once suffered a nearly full-body “super cramp” after a couple hours sprinting on a hot summer night with a careless lack of electrolyte supplementation — first my calves went rigid, then my hamstrings, and as I tried to stretch them out … wham, my abdominals seized up!

Let me tell you something: it is not possible to elongate both the backs of your legs and your abdominals at the same time.

The cramping spread to several other muscles before slowly easing. That was a rough night.

So, yes, I really do know a thing or two.

About ultimate

I play a sport called “ultimate” — which sounds goofy if you’ve never heard of it. Ultimate is a frisbee sport. In terms of intensity, it’s about like soccer — non-stop sprinting! The level of fitness it requires to play well is pretty much extreme. I don’t always (er, never) feel like my own fitness level is actually “extreme,” but I often have to remind myself that what I consider to be just another normal day of playing ultimate would be pretty much impossible for anyone who wasn’t in quite good shape.

I play ultimate hard, and I play it reasonably well. I’m not the best by a long shot — lordy, no — but I can more or less keep up with some of the best. The Ultimate World Championships were here in Vancouver in 2008, and two of the Canadian national teams won — we’re very good at ultimate, here in Canada — including the open division, which is the one to win. I play with some of those players regularly. They’re incredible, and I can’t match their fitness and skills … but I can keep up, and I’m proud of it.

In a tall person’s sport, that’s truly not bad for a short guy in his late thirties.

I came to sport late — I had never played a team sport before 1997, when I was already twenty-six years old. I was staying at a hostel and someone invited me to play, and I was instantly hooked — there were women (most ultimate is co-ed), and the atmosphere was super-friendly. No one yelled at me when I made mistakes. They just laughed and encouraged me!

I was all fitness then, and no skill or maturity or ability to “play well with others.” It took me at least the first three years to learn the basics, to work through the emotional challenges of competition and teamwork, confronting my own lack of skill and coordination. I was not “a natural” — I worked hard to get better, and still do.

Knee pain

The best-selling tutorial on SaveYourself.ca is about a runners’ knee injury, the iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS) tutorial. It can’t be a coincidence — ITBS is the worst and most stubborn injury I’ve ever had.

I got ITBS from running down a mountain with a heavy backpack. Then I was sort of attacked by a grizzly bear, which didn’t really help matters. The story is recounted in the IT band syndrome tutorial. For a long time after that, I couldn’t play ultimate, or couldn’t play it properly, or couldn’t play it for long.

It has been quite a long time, several years now, since I had any more difficulty with it — but to this day I am wary of playing ultimate for more than 3 or 4 hours, because I know the old injury could come roaring back. It’s done it before, after long periods of being dormant. I know it lurks somewhere under the surface, waiting for the right conditions!