One Injury After Another…

April 2026

When will it end???? 

Things were going so well. I was in a groove. Gains were being made. PRs being set. Just a great time all round. Then my dumbass has to go get injured (in a very stupid way I should add). Although in my case I will say most of my injuries usually derive from some sort of silly endeavour of mine. 

This time it was attempting to lift a 100 or so kg spear in Japan. I’m sure many of you have seen the videos of people trying to lift this giant spear at the Kiyomizu Dera temple in Kyoto - which is said to bring good fortune (if lifted). Many try, few succeed. I was definitely not part of those who succeeded unfortunately - on the contrary I received no such good fortune for my meagre attempt. I wasn’t even planning to try lifting it but a friend of mine wanted to have a go so I figured why not. What could possibly go wrong? Lo and behold - I sprained my wrist, quite severely. 

It didn’t feel that bad, but as the night progressed the pain grew immensely. Next thing you know I’m booking a doctor’s appointment for tomorrow in Tokyo (we had the Shinkansen booked for the morning). I’ve never felt so useless in my entire life - asking a rather elderly Japanese fellow to lift my suitcase and put it into his boot was definitely the low point of the trip. I did my best to indicate that my hand hurt by pointing at my wrist and saying “itai”. Straight to the point. I ended up having to get an x-ray - luckily no fracture, but I’d have to wear a brace and take painkillers. A swift $500 bill just like that. So definitely make sure you have travel insurance because it came in clutch for me. Honestly, the hardest part was trying to drive the manual Civic Type R which I had rented with one hand a few days later. Those painkillers were working overtime. 

Here we are about 5 months after and I still am not 100% healed. Absolute piss take. I mean I’ve still been able to squat and deadlift; however, any sort of pressing has been a no go. It’s pretty depressing to get injured immediately after setting PRs in all three of the main lifts. Alas, life goes on. 

I was on my road to recovery when (you guessed it) I somehow injured my knees. This may be attributed to doing a few runs in Air Force 1s (which I wouldn’t recommend as a running shoe). So now my wrist still hurts and my knees also hurt. Am I old??? Jk I’m in my prime (supposedly). 

Now I reminisce about the good old injury-free days - what a wonderful time. It definitely is tough losing strength and not being able to do certain activities, but that’s just the way life goes, huh? Sometimes stupid shit is gonna happen - more so if you actively do stupid shit yourself. But that’s okay. The gym will always be there, and I will build up to where I was again and go beyond (plus ultra - ifkyk). 

So don’t feel too down. Not every holiday or plan or whatever is going to go the way you thought. Sometimes it will be an absolute shitshow and it’ll become a funny story for you to tell. Or perhaps not so funny idk. Hopefully you learn a thing or two from the ordeal though. 

Anyway. I hope you’re well as always.

✌🏽