The summer after I graduated high school I noticed my shoulder was bugging me. I was a pitcher and a catcher throughout high school and into that summer season. With pitching and catching you throw the ball. A lot. And each day, not surprisingly, it seemed to get worse. I finally went to the doctor and he told me I had a tear in my rotator cuff. The doctor broke the news and I quickly told him, “But I don’t remember anything happening. I can’t point to an incident where it didn’t hurt and then it did.” He then proceeded to tell me that it most likely wasn’t a trauma injury. Instead it was the repetitive throwing and most likely poor form in said throwing over and over and over again.
It’s like the tide. You don’t really notice it’s going out until you look back and see your beach chair a lot further back then when you went in the water an hour ago.
We haven’t gained the 20 pounds because we had one “bad” meal (or even a Christmas holiday’s worth of bad meals). We aren’t breathing heavy going up the stairs because we sat on a couch one day binge watching Netflix last Saturday.
It’s the months or years of repetitive “throwing with poor form.” So if it took months or years to get where you are at, why do you think it will take a week or even a month to lose the 20 pounds or get in the shape you were in 10 years ago?
I saw this question from a physical therapist last week: What if you picked ONE goal and got 1% better every day? One PERCENT!
What’s your 1% today?