INJURIES

Injuries are a tough obstacle in the world of sports. From professional athletes to weekend warriors, we all face this challenge. Whether we receive a minor injury or a serious injury, there is a healing period, and during that period we must take a break from the sports that we love.

During that period of healing, we either rest or push ourselves through physio and intense training to get back on our feet, enduring restlessness that leaves us dreaming of our days on the snow. So we push ourselves past our injuries and say we can keep going through our injuries, but our bodies simply need time to heal. We need to accept the simple fact that our bodies are not bulletproof, and not telling ourselves that our injuries aren’t as bad as the doctors say.

As humans, we have the profound ability of denial; our stubbornness overrides our common sense. Even after we ragdoll down the side of the mountain, we still get back up and say “I can ride the rest of the day” or “lets do that again” even though our bodies are begging us to stop. Now, this is usually where the hardcore athlete in us all says something along the lines of “its part of the sport” or “the blood, sweat, and tears are what makes it fun”. But in all seriousness, stop, just stop. These bodies we live in will not be this young and resilient forever. This is where young people develop old body syndrome.

Somewhere during the process of injury, ego sneaks its way in, and the next thing we know the injury stories are being ranked from the most hardcore to the wimpiest of booboos. That ragdoll down that steep mountain face, awesome. The scorpion straight to the face? Hardcore. Those bruised ribs from crashing into a tree, tubular. This is all fun in games, but now we are just trying to be tough, and just “walking it off” doesn’t fly with your body. Walk that cocky little a%$ into the medi center and have a doctor look after your injuries.

So, ladies and gentleman, moral of the story… If you’re hurt, take care of yourself. Go to physio, rest that injury, train your heart out. Make sure your body is fully prepared for the stupidity we put it through. Don’t push your body past its limits, and take care of it so you can continue to do the outrageously dangerous sports we love for the rest of our lives.