Resting When Injured

Posted by Steven M. Cohen Aug 12, 2008

Funny how quickly a blog post can become dated. Looking back, I re-read my previous post lauding golfer Tiger Woods for his dedication to fitness. I went on to point out how his fitness regimen helps keep him on top of the golf world, and free from injury. As I write this, Tiger has missed the final two major golf championships of the 2008 season – due to injury. Apparently, Woods suffered an ACL injury at the end of the 2007 season, and chose to play on in 2008. He had hoped to make it through the season, and then have surgery to repair the ligament tear. Well, things didn’t go quite the way Tiger had planned. He instead underwent an arthroscopic procedure to “clean up“ damaged cartilage in his knee. Then, he suffered two stress fractures in the area of the surgical knee while running during physical therapy.

Woods played the US Open tournament in June despite these injuries, and pulled off a nearly-miraculous win. He then underwent his season-ending operation.

So, my missive about the power of physical fitness in the case of Tiger Woods lost something. However, I would invoke my March 10, 2008 post “Running While Injured”. That post is dedicated to the idea of resting an injury (or in Tiger's case, having surgery promptly), rather than “toughing it out”. Perhaps if Tiger had taken care of his injury when it first occurred, he would have spent less time out of action. Just something to think about…