During the 4th week of Insanity, I made some pretty big strides to achieving my goals at first. Something happened to my ankle during the third day of week four (Plyometric Cardio Circuit) that had me uneasy. Perhaps I was just getting worn down, or perhaps I was landing too hard on my feet during the jumping exercises. At this point, I took my routine into the laundry room. Normally, my laundry room is very cold. However, since it was mid-summer by the point, it was actually refreshing to be working out in that room. Originally, I was doing the exercises outside because it was so nice out. One thing that may have hindered me though was the concrete floor in the laundry room. Doing jumping jacks, power jumps, tuck jumps, basketball shots and mountain climbers were probably putting a good amount of pressure on my legs from landing on that concrete. Also, I was a bit of a n00b at this plyometric stuff, so my form probably wasn't the greatest.
By the fourth day of the fourth week of Insanity, my right ankle was pretty sore. I would get delivered an agonizing pain on the inside part of my right ankle whenever I landed on it when doing jumps. I tried many different things to counter this pain. For instance, I tried putting most of the pressure on my left leg when landing from jumps. This probably was not a great idea by any means, but I was so determined to finish this journey that I was stupid. By the fifth day of week four, I could really feel pain in my right ankle from performing simple tasks such as walking. However, I was such a meathead to get Insanity done on time, that I went to CVS and bought some tape for my ankle. In my ego's defense, the fifth week of Insanity is a recovery week, so I figured that my ankle would get a chance to heal then. Bad decision.
When I looked at the schedule and saw that Pure Cardio was on the list for that day, I cringed. I wrapped up my ankle with about three layers of tape and sucked it up. I pressed play on the video. At first, I felt like the tape took all of the pressure off my ankle. However, at the same time, it limited my mobility and agility to move lateraly. This was especially bad when doing lateral movements on moves such as the Heisman or Football Shuffles. I felt like Football Shuffles became Football Sticks. It was like a game of one legged hopscotch - very sloppy. Movement was all over the place and the form was just atricous. By the end of this workout, my ankle throbbed with pain. The pain was almost unbearable and I was close to being forced to stop several times. However, my ego told me to keep going.
When week four was all said and finished, it was determined that I had a Grade I ankle sprain. While this type of ankle sprain is minor at best, a grade II ankle sprain involves tearing of ligaments in the ankle. I think if I worked out a few more days after suffering the initial injury, I could of possibly tore a ligament.
To sum up the fourth week and the injury, I think I made a huge mistake trying to continue my workout. The only reason I say this is because I now realize that I probably wasn't making any gains that week. I was risking a lot on the line just to crank out two or three more days off the calendar. I was putting more pressure on my left leg and also putting risk for that leg to get injured. Also, my form was terrible for the entire week. How could I possibly get any gain out of that? I should of stopped and let my ankle heal, but my ego wanted no part of it. I probably would of stupidly kept on going and risked more injury if what happened over that weekend never occured next.
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