This is me. I’m not in the best shape at the moment, but this post is my little reminder post, of my brand new starting point. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I have been out of fitness for over a year. A YEAR. I damaged my foot and it all sort of snowballed with sports injury after sports injury, I would let it heal, (or so I thought) then train on it and damaged it further. I was beside myself with it all, and even though I swim, this sports injury was holding me back in so many ways. I do have good news, that after finally seeing this amazing physio, I finally ran for the first time last week. I nearly cried when I finished a 5k run and was fine, I thought I’d feel pain, I thought I’d be so unfit I wouldn’t be able to even manage that. Turns out I was absolutely fine, and with my swimming and walking to work, I was still relatively fit post sports injury. So after my first run I left it a few days and ran again. I’m starting to get back to myself it seems, I’l hopefully shift the extra pounds I gained over the year, but that isn’t a priority, to be honest just running that distance and feeling good was all I need.

Fitness Annie B

So I’ve always been known as being a tad accident prone, I always have new bruises, I’ve got a dent in my forehead, one on my shin, I’ve torn my ACL, I fall down lots… I just seem to do things and set myself back all the freakin’ time. I had another sports injury at a gym where I fell over a weight someone left on the floor, and damaged a nerve – which still twinges even now. Why the heck did I keep hurting myself? I constantly asked why it was happening, I felt just like Neville Longbottom – Always bloody me! It just felt all a bit weird, and I started to doubt whether I should keep doing any big training, try new sports or be adventurous, other than just walking and swimming. Turns out there was a reason, long story short, I’m hyper mobile.

Top | Bellum Active Advance VestCrop Top | Bellum Active Diamond Luxe Crop Bra*    Hoodie | Bellum Active Cropped Hooded Waist Jacket* Leggings | Bellum Active  Diamond Luxe Leggings*  Trainers | Adidas Grey Ultra Boosts  Watch | Samsung Gear Sport*

Hyper mobility means my joints are bendy and can do things others can’t. I’d always been very double jointed, but never really thought much of it. My physio explained that when I’d injured myself, parts of my body overcompensated, which then triggered other areas to hurt, so it was a vicious cycle. I obviously just keeping being more prone to sports injury. We did an exercise to see how flexible my legs were, which they still were, but we both knew they could go further, but my entire body is so stiff it needs a big old reboot.

So luckily, with the help of my physio, I’m going to bounce back. Working on all sorts to get me back on track after my nonstop sports injury, and I am so incredibly excited. It is a brand new chapter! But my hyper mobile status aside, I’ve learnt a lot about bouncing back after a sports injury. Firstly it is actually about getting rehabilitation, and finding support to make sure you don’t do what I did, and damage yourself further. Going for a regular sports massage, or seeing a physio are both very important, but also mixing up your fitness regime and stretching. Do things like swim or non-impact training where possible, they are things that help give your body time to recover. Taking things at a steady pace is the biggest one, I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was to go running again, and I wanted to sprint it had been that long. I actually downloaded a couch to 5k to set me off to encourage me to build, which I did find too easy, but it gave me a good starting point. The main thing was I didn’t push myself hard, I just enjoyed that feeling of running again, and taking me back to a day when I ran for fun rather than for a race. Definitely a feeling I’m going to remember moving forward.

I’m really pleased I continued to swim, not as much as I liked, but I still kept active. I have a mile swim race coming up in August, then a triathlon in June and then I’m hoping to build up to a couple of 10ks this year. I’m taking it easy and giving myself distances I’ve already done, but I think the biggest thing I’ve learnt is don’t take being active for granted. When you have it, love it, because when you can’t do it, boy does it suck. Here is to the next chapter of my fitness journey.