Day 23 - No Pain, No Gain

The closer it gets to Christmas here in Iraq, the faster most operations draw down, giving troops time to make calls back home or send emails to loved ones. After trying to connect to the base operator for several hours, I gave up on trying to call my mother and decided to head to the gym. It was a cold night, the perfect type of weather for lifting weights. Hopefully, the gym would not be crowded and I would be able to get in a solid workout. After taking my daily supplements, a Marine buddy and I headed off to the gym for two solid hours of lifting.

Each day, we rotate the muscle groups we want to target. This day, it would be chest – all chest. Going from machine to machine, free weights to free weights, there was little time in between for resting or conversing. Completing 3 sets of 15 repetitions each, we flew threw stations, adding additional weight to each set. Every machine we worked, I grew a little more sore, a little more fit. My body was beginning to tire as we approached the 2 hour mark of working out.

Our final exercise of the evening would be a wide bench press, immediately followed by a dumbbell press. With 45-pound plates on each end of the bar, a 110-pound dumbbell waiting at my side, I laid down and prepared for my final workout of the evening. As I pressed out the first few repetitions, I felt my right shoulder begin to give way. Moments later, there was a loud popping noise and an intense burning sensation. My Marine buddy, who was spotting me at the time, caught the bar as my arm gave way. Racking the bar, I stood up to examine the extent of the damage.

Hanging slightly lower than usual, my arm had dislocated out of socket. Walking to a doorway I quickly and painfully shoved it back into socket. As several people looked on, they noticed that I was doing something very odd to be in so much pain – I was laughing. Laughing has always been my method of dealing with pain. Against much discouragement from others, I completed my sets of lifting before calling it quits.

During the ordeal, I felt like quitting, like giving up then and there. I began to think about my fellow servicemen and women who were outside the wire. They may be under heavy fire, wounded and surrounded, but still find the will to continue on. There have been several instances where, against all odds, they have been able to conquer any challenge set before them. My dislocated shoulder was but a single tear drop in a sea of mourning. There will surely be times in my life where I’ll want to give up because of pain or an injury or overwhelming odds. The one thing I will not do, for as long as I wear this uniform, is ACTUALLY give up.

Walking back to my room for the night, I did something I had not done in a while: I prayed. Not for my arm to get better, but for those out in the field. I prayed that they would not give up the good fight, that they would not be overcome with feelings of defeat, and that they would make it back to camp safely. Though they may be tired, hungry, or injured, they have not given up in the past and I don’t anticipate they will give up anytime soon. Fighting this war has brought several heartaches and pains, but the outcome has proven to be great. As many gym buffs will tell you, “No pain, no gain”. This applies both to the weight room and life in general. Though full of aches and disappointments, the end result will prove to be great.