Torn

New thing of the day, I tore my right calf muscle, yeay!

So lately I haven't used my 24 hour gym membership. With everything plus holidays, going to the gym after work was becoming more difficult and I had other priorities in the evenings. So last Sunday I weighed myself after the Thanksgiving weekend and I weighed more that day then I have the past 2 years. We didn't even eat that much over the weekend. I've just been slowly gaining.

Anyway decided to start back up at the gym and mornings were the best times with my schedule. Monday I did a short 15 minute walk then a 10 minute light jog and felt nauseous and light headed after that. Decided to take it easy with the workouts, so decided on Wednesday morning I would just do a walk on the treadmill. 

The workout was going well. I didn't stretch, but I was walking on the treadmill like I had a million times before. The only difference was that my right calf had been tight the past week or two. Not sure how or why, but it was. I decided that walking would help stretch it out. To increase my workout exertion without running, I kept increasing the incline at 5 minute intervals. At minute 25, I increased another notch. Uh oh, spaghettio - felt a tear in the back of my right calf.

I immediately stopped even though I wanted to "walk out the pain". I knew from past knee injuries not to push my body. Went to stretch out and sit awhile, then limping, went back home, got ready for work and had husband drive our carpool.

I didn't know what happened to me until I looked it up online. People ask if it's "just a strain or a pulled muscle", but I looked up the injuries and I've had pulled muscles before. This was definitely a tear. Luckily I'm pretty sure it's a grade 1 - small tears. I only felt a few or a little bit of my muscle tear, so it wasn't too bad. If I limp and walk around a certain way it doesn't bother me as much.

As the day progressed, my calf started to swell and feel funny. I elevated it, kept off it most of the day and was conscious to rest it and stretch it slowly whenever I had an opportunity. Wasn't too painful. Anyway the afternoon it felt almost walkable and I was like, maybe I overreacted, but then after limping/walking for about a minute, I felt it again and was like, nope, it's there. 

So that was a first - torn muscle. Apparently the tightness was probably a combination of cold and strain from the weekend, and the tear was a result of overexertion or changing incline too quickly on my treadmill. I think I'll stick to upper body exercises at home until my leg heals - approximately two weeks :( We'll see how it goes, but man, do I feel old.

Important lesson learned - I am out of shape so I must now stretch before any kind of exercise. I should pay attention to tight muscles. And must be unambitious in my workout routines - BOOOOOO!