💥Modification is Not Failure!

What happens when the thing you love doing suddenly has to change?

For Greg, it started with what he thought was a pulled groin. It turned out to be an inguinal hernia—and suddenly workouts that had been part of his routine for years needed to be modified.

In this episode of Keeping It Real, Greg, Nyree and Fiona talk about the physical AND mental challenges of coming back from injury. What do you do when 20 pounds feels ridiculously light? How do you resist the temptation to add more weight because you're feeling good? And why can doing less sometimes feel like you're not doing enough?

Most importantly, we talk about something every active person eventually has to learn:

Modification is not failure.

Are you in the Dunnville, Ontario area? Curious about what Grand River CrossFit is all about? Check out our social links and website:

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:14

This is Keeping It Real with Nairi, Fiona, and Greg. So, what do you do when the thing that you've been doing, which has been part of your life for years, suddenly becomes something you have to modify or stop altogether? That is what we're gonna be talking about today.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

But first, you've got uh a good beer. Well Chris says we've had it before, but I can't remember. Triple bogey premium blonde lager, and I'm trying to figure out where it's from.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

We just got new glasses.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

I know I just got new glasses, but I can't Oh, it's made in London. So it's a triple bogey brewing company. So they're in Toronto. Made in London, Ontario, though. You're confused. There we go. If you're confused, but it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

I feel like the can might be different.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I just don't remember. Remember it. So no, it's actually really good.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

It's a golf reference, right? Triple bogey. Okay. Look at me go. Uh Fiona and I are in Chile, and we've got a red blend. It's a mallback cabernet sauveno. I brought this to my aunt's last week and I thought, oh, this was so nice. We won't drink very good. Yes. But uh drink most of it. I see we can fix that problem. Um yeah. I enjoyed it. Yeah, it was good. It's uh it went, it's been going down just nice. So all right. So since uh since March, Greg has been dealing with uh modifying workouts because uh you thought it was a pulled groin, but it turned out to be a hernia.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

It was a hernia, so it's an inguinal hernia in my groin. So of course, why why not, right? It's gotta you gotta go full tilt or nothing at all. Go bigger, but go bigger home. Yeah, pretty much. So yeah. So I was doing push jerks or split jerks, it was. And uh I remember that day. Yeah, and it wasn't super heavy. Like I mean, my max is like 175, 180 with that, but I only had 155 on the bar, and I felt it as soon as it went up, so I don't know if I just held my breath a little too long or what. Just twist it a bit or me. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Just it was probably gonna happen too.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Yeah, I think it was just one of those ones that's just been coming and coming, coming, and away it go. I mean, history being I had one on my on my right side before when I I went I got when I was fighting professionally, I got kicked in the groin and had to go to the hospital and they looked at it. And when they did an operation for something else there, they found that I was born with a hernia. So the doctors say that you know, once you've had one, you're more susceptible to it. You're prone to it a little bit. So, and so I don't know if that's happened. And that one was a big one, so they took that out, and you know, here we are, I don't know what, 40 years later, and I have another one. Get another one.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

You were a kid, 18, 19 when the first one happened.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Yeah, 18 when I had the first one. So, yeah. So this one that was March. So I've been kind of modifying everything since since then.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Yeah, so yeah, you felt it in March, thought maybe it was a pulled groin.

SPEAKER_03 3:13

Waited a couple weeks. You realized it wasn't, went to the doctor, they said, Oh, you could either have a surgery or like Well, and this is what what made me laugh, because the the doctor said he said, Well, you could have there's a couple of options here. I said, Okay, what are those? And he says, Well, you can have surgery or or not. I said, Well, what happens if I don't? He goes, It'll get worse. Well, well, for Craig's sake, I'll no shit to surgery then. Yeah, it's like I'll get surgery. Because I was thinking, oh, maybe there's something else I can do that doesn't require surgery. Nope, you gotta have surgery or it gets worse. So thanks for pointing that out, Chief. Thanks, tips. You know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Tips, tips, tips, yeah. Toots, tips, I don't know. Um but it by the time you saw the surgeon to the time you had surgery, so you tweaked it in March, you saw the doctor, April, April, and then you had the surgery in July.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

July uh 23rd.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

So there was a whole lot of babying or just like Yeah, like taking it easy, like modifying a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

Like there wasn't no basically wad board wad. Wads like that. You were not on the whiteboard for trying to made my own and went through it. So I still worked out, and I still worked out fairly hard. I ran, which you know, is one of those things. I did a lot of running and a lot of a lot of other stuff, rucking and uh sandbag workouts and stuff like that, and dumbbells, but yeah, nothing super heavy. So yeah, modified it all.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

You say lucky you like to run. So yeah, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

So that wasn't too bad. So but yeah, it was it was one of those things that I wasn't expecting, you know. It's not like it just you know was was there kind of always there and just kind of pronounced itself. It was just out of the blue. I wasn't really expecting it to happen, and then bang. You know, and it's not like my technique was bad or anything, it just you know, it would I think it would happen anyways. Yeah, so but now I'm kind of taking it easy getting back to it because I don't want it to happen again, because you know, okay, if I start come back too hard, then I could do the whole damn thing over again, right? And blow that side out again. So it's been like I did, you know, I was hesitant in getting back to deadlifts. So I did uh five sets of five at 185, just came back, and then we had another deadlift workout this week where I did 265 and it felt good.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Not the 325.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

No, I was supposed to do the app told me to do 325. I yeah, you know, no. And I and I f I felt really good and I felt, you know what, I probably could have gone to 300 pounds, but it just I I didn't want to do it, right? I just wanted to take it easy. So yeah. You know.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

It's very important when you're telling other people to be smart. Yeah. When they're coming back from something that you model that behavior too, right? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

And you know, you have you have some coaches that think it's like it's a big thing that I have to RX it all the time, I have to do this.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Not just coaches, but people in general.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Coaches, people in general. I have to do this, right? And I'm not there, you know. I want, yeah, sure, I'd like to set an example, but it's it's all about it's not about me being the best on the board or something like that. I need I need to look after myself too, right? And and show people that there's nothing wrong with scaling.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Modification is not failure.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

It's not a failure. Like you, I'm looking after my body. Like I want to be able to get back to that point where I can do things like full tilt. You know, I'm I'm not one for sit around, I can't sit around and do nothing.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

You know, well, and that was the neat thing too, because the doctor is very fit, which is nice to see in the medical profession because you don't see that.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

He was a crossfitter too, so he knew. He knew that.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

So he told you, like I said, I know I can't stop you from doing stuff, but you know enough to modify. And yeah, I mean, you were very good. But I had to laugh because we did an adventure run in Hamilton and we covered what, 18K? Yeah. In three hours. So I mean, well, you're not going all out. No, it's not full time. But we were still running pretty steady. And of course, you know, being a small town and knowing a lot of people who work at the hospital, certain person, Tony, she's like, Yeah, I think I'll I might just tattle on you and oh geez. It was right at the end of my six weeks. I said I was debating about maybe asking somebody else to do this adventure run with me. And I said, But Greg, it's like five-ish, what, four almost five weeks out from the time you had the I think I'll be alright.

SPEAKER_03 7:33

And but we had been doing I'd been doing some like I said, as long as we don't kill it. Yeah, we're not going super hard. So we got we got three hours.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

So yeah, so a week before the follow-up, you ran 18k. I don't think you mentioned that to the doctor, but I didn't throw that one out at him.

SPEAKER_03 7:52

By the way, but you know, during after the the operation, the nurses always said, You says, Oh my god, your your blood pressure was great, your your your your pulse rate was like amazing during the whole thing. Like you we knew you're in shape, so like that was good to hear. You know, we haven't had somebody like this in here. Usually we have somebody that's has a hernia, they're like, you know, yeah, they couldn't do anything. Yeah, you did this because you're lifting your frickin' couch or something with a friend, right? Blew your asshole out. You know, but not really how hernias were.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Um but you know, the funny part was so when you had your hand surgery, because that was done at um in in Hamilton, yeah. I had 45 minutes of listening to you going through the loop of like you know, the drugs and stuff. This was only two minutes. I'm like, damn it, I should have just driven around the block a few times. Here's some more that was entertaining, but uh Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um okay, so here's a question for you. What was harder, the physical limitations or the mental part?

SPEAKER_03 8:52

I think it was more the mental part of it because I, you know, knowing that I have to scale it back and it's like, oh, you know, I I I don't feel like I'm doing enough. So it was always that feeling of, am I doing enough? I don't feel like I'm getting a a lot out of this, right? And then so it was try to reel myself in because you know, I want to go hard, and it's just kind of stepping back and saying, okay, this is for the best that I have to step back and do this easily. And I actually surprised that I actually made it through without actually throwing some more weight on there and things like that, and just go, I feel good, let's do it. And then, you know, and then I'm set back another three or four weeks. So, yeah, or having to get more stitches or something put in and stuff like that. Because I did that when I was 18, right? I felt good, you know, after four weeks, and it's like, yeah, this feels good. I'm gonna go back to the world. But you're more mature, yeah. In some areas. Some areas, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

In some areas, still you have more wisdom than you did when you were 18.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

Still can't sit still long enough to forget. But yeah, I so it was more of a mental game. You know, I had to tell myself all the time, yeah, this is for the best, this is for the best, this is for the best.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

So, why do we sometimes feel guilty about um for doing less, even when doing less is exactly what our body needs? I gonna let that fun answer that one. We all have those moments. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Well, I know, yeah, for me, like even like I've had to modify all kinds of stuff. Um, but when I had hurt my back and my leg, and same thing, doing weights, and you're like, oh, a 15-pound bar. It just doesn't feel like you're doing it. You know, it's hard to find um stuff that you're doing that you still feel is relative to the workout and that you're still getting a workout. But um yeah, I don't know. I mean, there are times that you do feel guilty and you think, oh, maybe I should have tried a little harder or took a less break, or maybe went a little heavier. But I still feel like I'm accomplishing something when I get yeah, I'm able to finish. I think that's the that's the part that helps me get through that part of guilt.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

I think it's you know, especially with in our gym, it's it really is the social part, it's the mental health part of it that is.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Yeah, that's that's the big thing, right? Still going to the gym makes a big difference, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Even though you're even if you modify, who cares if you're modifying? And even if you're the last one, you know.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

A lot of people it it's how people see them, right? Oh, look at they had to modify this. And you know, it it doesn't, right? I don't think people really look at it that way. No. You know, hey, why did Greg have to modify? Well, yeah, we know he's got this, or yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

But you still get questions like, oh, uh, you weren't on the whiteboard. Yeah, I do, yeah. Yeah, but you know, like we're coming back from from yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

It's uh you know, six months of doing nothing. Yeah, well, not doing nothing, but doing like light weights and stuff, right? So it's it's hard to harder to get back at it.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Because you're told nothing more than 20 pounds.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

Yeah. Which was hard because you know, 20 pounds is nothing. Like, geez. Like when you're so used to lifting something heavier. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Yeah. Yeah. It's uh you know, it's just it's just a different mindset, and you have to be in that you can't let it be. It's only temporary.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

Yeah, yeah, and that's it. It's only temporary. And like I said, I've given I've given myself until like December, like roughly. I figure it's gonna take till December to let myself get back to that point, you know, instead of just going like, okay, September, I'm back at it, I'm gonna go full tilt by the end of September because I know that's gonna cause more issues.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

So if I give myself I think other issues beyond the hernia, like you could injure something that is not even related to it.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

That's what I mean. So if I just kind of draw that out until that next three months, it's gonna make a big difference. So yeah. So it's almost a year of you know, not doing as much as I used to, right? So yeah. Yeah, it's been yeah, because I mean there have been times where like I'm glad I'm I'm back to being able to race and stuff like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

I had those months off that I there's the lately you've been like, oh, I can do this workout. So like you need the excitement is coming back. It's good, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

It's good that I can do like the uh oh what was it, Mondays, the double under the double unders and pull up, or what was it, double unders and uh freaking sprint?

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Uh the sprint, the double unders, the snatches, the dumbbell snatches, and double unders.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

Yeah, like I crushed that one, like it was great.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Like it was but I was sore as you know my god, my sore like in that area or sore everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

My upper back was sore.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Yeah, sore in all the spots. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

Yeah. No, it was good.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Yeah, you ever feel uh any kind of discomfort?

SPEAKER_03 13:38

That was one of the things the doctor told me. He says, work out to to you, you know, so you feel good. But he says if you feel it there, it's you're gonna feel it a little bit. He said, if it's super sore for a couple days, then you you're gonna cut it back. You have to scale back up. If you have like it's one day, then it it's not so big of a deal. And I haven't really felt that. So that's good.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

You say with the deadlift, the lifting belt.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

Did you wear the belt for that one? Because I used the belt for when I was at the 265, yeah, and the edge of it was right on the scar. Yeah. So that kind of uncomfortable. Yeah, that was uncomfortable. So I that might be a problem as I'm getting heavier. That that so I just gotta let that scar heal up a little bit more. But but other than that, the the deadlift itself, like when I was doing two 245 and 255, no problem. So I put the belt on it, 265, just to make sure, and that's when it oh okay, it was rubbing right on that. So yeah, that was the issue. That was the problem I had when we ran 18k. That was the only part that hurt because my shorts were rubbing on the on the scar.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

So that was all uh I'd be asking, are you like, do we want to walk? Are you okay? Should we?

SPEAKER_03 14:44

I'm good. That's fine. But it's just uh, yeah, it's just irritating.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:49

Other than that.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

We don't need to be sidelined for anything longer.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

No. And that was it. So that's good.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

So here's some uh skill testing questions. You can fill in the blank, or I didn't realize how much I valued blank until I couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

Didn't value oh blank. You know what? I didn't value the the you know how uh heavy a lifts I did before. I didn't really, you know, you said I'm up to that point, you know, it's just another day lifting heavy, it's great, you know, and everything. But I didn't really value it as much as when it's taken away from you. Yeah, that now it's like, oh my god, you know, I'm so used to lifting like heavy stuff all and you know, maybe it's not heavy for other people, but I mean, like to me. Yeah, but relative to your size. That was a heavy weight, and now I, you know, yeah. It's what they say, you don't know what you have till it's gone, right? And then then you notice that, right? Yeah. The hardest part of modifying was the mental aspect of it, right? I had to wrap my head around all I gotta modify this again. I gotta modify it.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

We all do.

SPEAKER_03 15:52

It's like, ah, yeah, I don't like modifying, but I hate it. You know, and I and and now it's it I do, I have that different mindset now. Modifying isn't bad.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

No, it's it's it's good for and that's I think I always find I mean we know we've talked about it before when people have an injury, like, oh I can't come, I've got no modify. Show up, we can modify. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

I worked out all the way through. Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

The biggest surprise about recover the biggest surprise about recovery was it it went well.

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Like I was surprised it went smooth. Like I was expecting to have some hiccups and things along the way, but no, it went smooth.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

I think that just speaks to how your fitness in general just. And that's what the doctor said too.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

He says you're gonna recover a lot faster than a lot of than the average person does because you're so active. So yeah, I was really surprised at how well my recovery went. And I really with my hand, the same thing too. The doctor told me.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Yeah, but that was different because you didn't have to modify workouts until you had the surgery because you were already and then we have used to using that, right? Yeah, and then the surgery was probably gonna have to add another one now.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

Well, we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

One thing at a time. Let's not have this, we'll have the same podcast, but with a different injury. Another year, different things. Um something I would tell someone facing a similar setback is don't stop working out.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Like you I didn't miss a day. The only days I missed were right after the the surgery, basically. Right? I missed what four days?

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah, because you it was on a Thursday, so I took Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

I came into work Monday. And then I said, go home. Yeah, I felt kind of crappy. Like I started all right, and then I felt crappy, and then I took took that off. But I came back Tuesday and I was back to work and I was back physically the next week. I thought I started doing some some really light stuff, like the 20-pound dumbbells and everything. So really I only missed a week out of that whole six-month period, you know, of of getting ready. So yeah, don't be afraid to still work out. Like we can modify your coach is there to modify that for and scale everything for you.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

And I feel like there's so many people in the gym who've had different things over the years, like you with your stroke and Glennus with her shoulder and sharing with their hip. Like, there's so many people in the gym who've had so many things that we all can offer those little bits of advice to you know, if if it's not in my wheelhouse, it's in yours. If it's not in your wheelhouse, it's in somebody else's. Like, and so we've got that, you know, like everybody can like there's that group thing of being able to contribute. Hey, this worked for me. You could try this. Or like, I don't know. I just feel like in our gym, there's such a good community that just show up. Yeah, that's it. Just be there. Just you know, modifying is not a bad word. No. Um final question here for you.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

Right now, success looks um success for me looks like it looks like it's gonna be really good by by like I said, by September or sorry, September.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

September of 2027?

SPEAKER_03 18:52

What December? Well, definitely that I figure I'm gonna be back to pretty much across the board where I was was. I feel I feel really good. I've let myself heal. Yeah. So I think by just taking it slow, you know, a couple, you know, a couple months of scaling. And I I'm not gonna have to scale every workout. No, but you know, you know, the heavy ones, I'll scale back, you know, and get back to it. So yeah. So that that success to me for sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Well, and I think one of the biggest things people think is that your fitness is gonna be erased because uh you temporarily can't do something. I mean, we all know. Like I was saying, even when we don't do deadlifts for like heavy deadlifts for a few weeks and we come back to it, we're like, oh wow, I did more. Yeah, yeah. We know it because we're still working everything, your body's still responding.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

So yeah, even when you feel like you've been off for like a week and a half and then you come back to deadlifts and you like it. That was a good day. So that was still still a good day.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

That was fun. We had a good time. Yeah, it's fun when you have the gym to yourself and nobody else is share the weights and oh look, you need to do 265. Okay, let's do it. We did it for all the sets. Yeah. So I mean, look, fitness isn't always about being at your strongest, um, but it's definitely about being able to adapt, and that's the key. You've got to be able to adapt when uh life throws things at you and having the patience to build yourself back because we've all been there. We will all be there at some point. So don't throw your fitness out the window and think you can't that modifying is a bad word because it's not. So nope. There you go. That's it. That's it. That's another episode, keeping it real with Nairi Fiona, and Greg.