A minor injury, as the saying goes, is an injury to someone else. When it's your knee, back, shoulder or, in my case, groin that hurts, there is nothing trivial about it. Especially if said injury is keeping you from working out consistently for the first time in years, wrote Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post Jan. 25:

I'm not exaggerating when I describe this muscle strain - or whatever it is - as life-changing. Not life-changing like, say, your first child or the new cafeteria here at work. No, it has changed my daily life, my routine, my mood, my body - and none of them for the better.

My weight is up. My motivation is down. So is my energy level. My craving for all the worst junk foods, usually suppressed by vigorous exercise, has intensified as I've worked out less and less.

“Here are two parts of your life that have been disrupted,” says Frances Flint, professor in York’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science in the Faculty of Health, coordinator of athletic training at York and a sports psychology consultant. “That good feeling” from the workout itself is gone, she says, along with the “my time” that I had carefully built into my week. "Time away from work, phones, e-mails and other stresses".

So true. That simple joy of moving, of washing away the day's aggravation in a shower of sweat, has given way to longer sessions in front of my TV. Gone as well is the camaraderie of long runs on Saturdays with my marathon training group.

"That injury is now defining your day, your social life, your release of stress, your feeling of joy," Flint says.

. . .

In the meantime, what do I do? I figured out the most important part on my own: getting my enlarged posterior back in the gym. Flint says it's crucial to continue working out. Any kind of exercise is good, but since I'm a runner, I want to find ways to maintain cardiovascular fitness.

If I were a collegiate track athlete, she says, coaches would have me run in a pool to achieve the value of exercise with little or no impact on the body. I don't have easy access to a pool, so I've been riding a stationary bicycle, which doesn't hurt much but is excruciatingly boring, even with an iPod and a ballgame on. I've also hit the treadmill despite my injury, running slowly for as long as I can. And I've been stretching a lot more, hoping I can work out the problem myself.

It's important, Flint says, to do this at the same time of day that I used to work out. Overall, the effort will give me "the same biochemical effects" as my previous regimen, Talbott says, without stressing the injured area.

The other critical move, Flint says, is to take control of the situation. Find out as much as you can about the injury and possible therapies. Become actively involved in your care, instead of a passive recipient of treatment. Banish "negative self-talk." Some athletes like to visualize the affected area healing; they believe it speeds the process.

"I want to know as much as I can about my body," Flint says. "What is the damaged tissue? Why has this occurred?"

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– York University’s daily e-bulletin