INTRODUCTION
One of the inspirations for writing this book was sparked by an incident that occurred a few years ago. While skating at Wilson Skate Park in Chicago, located about a yard away from a bike path that spans the entire lakefront, I witnessed a touring cyclist take a bad fall. The intersection near the park is just wrong. Cars exiting a busy Lake Shore Drive have a stop sign at the very same place the bike path crosses the intersection. Cyclists and runners usually play “who’s first?” as turning cars and bikes visibly converge. The cyclists move fast. Cars slowly beginning their turn do not notice speeding bikes approaching in time. They either stop or speed up to avoid being an obstacle. Many times the skateboarders and BMX riders at the park hear tires screeching and look toward the corner only to see a car stopped, a bike on the ground, and a person either cursing at the driver or lying on the ground after avoiding a collision. Worst-case scenario: cyclists will slam into the side of the cars. The very worst part of this whole intersection is that for years there was coarse gravel that covered the area where the bike path meets the street. It is probably one of the most poorly thought out plans ever.
This particular time, the park was relatively empty but it was still a beautiful, sunny morning. As I was cruising around, I heard that familiar sound “Screeeeeeech!” I looked over and saw a woman on the ground a few feet before the entrance into the street crossing. It was clear that she was cut off, had to brake hard and slid on the gravel to avoid running into the vehicle. The driver had stopped, leaned over her, and asked those famous words heard in my world way too often: “Are you okay?” I knew I had some Band-Aid’s and other materials in my bag so I decided to go over.
When I got there, it was obvious from her build, bike, and gear that she rode often. I told her I was skateboarder for years, knew injuries, and asked what was hurt. As I suspected, she had slid on the gravel, lost control of the bike, and got the gift of a nasty knee scrape.
What surprised me was how little she actually knew about what had just happened to her knee. She had some surface damage and I tried to let her know (as tactfully as possible) that she scraped it up pretty badly but it was all skin and she would be all right. She had full mobility of her knee and although it might swell up a bit later, she was basically fine. Her bike suffered no damage. Ironically, those types of skin abrasions really hurt like shit! Skaters and BMX riders know the feeling of losing your palms. There have been times when I have taken large, thick layers off the palms of my hands with gravel embedded too! It really does feel like there’s more going on.
During the fall, several pieces of gravel had embedded into the surface of her skin. As she called her husband to take her to the hospital, I told her I would clean the wound and apply one of my super cool cloth Band-Aids. I even had some extra large ones that would easily cover her knee wound. She agreed and I rinsed her knee with fresh bottled water while brushing any gravel away. The woman was obviously in pain and would not get up or walk around. I think people have misinterpreted the “don’t move the injured” concept. She was determined to go to the hospital which is a perfectly smart thing to do if you really think you need a diagnosis of your injury but a real bummer when you can take a break and ride it out.
The most interesting part of this whole incident was that after I cleaned her knee, she was convinced that there were pebbles in between the skin and her patella. I assured her that there wasn’t. I knew that feeling. Falling very hard into the gravel leaves ghost sensations that something is still there. Again, I let her know the gravel didn’t find its way next to the bone and was cleaned away. She did not believe me. She insisted there were rocks in her knee and I was not going to argue with her. It was interesting for me to see that she had cycled as a hobbyist for years and still wasn’t familiar with her “injured body.”
That day was her first step to understanding that pain doesn’t always require amputation or even worse, costly emergency room visits only to receive a prescription for Advil.
By the way, I am not a health consultant (they appear later in the book) but I do know my place when dealing with other people’s bodies. Advice can be offered but again, it’s not my body and in no way is the encouragement of “self-healing” a way of discouraging someone from visiting a hospital when they feel it to be necessary. I can only imagine how many times people have suffered from real heart attacks only to be told by those around them, “it’s probably just indigestion.” Not good. I definitely wouldn’t want that on my conscience.
However, I do have some very interesting stories of my self-healing experiences discussed in the forthcoming chapters. One is a long-lasting condition I battled for years. I eventually took action to rid myself of it and was successful. That story even involves sarsaparilla, like they used in the old West tonics. Really.
I believe in a reasonable amount of being your own health care provider. It only makes sense. If being whatever you personally consider healthy to be important, then proactive measures must sometimes be taken.
Health, healing, and longevity are continuous and prevalent driving forces of any living creature on earth. We are inundated with web banners, television commercials, billboards, and interpersonal advice, all on the subject of “what will make you healthier and more alive.” Most are not preventative information but “after the fact” quick fixes: lose weight easily, have more energy, the path to clearer skin, the list goes on and on. If you don’t believe me, put it to the test. Scan any major browsers or flip through network television stations for five minutes and I guarantee at any time, you will see several of these ads.
From an insect to a Hollywood model, consciously or not, everything we consider life is created with the will, instinct, or autonomic programming to stay alive. Resting at the core of that life force will always be the concept of health. Our mental and physical health is everything. As the proverbial saying goes, “Without it, we have nothing.”
Health is also a very relative concept. It’s relative to our personal ideas, surroundings, and pre-existing conditions. It’s even relative from species to species. If I was a mosquito that just sucked a belly full of blood on a hot summer day but also had a microscopic tear in my wing that didn’t interfere with my ability to fly, I would consider myself healthy. At least instinctually, I would not have the need to medicate or heal. Even though the wing tear would eventually lead to breakage and my death, I would be a happy, 100 percent healthy mosquito until then.
It’s much more complicated with us humans. We not only have our instinctive life forces but also thoughts from a complex brain that neuroscientists have only begun to understand. However, like other creatures, we still share the underlying fundamental concept of “no health equals no life.”
With that being understood, why do we knowingly do many things that put our health at risk? By necessity, many activities such as driving or flying are an accepted way of life. Conditioned practices like consuming unhealthy foods we were raised on, poor stress-coping skills or crappy sleep habits also affect us. Some are choices that develop into habits, such as smoking, substance abuse, and excessive alcohol usage. There’s also a long list of the unhealthy psychological behaviors that help contribute to shortening our chances of leading healthy lives.
These are all questions for a lifetime and definitely not ones that will purposely be answered in this book. However, stepping away from these age-old quandaries, we’ll take a look at some extraordinary perspectives on what it does mean to be healthy. As for longevity, that’s another tricky one. Again, here’s an area where my focus might differ from the average book on health. Although concerned with living longer and staying healthy forever, Tough Like You could care less how long you live. It’s how you live that’s important.
Did that sound harsh? What I mean to say is that this body of work is about living right now. Fortunately, that right now moves in time and differs for every reader and is always in the present. “Right now” ten years from now is still the present, right? It makes much more sense to condition yourself while doing what you love. Longevity for that reason alone will subsequently better your odds at living longer by default of the conditioning and fortification achieved.
Enough about longevity. It will raise its beautiful gray head in chapters to come anyway. Let’s get back to healthy!
We’ll take a look at just what healthy personally means to the athletes featured in Tough Like You. After all, you could live a perfectly healthy life, step outside, and get creamed by a bus today. My take is to learn what works best for you, continue to keep learning more about your body and mind, seek help when necessary and live.
From the unknowing eye’s view, an action athlete is someone who has chosen to go against the instinctual and is often thought of as a having a death wish. They are also...
