I’m not walking right. In fact, I almost look like I’m pregnant as I walk. The problem is that I played broomball* Saturday night, and my legs and back are still sore. It was worth every moment. That is, unless I’m walking like this tomorrow too.
So what do you do that hurts, but is worth every moment?
*For those of you who haven’t played, it’s played on an ice rink, like hockey, except no ice skates, there’s a ball, not a puck, no pads, and brooms. You wind up falling a lot and/or getting whacked with brooms a lot.
Hiking in the mountains. Though I haven’t done it in a while, I love it…and nothing aggravates my arthritic knee more. Walking the next day is always excruciating and involves wearing a knee brace so I can limp around at all. The thing is, though, it doesn’t hurt until I’ve gotten a chance to rest for a few hours, so there’s no finding that point that pushing beyond is going to cause pain. Looking out over the summit of a small mountain (all NE mountains are small besides Mt. Washington) has its allure, or else I wouldn’t have done it more than once.
I sometimes like to “overpower my meds” and spark a cruise on the manic train. For 12 hours, good times ensue. The Best times ensue. New friends are made as are great memories.
And then the piper comes to call with a week of depression ranging from intense boredom to Black. Takes a while to crawl out of the pit and every minute sucks. But such is the cost of getting out of the grey haze of drug-induced normality.
I lift. Heavy weights. And yes, sometimes that hurts, but that rush you get from combination of a pump so good you feel like you’re going to explode and the satisfaction of a difficult workout well-performed (drop-set squats, anyone?) is absolutely incomparable to anything else I’ve ever experienced, outside of the sexual act.
Work on embroidery projects for hours until I get huge knots and spasms in my shoulders that last much of the next day, but the results have been well worth it. As long as no carpal tunnel symptoms show up I’ll carry on with the semi-monthly stitching jags.
Pushing some sort of bodily uncomfortableness to the limit. You know what I mean-- twisting your sore neck just that teensy bit too far, rubbing your tongue along canker sores, etc.
I’m with Stark. I spend my life perpetually in a low grade, excercise induced, pain of one sort or another. But being able to benchpress my wife and kids’ weight combined just feels gooooood.
Football (American style). I play for a semi-pro team as an offensive lineman (spent most of last year at left tackle). Basically, I end up hitting 250-300 lb people 60 or 70 times a game.
Our games are generally on Saturday evenings, and most Sundays during the season I struggle to get out of bed, because my entire body hurts from top to bottom. Sometimes I’ll end up with bruises the size of my fist or bigger. I broke my finger halfway through the 2nd week of the season, requiring surgery to pin the bone back together, and played the rest of the season in with a cast running from my fingertips to about 2 inches above my elbow. Despite that, I finished out that second game without missing a play.
Not sure if I’ll play next season or not, but it’s been a lot of fun these last 4 years.
