[Mahler]

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. This morning I was replacing a 50-pound hex dumbbell on the rack and it fell, slamming my fingers between it and the sharp edge of the rack. It hurt like hell, but I pulled my hand away thinking to shake it off and move on to the next set. I went to pick up the dumbbell and my hand was covered in blood. I had sliced through the fleshy part of my index finger and later discovered that I had severely smashed my middle finger as it began to swell and turn black and blue.

I went upstairs and rinsed for several minutes under cold water. The cut was fairly deep and my wife questioned whether or not it might need stitches. I kept it under cold water a little longer until the blood flow lessened, applied Neosporin and pulled it together with some butterfly bandages. It hurt, but didn’t soak through the bandages.

The funny thing was that all the while this was happening, I kept worrying about whether or not I would be able to finish my workout and how this would affect deadlift day on Friday. Go figure. So, I went back downstairs and finished my workout. Dumbbell rows, dips, pull-ups and dragon flags, using only three fingers of the right hand as best I could. The pull-ups were pathetic.

I am concerned how this will affect my grip, since I cannot close my index finger at the moment and I have a deadlift routine of 10 x 3 x 320 scheduled for Friday.

But, I think how trivial this is compared to some of the real injuries many of you have sustained and yet managed to bounce back strong. You are my inspiration.
Whatever happens Friday, I can move on.