What I’ve learnt from being injured

For context I actually wrote this blog a while ago for a sponsor’s trade show magazine but the magazine didn’t end up getting published. Since I’d spent a long time writing it, it seemed like a waste not to publish it. I wrote it after my second trip to try a route called ‘Mind Control’, both which had ended in with the same reoccuring back injury.

It feels a little ironic to be writing this sat on the long ferry journey home from Santander, finishing our trip almost a month early due to injury. I imagined after a long road to recovery and almost a year just about injury free I would be writing this from my high horse, looking back, all the wiser yet with much relief. However, life never goes as you plan and injuries have way of cropping up when you least expect them. I have started to look at them as a way to learn, yet they are the most frustrating and infuriating teachers. However, if I was given the choice to turn back the clock four years and do things differently, I wouldn’t. Even through all the pain, tears and desperation I learnt more than I ever have about my body, what I want and what makes me happy and so I have to see this recent and frustrating set back as an opportunity.

A few photos from our road trip.

In August 2014 I hurt my back weight lifting, specifically deadlifting. I ignored it for about 6 months, trying to plough on through wondering why I was getting and feeling worse and worse. It was painful and at times, hard to even get dressed. With other injuries it seemed like there was always something else to work on, for example if you break your leg you can crack on with finger boarding or blow a finger then smash out cardio and core. The back it is such an integral part of you body, it is the keystone, linking your fingers to your toes. My body felt completely disconnected and so any training along these lines was a no no.

Unless you are lucky enough to have a support team of professionals working with you (which I didn’t) being injured is a lonely place to be. Firstly nobody could experience what I was going through, secondly I couldn’t seem to get a straight answer about what was actually wrong and thirdly you have to make all the decisions and decide who’s advice you will take, plus it is an expensive business. At the time it felt like I tried everything from eastern to western medicine; massage therapy, chiropractors, osteopaths, rolfing, pilates, yoga, body talk, strength and conditioning, nutritionists, acupuncture, physios. From these I cherry picked the things that worked for me.

So what did I actually learn? Well my first big mistake was to try to carry on climbing, it was like hitting my head against a brick wall and my love for it faded more and more but I didn’t know what else to do, I’d not done another sport since secondary school. In the summer of 2016 I move to North Wales, I took this as an opportunity to try as many different things as I could; surfing, kayaking, canoeing, SUPing, mountain biking, swimming in the lakes. My only regret through out this whole process was that I wish I had done this sooner. I found other things I was passionate about that I didn’t need to be physically at my best for. Surfing was one of them, being in the sea was a low impact environment for my back, paddling on the board was actually great for strengthening my core and shoulders and the banana shaped body position assumed whilst paddling eased my back. But best of all it felt amazing to be in the water, wrestling into your wetsuit, bobbing around on the waves and laughing at the various (and many) ungraceful wipe outs. I didn’t grow up near the coast nor have I spent much time in water and I realised there is something really special about being in the ocean.

Photos: Exploring other activities with friends.

Another discovery I made and found the most interesting was food. It might sound silly or obvious but I realised what you put into your body you truly get back out. I decided to make some big changes, I’m not going to lie – I found it really hard. I am a coeliac and have been since I was diagnosed at the age of 11, to me being on a gluten free diet and eating a few bits of fruit and veg I considered to be healthy. Whilst being injured I looked into reducing the inflammation in my body and healing it from the inside out. Scientific evidence shows that the gut microbiome can be classed as an organ almost as important as the brain. If we abuse this area of our body which most of us do, it can lead to chronic inflammation, food intolerances and also depression. Step by step as I learnt more I changed and adapted my diet cutting out major inflammatory foods such as dairy and refined sugar. I ate food rich in probiotics and prebiotics and I can honestly say the difference has been incredible, this is something I will continue for life as the benefits have been absolutely great.

Finally, injury has given me a lot of time to think about what I want from climbing. I have learnt to do what makes me happy. Nobody is ever proud to admit they have an ego but we all do and it is important to occasionally think about the reasons why we are doing something. I realised my climbing had strayed from “doing something I love” to an external (and unhappy) goal driven venture. It is easily done in the world we live in where society drives us to be better, stronger, happier etc. I have been climbing for 23 years and realised the stand out moments are not clipping the chains of hard routes but laughing with friends at the crag, trusting that terrible grit stone smear, being so pumped your elbows are higher than your ears, climbing above the sea, having off-route epics, being puked on by defensive British seagulls, swimming to Scottish sea stacks, watching puffins crazily fly around you whilst hanging out on a sea cliff and sharing these moments with the people you love.

There are so many reasons why climbing is great and these are just a few of mine. Being injured hasn’t been an easy journey and nor is it over, but it has shaped me into the person I am today and for that I am grateful.