It was a cold November night, and I was cycling home from the pool on a rental bike. My tire got stuck in the tram tracks, and I fell. Miraculously, my face didn’t hit the ground, but I could immediately tell the price I paid: There was something wrong with my left hand.
I left the bike, walked home, and went to bed. The next morning, I assessed the damage. My wrist was clearly strained. I couldn’t bend my hand all the way backwards. It hurt. I let it rest for a bit. Meanwhile, I asked a friend who was a gym nut if he had any tips. To my surprise, he said: “Work that thing! It’ll take movement to get it back to normal.”
My default would have been to move my hand as little as possible. But I decided to test his advice. Over the next days and weeks, I exercised my wrist. Slowly but frequently. At first, I only tried to bend it a few times and saw how far I could make it. Once that movement felt normal, I added some weight. Empty water bottles. Slightly filled water bottles. Eventually, I sat in my desk chair, angling my wrist back and forth while holding a frying pan. It was the only item in the right weight class—but it worked.
Within less than a month, my hand was back to normal. I doubt merely waiting would have done the same trick.
There’s a difference between rebuilding and recovering. Recovering is the reset we need after taking a blow. The big pause where you lie still, close your eyes, and wait. Rebuilding is what we do once recovery alone will no longer do. It’s starting to lift bricks again, even if they’re a lot smaller than what you used to haul before.
Recovering is often easier. It amounts to “wait and see.” Rebuilding requires working with the pain. To find out how many steps you can take today, push to the limit but no more, and then patiently wait to try again tomorrow.
Some injuries can only be recovered from. Others take rebuilding to ever fully heal. Often, you could take either path alone, but some mixture will likely speed up the process. Do you start rebuilding instantly or give it some recovery time first? What’s the right ratio as you move forward? The answers will differ every time—but don’t let the pain of rebuilding keep you from beginning the journey at the right moment.
Sitting here with a pulled muscle from a fun night of bowling, I remembered my biking accident from many years ago. For a week and a half now, I’ve been mostly recovering with the occasional stretch thrown into the mix. I think it’s time to start rebuilding—and I believe this time, I won’t even need a frying pan to do it.
