Motivational Monday: Rest is Needed – Learning the Hard Way
Growing up, I was taught that taking time off to rest was a bad thing. I believed that all my hard work and progress would go to waste if I took a day off. Before Covid-19, the most time I took off from swimming in a year was a week for spring break and a week in August before school started up again. Quarantine only served to exacerbate this belief. The two and a half months I was forced out of the water for the lockdown left me feeling like I was falling hopelessly behind, miles away from my former form. I vowed to never take that much time away from the sport ever again.
Ironically, it was at this time that all of my injury issues began to rear their ugly heads. Over the duration of my senior year of high school, I pushed through the pain of two torn labrums in my hip and shoulder. I kept swimming and training outside of the water, always in search of a way to improve, and to make up for the time lost from quarantine. For a little while it worked. I began to drop chunks of time from both my butterfly events. I was finally inching closer to the times I had been chasing for years. All this validated my unhealthy approach.
This went on until early July, summer 2021. My club coach began to notice I was burned out. I would have kept powering through the burn out and injuries, unware of what they were. Heading into Speedo Sectionals, my club coach declared this would be my final meet of the season, and that I needed to take at least a month off to recoup before college. At the time, I was upset, but looking back at the month and a half I took off, it saved me. I would not have had the energy to deal with the demands of college swimming and two serious injuries.
Even though I took time off, I was still leaning into my unhealthy belief that I had to keep pushing through with as little time off as possible, no matter what. At some point during my freshman year I became burned out again. This became crystal clear at the 2022 NCAA Division III Championships when my non-injured shoulder subluxed off the start of the 100 butterfly at finals, and I came down with the flu the next day. I was devastated, but it was clear that my body had had enough. My body was breaking down.
However, this still was not enough to change my beliefs. As soon as I recovered enough from the flu, I was back in the water. I wrote up this elaborate plan of how I was going to right the wrongs of my freshman year. Rest was not included in that plan. I moved back home and threw myself into training again, desperate to keep getting better.
Clearly, my body had other plans. I made it until mid-June before I was forced to acknowledge that the pain in my hip was too much. I could barely walk. I saw a specialist, and got an X-Ray and then an MRI. I had a torn labrum with femoral acetabular impingement, FAI. I needed surgery. At this point, I actually pulled myself from the water. I finally could see that not taking the time to heal, address my injuries and training through them was only hurting me more. I hit the brakes hard.
My hip surgery to repair my torn labrum and reshape my femoral head was in early August. A couple weeks later, I moved back to school and started my sophomore year. I struggled immensely with watching the first half of the season from the sidelines. However, I never rushed my recovery. I worked hard on my rehab, yes, but I took the time to make sure I was healing. Fortunately, through my hard work and my rest, I was able to gain medical clearance after four and a half months to come back for winter training. Because I took the time to rest and listen to my body, I was to still able to make it back to nationals and right my so called ‘wrongs’ from my freshman year.
Even now, I still struggle with knowing when it is time to take a step back or to power through. However, I know rest is a critical part of our sport. I believe taking the proper time to recover is just as important as training.