Pushing yourself is not the same as overworking yourself. Pushing yourself is doing what you thought you couldn’t do. Overworking yourself is doing more than what you can handle. One experience I had with this was on a Friday when I was setting new a personal record for front squats for sets of four reps. I already set a personal record at 118 kilos, but wanted to go to 120 kilos. From the moment I finished my first rep, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do anymore, but kept on going because I had this idea that I needed to do it or I wouldn’t reach my quota for the day. I ended up dropping it on my way up and nearly passed out.
This experience made me think about how much I should be pushing myself because trying to get one last lift in at the cost of being injured is definitely not worth it. The lesson here is that its okay to do a lighter workout on certain days, in order to either recover or make sure you are safe from any harm. There is always some workout you can do to stay in shape if one part of your body hurts. Even if the workout feels really easy, it will help you stay as strong as you were when you left off.
Even with taking extra precautions, injuries are inevitable. If you ever have an injury, always go to see a doctor as soon as possible to make sure nothing is broken and to find out how you can best recover.
