Thursday, July 9, 2009

The Right Injuiry Of My Right Ankle...

The anatomy of a human body is just very simple – that’s what I had in my mind when I used to study it as a subject during my intermediate education.

And then time went by…and I never ever thought about my body till past few months. My eyesight just got weaker year by year and I never cared for it. I lost most of my hair ever since I came here in Gurgaon but I never thought about it. Since past three years, I was growing tout to such an extent, that three months ago, I realized I was on the higher range of overweight people’s Body Mass Index (BMI). Plus a constant wrist pain since childhood never stopped till now, even though the doctor said it will vanish with my growing age. My overall stamina went to zero levels. I inadvertently moved to a sedentary lifestyle and lived with it for more than four years. How the hell will I understand the anatomy and the functions/dysfunctions of my own body with such a laxity in my attitude towards it?

Since past few weeks I developed some kind of pain in my legs, especially after jumping for a while during my Parkour practice. To be precise, muscles around the Tibia bone in both of my legs were the exact area of pain. Gunjan (my instructor) always mentioned that it will go off, if I practice sitting in Vajrasana every day. May be, those muscles need a bit more stretch and the Tibia bone needs few more ounces of calcium to be stronger. That’s still fine…coz I was still able to continue with my daily routine with all those pain in my legs…

Three months ago, I made a personal choice to live healthy thereby discarding a sedentary lifestyle. And for which, I understand that I will have to bear those initial pain which my body would cause me, to seek my childhood passion of martial arts.

And in these three months, there were few occasion when I got wounded during my practice. But theek hai…itnaa to chaltaa hi hai yaaro…

Yesterday, while jumping from a high elevation, I someone landed on a slanting ground, wrongly. And that too; only on my right ankle. Oh God! How the hell did I make this mistake? The entire 61 Kgs of my body weight was on my right ankle for a second and that’s what, went completely wrong during my execution of this jump.

Gunjan repeatedly gave us instructions that we must land on our toe balls. However, this particular landing got me on my ankles. Landing on our toe balls is technically a correct way that we must incorporate while jumping from a decent height. However, despite of knowing this fact, I don’t really understand why my mind could not catch this. Earlier as well, there were few instances when I landed wrongly on my ankles.

While looking at my photographs, I learnt that my legs go open ended while I am in air. However, Gunjan also suggested me to purposefully make a close ended leg jump (knees should be closer to each other). That ways, I would generate a better chance of landing on my toes…and not on my ankles. Again, I would say that my mind actually failed to grasp the lessons taught by Gunjan. And this particular jump actually injured me to such an extent that I was not able to stand immediately after its wrong delivery. Only I can understand how badly I was injured. Post this jump, I could not continue with my martial arts practice too. And when I returned home, I applied Volini over the affected part and slept a while. However, due to continuous severe pain in my ankles; I could not even sleep properly.

It was about 4:00 PM in the evening when I saw my right leg (area around my ankle) completely swollen. Plus the amount of pain just got double than what I was feeling in the morning. I was literally immovable. I had to reach to my office at 5.00 PM. But my injured leg did not allow me mentally to get up and make myself up for the office. Since I did not have any important work in my office, I somehow decided to take a leave and rest at home. I was feeling defeated, mentally.

While exchanging few SMS with Arunima, my batch-mate at my martial art classes, I was checking my cell phone. I somehow saw a received call from Dheeraj who reports to me in my office. Those who don’t know Dheeraj, I must say that he is one of the most brilliant team members that we have in our team. His ability to grasp things quickly has many a times fetched him rewards. He is the only one in the team to receive employee of the year award. Now try this one…he is worstly affected by Polio since his childhood. And still manages to move from his home to office, everyday using his calipers. He might also feel the pain, but still manages to emerge as a winner in his real life. Now that’s what gave me a kick…a motivation sufficient enough to move on in life…even with an injured ankle, just like Dheeraj does every day.

With all the pains, I gathered courage in my mind, and gradually woke up from my bed to prepare my regular Soya Dinner…I made myself up for office and headed towards it. Mohit was already there to receive me at the office gate where I reached by a rickshaw. Thanks to have supportive team members like him who escorted me till the second floor in my cubicle. Moreover, Sumit, took care of myself for the entire day in my office, right from bringing my doses of fruit juice to getting a rickshaw for me while returning home.

Today, I have scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic doctor in Appollo…just to check if there is an internal injury or not…I don’t really know what the result would come out to be…but this blog is about documenting few lessons that I learnt since yesterday…

  • Pay careful attention to what your coach is instructing…
  • While executing difficult tasks, just remember - It’s all in our mind, but we must respect our body as well.
  • Just when we are about to break (by getting mentally defeated), think of those who never broke because of their deficiencies…
  • And above all – if you want to learn swimming, why to get bothered by water strokes…(if I have to learn JKD and Parkour, why to get bothered by injuries and obstacles, because they are integral part of learning too)

Indeed, the injury in my right ankle is right enough…to give me sufficient insights to go beyond what we call it as – understanding human anatomy. I consider it as my first reward of JKD practice. Let me post this blog and visit a Nike store to get a shock absorbing shoe and a pair of ankle sleeves, as I will never ever cease my practice…

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