Let's start with, I have had my fair share of injuries during my training tenure. I'm not different than the majority of lifters who have pushed their training to the limits for decades. You can't expect to walk away unscathed.

The advice I offer is not only for you readers, but myself as well. You see, I continue to make the same dumb ass mistakes year after year. However, I'm beginning to catch on more quickly nowadays. I would hazard to guess it's because the stakes are higher.

As I'm typing presently, my toes are fairly numb. This is due to three herniated discs and spinal stenosis. It came on last fall and scared the sh!t out of me. I have fought long and hard to get in a good place and guess what? I f@cked it up!

Also, up until the covid quarantine, I had been working with my pt on some serious shoulder tendinitis issues. Surprisingly even after I had to stop seeing him I continued to make great improvements.

Hmmm, let's see, how did Vincent continue to make progress on his back and shoulder issues... I worked on them daily. Actually, multiple times a day. Now let's take a stab at why these issues are coming back... I stopped working on them.

Damnit! I got complacent. This isn't the first time I have had to remind myself of this. The problem is, with being older and having more wear and tear on my body, the pain is greater, the recovery takes longer, and the effects linger.

Maybe in your teens, twenties, and even perhaps into your thirties you can rehab an issue and write it off as being gone for good. However, in your forties, fifties, and beyond that is not a luxury one can afford.

Take heed my more senior brothers and sisters of the iron, rehab is going to be a life long commitment if you want to keep training hard. That's not to say you can't whittle it down to some bare essentials over time. However, never forget, you feel better because you worked hard at it. It didn't just magically go away.

You know the saying "If it's not broken, don't fix it." Well, most of us are broken and we will have to keep fixing it--FOREVER!

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