Injuries Happen, But training should not stop.
I hate to say it, but you will get injured
Our modern lifestyle promotes inefficiency. Sitting, screen times, poor sleep, high stress, and more contribute to our body moving with less ease. If you are active and enjoy pushing yourself, an injury is likely but rarely is it serious. The injury is more of a warning sign that your system is taxed and needs a reboot.
Keeping Moving
The worst thing we can do is stop training. Injuries require circulation, oxygen, and movement. If we stop moving our brain will learn to disconnect from the body segment. The lack of movement will lead to slower healing and a longer recovery time. The key is to move, move often, and move with intent.
Assist or Hinder?
The art of recovery is determining which movements assist with recovery vs hinder it. A simple rule of thumb is to train around the injury. Let’s say you injure your hamstring. Do single leg training on the opposite leg. Do floor or sitting based upper body and core training. Low impact, low intensity, high volume cardio training can be a great tool to utilize as well.
For instance, you can do single leg RDL, single leg squats, planks, reverse crunches, floor press, seated overhead press, and more. Then you can do some isolated hamstring length and strength drills depending on the acuity of your injury.
Hamstrings for example:
Here is a video demoing hamstring work. This is an example of working the hamstring after the injury.
Pain and injury location
To finish, injuries are rarely due to a local injury where pain is located. For instance, with hamstring injuries, the problem usually lies in low back and pelvic health. If you injure your hamstring, this is a prime opportunity to train the cause of the pain. Work on low back strength, pelvic mobility, and glute strength. If you are lost with an injury, reach out to a local PT and seek help.
If someone tells you to completely rest, that is never the answer.
Find someone with knowledge of your sport and injury to help set a clear pathway to get back to 100%.
Staying fit, healthy, and pain-free is a lifelong mission. Eating well, strength training, and getting the right amount of sleep are the pillars to high performance. Stay in charge of your health. Injuries happen, but training should not stop!
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