The older I get, the more rehab and recovery work I find myself doing. The ironic thing is, I think I'm trying to convince myself I feel better, but I don't. Meanwhile back when I benched over 600 raw and 900 equipped in competitions, I didn't do nearly the amount of rehab work I do now, and I was beating myself up far worse back then.

Maybe I do all this extra work because I think I'm smarter than I am. Or perhaps I'm buying into all of the bullsh!t being pushed out there. Isn't it normal to feel a little beat up with the training we do? Yes, the body does need to adapt, and recovery will help with that. However, how many rollers, sticks, lacrosse balls, etc do we need?

Regarding being smarter than I think I am, whenever someone spoke of an injury to me, I always told them to see a professional about it. I should know a lot about that. Along with a lot of little dings, I have ruptured/herniated discs in my back, completely ruptured one biceps, partially ruptured the other, partially ruptured a hamstring, and tore my mcl. Such is the life of a powerlifter. Anyway, I have a great Sports Dr and PT that always put me back together. The problem is, between what I learned from them and getting on Google, I feel I can self diagnose and fix any little issue I have.

Guess what I'm learning? Not every little thing is some kind of injury. Not everything has to be stretched, rolled, poked, and prodded. Sometimes just a little rest will do. In my quest to feel better, I keep jacking myself up worse.

Along the same lines, how mobile do I need to be? Mobile enough to get through regular life and training. If that's the case, I don't need to spend countless hours stretching. Seriously, do I need to contort my body in all different positions or learn how to do the perfect Turkish Get-Up to squat, bench, dealift, and carry my groceries.

There is a place for all of the stuff I mentioned above, but not all the time. In our quest to get better a lot of us are spending too much time on crap that not only doesn't matter, but it might also be hindering our primary goal--training. As I sit here typing, I feel much better than usual and that's because today is the first day I have been smart enough not to roll or stretch anything. Now, let's just hope I'm smart enough to keep remembering this lesson.