I woke up this morning with pain in my back. I felt it yesterday morning too. It had woken me up both nights before, I guess when I moved in ways that caused it to hurt more.

Then this morning when I did my burpees the pain got searing. I had to stop at seven. The pain was bad enough I had trouble breathing.

The pain was in the same spot that always hurts—about halfway down a few inches left of my spine. I don’t know why I get pain there, but I figured it was just something minor that would go away in a few days. I was throwing a frisbee around over the weekend and I could see myself pulling something doing that.

My question was what to do about the burpees. The pain would take a few days to heal, whatever the problem was. I didn’t think burpees caused the original injury, but they exacerbated it. I don’t remember the last time I had trouble breathing from back pain. I didn’t want unrelated pain to stop my SIDCHA.

Besides my model that

If you miss one day you can miss two. If you miss two it’s all over

I didn’t want to become a victim—someone who blames his problems on others, losing the ability and responsibility to take care of himself. I didn’t want to act blindly tough, like “take the pain!” either.

I had a client call where I could relax for over an hour. Afterwards I decided to try a slow burpee. Instead of jumping forward and back I moved one foot at a time, which avoided violent movements. It turned out not to exacerbate the pain. The fast motion must have caused some jolting which must have triggered the pain.

So I finished the rest of my burpees, slowly but safely. I was proud not to have given in to the pain even though it seemed connected at first.

I consider today part of a lifestyle choice toward action, discipline, responsibility, accountability, and such. I’m not proud of it—plenty of people overcome bigger challenges. I consider it just a basic level of self-sufficiency to live according to your principles despite challenges.

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