I injured my shoulder at the gym the other day. No, actually, not the other day. The other month. Three months ago, to be precise.
It was one of those crazy injuries in my strength-training class where we weren’t even using any weights at the time. I was on all fours in table top position, doing simple leg lifts, and then the instructor asked us to shift our weight and swing our leg to the side. I mean, what’s hard about shifting your weight, something I’ve done hundreds of times in classes over the years? But the second I leaned into my left shoulder, I heard something pop. It was the kind of sound that immediately indicates something very not good.
I hesitate to say “bad,” because I’ve been trying not to make too big a deal about this injury. Being in my 40s, this has proven harder than I might have thought. More than one friend has noticed my favoring that shoulder and proclaimed, “At our age, injuries just don’t heal like they used to.” They make it sound like twenty years down the road, I’ll still be calling over stock boys to help me get cereals off the grocery shelves.
Balderdash. I refuse to be one of those women who thinks that once you reach midlife, every pulled muscle is a nonreturnable lifetime accessory. I’m starting to believe that a key reason women’s bodies degenerate as we age is simply that we expect it to. If I’d heard that pop when I was twenty, or even thirty, I’d have anticipated a few days--a few weeks, tops--of holding back, after which I’d have planned to be fine. But now I’m supposed to tell my rotator cuff it’s doomed for eternity? Doesn’t that practically guarantee it will be?
So what if every morning so far an achy twinge greets me? And at least once each day I mindlessly raise my arm into an awkward angle, and the shooting pain takes my breath away. I’m optimistic that soon this will all disappear—and I’m not willing to back down just because “soon” is taking longer than I’d like.
“As you think it, so it shall be,” the metaphysicians say. Even if this turns out not to be true, it sure feels a whole lot better to believe.
