Meanwhile, as a health journalist and all-around enthusiastic exerciser, I’ve thrown myself at countless physical challenges—mostly for fun, sometimes to help pay the rent. Marathons, trail races, triathlons, 24-hour relays, mud runs, obstacle course races, Hyrox—you name it, I was probably obsessed with it for a time. And through it all, the only injury I ever incurred was a torn meniscus (the undignified result of attempting a wildly above-my-paygrade basketball dunk on a charitably lowered rim, at a promotional event). If only the surgeon could have extracted the memory of that day along with the frayed connective tissue he removed from my knee. I’m pretty sure I was wearing jeans, too.
All of this to say, everything was smooth sailing for a very long time, until it suddenly wasn’t. Somewhere around the age of 35, for reasons beyond my comprehension at the time, the wheels started to come off the bus. First, a stress fracture to my foot. I noticed it one night in bed and couldn’t tell you when it happened. Regardless, it put me in a boot for three months.
Next, a torn hamstring during a routine game of pick-up football, making the same run I’d made so many times before. I thought I’d just pulled it, so I kept playing, which of course only made it worse. That decision cost me six months. Then a strained calf muscle at a gentle session of run club. And, finally, shin splints. I don’t even remember how many months that one took me out for, but it felt like forever.
This barrage of sports injuries—all sustained within a roughly two-year period—was unrelenting, each overlapping pang seemingly passing the baton to the next. Needless to say, I was miserable. And the worst part was that I couldn’t understand why this was happening to me. I had been maintaining the same activity level, same diet, same supplements, and the same sleeping habits.
You always hear people talking half-jokingly about how getting older takes its toll on the body. But nothing really prepares you for that moment when you start to actually experience it for yourself. It’s existential. Brutal. Depressing, honestly. Sometimes the best way to deal with these spiral-inducing moments is to simply talk to other people dealing with the same thing. So I recently asked my, er, seasoned soccer team’s group chat: What do you do to avoid and manage sports injuries as you get older?