I had a pretty intense week last week. I went on my mediation and fasting retreat. I then managed to get in several consecutive days of vinyasa yoga practice. My body really felt amazing. My diet was all dialed in. I was feeling light andflexible. I was mentally sharp. Then, I decided to head back into the gym on Saturday. Halfway through my first set of incline dumbbell presses, I felt my neck pop.

I knew immediately I did something bad. I tried to act like nothing happened. I was never a really good actor. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pick the weights back up! The dude next to me knew I was in pain. I sat down for a few minutes and decided to do some pull ups instead. Those were only mildly painful. I decided to cut bait, do some crunches and leave. Surely this pain in the neck would leave overnight? Wrong!

My neck hurts big time. It is worst in the night and morning. Better as the day wears on. I actually did this before while weight lifting about six months ago and it took a few months to heal completely. In the meantime, I just had to be careful with any incline or overhead press exercises in the gym. Looks like I’ll be sticking to yoga for the next week!

Lesson learned: never slack on technique or skip a warm up, no matter how good you feel or how light the weight. Turns out my overly flexible and “relaxed” body is probably what got me into trouble. The more flexible your ligaments and tendons, the more attention you need to pay to your lifting technique.