I was attacked by a dog on Thursday night and got a good chunk taken out of my arm. I went to the ER and was treated by irrigation and steri-strips (no stitches for a bite).
I have a few problems, one is that I was finishing Week two of P90X - once I am able, how should I get back into the program? Do I start over again? Do I pick up where I left off? I am depressed enough that I am not able to do my mini-triathlon as planned.
Any thoughts?
Generally, you need 1 week of comeback for every 2 weeks you miss. Up to a point.
It will depend on how long you’re out and how much damage to your arm.
That sucks, sorry to hear it. How did it happen? I got bitten by a dog while running a couple of years back, and it kept me away from running for a good month.
When i come back from injury, i usually just take it a bit easy the first couple of times and try to feel out what my body can and cannot take. If it’s running, i just start the run slower than normal and try to gradually build up my speed until i’m at a level i think i can maintain for the distance. I don’t time myself for those first few runs, because i don’t want to put pressure on myself to over-exert.
I follow a similar strategy with weights. I had to take three weeks away from the gym earlier this summer after straining my shoulder. When i came back, i did the same type of workouts, but just reduced the weight a bit on all of the exercises, and was a bit more cautious than usual about pushing myself too hard. I also reduced the length of my workout a bit, from just over an hour down to about 45-50 minutes, because i found that, while i had lost a little bit of strength during my layoff, my main loss was in stamina. I just got tired more quickly, and getting tired is a recipe for further injury, especially in the gym.
The thing is, i’m not training for anything except general health and fitness. I don’t have specific times that i need to beat, i don’t have to be able to lift a certain amount or play football or anything. So, for me, the key when coming back from injury is just to listen to my body and make sure not to over-exert. I generally find that, if i’m out for anywhere up to a month or six weeks, i can usually be back to my earlier level within a few weeks. For me, runner pat’s formula of one week of comeback for every two weeks missed sounds about right.
mhendo - I was walking my (little) dog with my daughter when a little dog-aggressive bull terrier.mastif cross escaped his yard.
Since I was terrified my daughter would try to protect our dog, I grabbed him and stepped in front of her, the dog jumped up (presumably to get the dog) and I held up my arm to block him, he immediately grabbed my forearm.
I lost a good sized chunk of flesh to the muscle and gained a puncture wound.