So I've hurt myself a lot in the gym. The most recent one that was really bad was about a year ago I started getting really sharp pain in my right hip. I had been squatting improperly for a while and I developed what's called like hip impingement. So probably worth your time if you haven't anybody like anybody like coach you I would reach out to like physical therapist or something sports medicine guy and just have them evaluate your squat so that you do it safely.
I was at the gym and, you know, the gym I went to, I would go around the same time frame every day. So I saw the same people pretty often because, you know, they would go around the same time. And so I knew them, you know, and we would hang out at the gym and stuff and talk. So one time I went, I was doing squats, and this other guy was doing squats. And so we were working in together, you know, and he asked me to spot him, but then, you know, I'm spotting him. He has the bar on his back and he's squatting down. And as he's squatting down, you just hear a snap and like a kind of like a crack. And he just like immediately drops the weight and kind of like lets out a mini like grunt yell. Cracked his spine. So be careful with squats.
I've had a couple injuries throughout my lifting, shoulder issues, bench pressing and things like that, back issues, herniated discs, those are probably the big ones and those are common and no matter how much you stretch, no matter how many things you do, you'll find tweaks and you'll run into issues and stuff sometimes, so just like training around injury, making sure it doesn't get worse is kind of important.
When it comes to injuries, I am one who is prone to doing them. And a lot of times it's in the most simple ways, like either you're wearing heels and you're not walking correctly and then you sprain your ankle. Or you are riding one of those electric scooters and you're not paying attention and then you fall and then you can hurt yourself that way too. So I feel like it really isn't doing simple activities is when you can actually get hurt, but just taking extra precaution to where you're putting your feet and maybe wearing the right shoes or trying to stay away from heels is probably the best way to make sure you don't get injured. And then, yeah, and then just keep living life.
When I was 15 years old, I was on my high school's cross-country team and because I was fairly new to running and I didn't really know what I was doing that much, I did not switch out my shoes, which is like a very crucial thing. And after a certain amount of time, I realized that my foot was hurting and I wasn't sure why and I just kept running on it and eventually I ended up having a stress fracture in two places after not switching out my shoes for over eight months.
So about four years ago, it was about the end of summer and I was flat back bench pressing with a weight that I had done before and something fell off and I felt like a clicking in my left shoulder and the next day I could barely lift my left arm and turns out that I had tore the labrum in my left shoulder. So my recommendation is if you are going to be doing like a light to moderate weight it's maybe okay to flat back but I would strongly recommend an arched back bench for anything of any considerable weight.
So I dropped the barbell on my toe one time and it felt like it broke and I couldn't really walk on it so that was bad.
I tore the thing that connects your sternum to your collarbone. It wasn't like while I was lifting weights or doing anything like that, but it was during a wrestling match and it actually hurt a lot, like not in the moment but afterwards, so be careful and don't get hurt.
I one time was doing stairs for an exercise routine and I tripped on the last stair and I completely broke my hand.
Just in the last year, I've been dealing with a lot of injuries, actually. I swim for BYU and one of the things I found out I had last year was a torn labrum in my right hip. Also, hip dysplasia, which just means my socket is not how it's supposed to be, so it's very unstable. And I have a bone tumor, benign, but a bone tumor in that same right hip. And then I just found out, so that was a year ago I found all that out, so I've just been kind of swimming through it, just trying to finish out my eligibility and my season. And then I found out a couple days ago that now I have a stress fracture in the same hip. So trying to figure out what that means for my career and going forward with almost being done, trying to just see what I can do about it and eventually I'm going to need surgery. But right now I'm just trying to figure out the rest of my season with all of these injuries in the same hip.
I had an injury. I had fallen on a rock in 2022 or 2021 and because of that fall, I had strain on my ligaments and a lot of other problems and I kept falling and falling. And a year later, I had fallen in my room and I couldn't get up again. So I went to a surgeon and they had to do reconstructive right ankle surgery. I was in the midst of playing high school softball and because of that injury, I've never been able to play again. But there has been so many blessings that have come from my ankle. I had to get another one, but just the resilience of being able to strengthen myself is good.
I was mountain biking down in Moab. It was my first time that I was ever mountain biking, so I was mountain biking with my friend who's kind of taking me on some of the trails down there. I was feeling pretty confident. I did a pretty good first run and then we went to go do a second run. Feeling good. I just kind of accomplished or I guess done a pretty tough part of the trail. And then on this really slight decline, I hit a rock, threw me off the bike and then split my knee wide open. So I had to get surgery on it. This is the scar from it. If you can see, it's pretty gnarly and I'm still working through it and getting back to normal.