I felt short of breath and sore, but the real pain came a week later. It felt like my rib was going to puncture my lung. I could barely lift 50% of any of my one-rep maxes. I called my primary care physician but no one ever called me back (I should probably reconsider him as my PCP), and I didn't have time to sit at urgent care (which is never that urgent, is it?) I figured I would've found myself in the back of an ambulance if I had a punctured lung, and resigned myself to scaling all of the workouts. ALL of the workouts. I couldn't row, go overhead, do pull-ups, do burpees, or box jumps. I apparently could still run a mile faster than most of the gym but it was over a minute slower for me.
Around that time, I realized I had several Pure Barre classes that were about to expire and so I committed to getting there 12 times in between all of the work travel I have been doing. It was pretty awful at first. Apparently I hurt my intercostals, the small muscles between my ribs. That's a lot of core intensive work when your ribs are on fire. Slowly but surely, I stopped feeling like I was going to throw up between each sit-up, tuck, and hold. I was able to do planks again.
I spent a week up north and went to yoga, and then kept up with the Pure Barre when I got home. Last Wednesday, I realized my ribs were pain-free and I have developed a lot of core strength.
On Saturday, the boyfriend and I went to his box for a partner WOD before the Chomp and Stomp chili and bluegrass festival. We shared an 85# bar. I was able to do pull-ups for the first time in over a month! My wallballs felt solid. My cleans were on point. I struggled with the jerks, and probably need to build up the weight I use for those, but overall I am pleased with my performance.
I plan to get back to my box this Wednesday and get back into the swing of things while remaining healthy. I haven't been a fan of the programming in a while and so I'm hoping that I enjoy it more coming back this time.
