Frank Zane on Preventing Injuries
It was two weeks before the 1974 Mr. Olympia competition and I was training furiously to get as “cut up” as possible. Returning home after my workout, I noticed that three bottles of drinking water were outside the door. As I picked one up, the bottom fell out, cutting my index finger severely. I rushed to the hospital, got it stitched up, and spent my final two weeks of training for the competition with my finger in a splint.
I’ve experienced my share of injuries, accidents, and illness during my training career, so I feel I know a little about their nature. One element these mishaps all have in common is that they happened to me. Since I was the one who experienced them, I must have something to do with their occurrence–not God, not the devil, but ME! The first step, therefore, in healing is to ask the question, “What part did I play in bringing this about?” My own healing process didn’t begin until I took responsibility for creating the problem.
If you practice self observation, you will eventually discover that intention precedes movement. Before you move a muscle there is the volition to do it. There is a choice, but this choice is usually not made consciously–it is made automatically and unconsciously. Either you choose consciously and intentionally or your conditioning and belief system chooses for you. And indeed, this is the case with accident, injury, and illness. Your lack of awareness chooses and you suffer unnecessarily.
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