I exercised for 300 days in a row - and then I crushed my ankle
Monday, January 27, 2025
Around spring break of last year (2024) I decided to exercise every day. I worked out fairly consistently, 3-4 days a week, for close to two years at that point, but I decided to commit to every day for a few reasons. First, I learned that natural muscle loss from aging can start in your mid thirties. Despite my insistence that the final season of The Office ended just a few years ago (it was 2013), by most chronological accounting methods I’m 35 years old. I learned that one of best predictors of health late in life is muscle mass and wanted to gain as much as I could over the next couple of decades. Second, I wanted to continue to play sports later into life, especially volleyball, which I discovered a passion for last winter. Finally, I wanted to see if jumping from three and a half days of exercise a week to seven days would impact on my mood. While I do my best to keep it to myself, I struggle with a short temper and occasional days of grumpy despondence which mostly impact my family. I thought exercising every day might help with that. (I got the idea from Naval in a podcast in which he said that he exercises every day.)
The goal was pretty simple - do at least 10 minutes of intentional exercise every day. This could be anything from stretching to running to weightlifting to plyometrics to participating in some sort of athletic competition.
And I did this for 301 days in a row without missing one.
Until I crushed my ankle playing volleyball.
The ball was on the other side of the net and set close to the net, such that I might be able to tip it over – a 50/50 ball if you will. A guy from the other team went up at the same time as me. When he came down, his foot came down on my side of the net and my foot came down on his foot.
If I’ve felt pain that bad before, I don’t recall. I broke my collar bone in two places playing first base in a high school baseball game when a linebacker in a baseball uniform smashed into me, but I don’t remember it being pain like this. I felt things crunch and it felt like the entire left side of my left foot was struck by lightning. I laid there for a while in pain before I a couple of my teammates helped me off the court.
I’m writing this at about 72 hours since it happened, most of which I’ve spent in a chair with my foot elevated and iced.
The day that it happened, however, I realized that my exercise streak was in jeopardy. If I couldn’t put any weight on my ankle, how was I going to do any kind of exercise?
I went through some possibilities. I could do a few upper body exercises from my chair. Maybe I could put together ten minutes of upper body exercises. But would I do that everyday? Could I find some strictly upper body yoga exercises or something? Just do grip strength exercises while I watched a movie?
None of these seemed like very good options and I realized that exercising every day was not about the streak. It was about creating and maintaining a habit, the effects of which would compound over time. The streak was a motivational tool, sure. It was fun to think that I hadn’t missed a day in so long. But integrating “person who exercises daily” into my identity was the most important long term payoff.
I’m on the third day of not exercising. I’m not craving it yet. I’ve been so busy with my work and family that exercise was becoming a bit of a chore, albeit one that I always felt good while doing and grateful after competing.
But I realized that all of the lifting, cardio, and flexibility work I’ve done has been preparing me for this. It stands to reason that I would’ve played volleyball on that Sunday whether I’d been working out consistently or not. But all of that exercising should generate several benefits.
- My muscles and tendons in my foot were stronger from lifting and wearing minimalist shoes for years, meaning they should recover faster. It’s also likely that as bad as this injury was, it might have been worse if not for strength training.
- While I will certainly lose muscle mass during my recovery, once I’ve recovered I will have much more than I would have (and getting back to this level will be easier than starting from scratch).
- Since I’ve developed a habit of consistent exercise, as soon as I can I will integrate physical therapy for my ankle into my routine. I know that my recovery will be faster because I know that consistent PT will dictate how quickly I can get back to normal activities.
- Since I’ve focused a lot on consuming enough protein for muscle hypertrophy (I aim for between 150 - 180 grams per day), I already have the habit of consuming enough protein for tissue repair, which I’ll need plenty of in the coming weeks.
Essentially I’ve tried to build my foundation as strong as possible so that when the storm hit I could withstand it – or, at worst, rebuild swiftly. I’m hoping the physical and mental foundation I’ve built will help me do just that.