Overcoming an Injury

Every athletes nightmare is to be injured and unable to train or participate in their sport of choice. More likely than not you will face an injury that forces you to stop or modify the way you exercise. This is the reality of sport as you are continually subjecting your body to stress inorder to make it stronger. Too much stress or improper technique over a prolonged period of time will result in an injury. An injury will disrupt your routine, eliminate a source of stress relief and present a significant mental challenge. I have had my share of injuries throughout the past few years. Here are a couple tips to help you overcome an injury.

Make sure you're fully healed

This may seem like an obvious point however many athletes will sense an injury starting to improve and decide to go back out training immediately before the injury has fully healed. More often than not this will either worsen the injury or delay full recovery. Depending on the severity and nature of the injury it is generally best to wait until you are fully recovered and pain free before resuming your activity. It is far better to take 2 weeks off and be fully healed than 1 week off and 4+ weeks of inconsistent training due to a nagging injury that never had the chance to fully recover!

Start easy and build up slowly

When restarting an activity you want to take a gradual approach when coming back from an injury. The more severe the injury the more gradual the approach should be. If you feel pain, stop and take more time off. It is not a time to push through the pain as this will result in making the injury worse. This will test your patience. Expect to lose fitness, this is okay. The new fitness baseline is where you currently are at post injury. This involves a complete mindset shift, you need to let go of past performances and focus on the present. The more you think about where you were pre-injury the harder it will be. Focus on where you're at and what you can do to get where you want to be. Start easy, build your volume slowly to avoid re-injury and know that it is only a matter of time before you're back stronger than ever.

Find alternate activities

One of the most challenging aspects of injury is losing the source of stress relief that is provided from exercise. An injury itself is a stressful situation and losing an outlet for stress only magnifies the issue. It is important while injured to find other activities of both physical and non physical nature that help relieve stress. Non physical activities can range from: reading, meditating, board games, puzzles, creating art and listening to music. These are only a few examples of ways to relieve stress in a non physical manner. If you're like me you'll likely want to still include some form of exercise while injured. I search for alternative exercises that don't stress my injured body part. If you have an upper body injury look for lower body activities that you can do. The important part is to find a source of stress relief to replace what you were previously doing. This will have an immense impact on your mental health through out an injury.

Focus on the controllables

Your injury has happened, it's in the past and can not be changed. The sooner that you accept this fact the sooner you can move forward and focus on what needs to be done for recovery. Focus on the aspects that are within your control. Things that you can control that will help you recover are: diet, sleep, avoiding any activity that aggravates your injury and performing any exercises prescribed by a medical professional. These are aspects that you have control of and that can help accelerate the rate at which the body repairs itself. Double down on these factors and you will more quickly overcome your injury.

Overcoming an injury is no small task especially if it is a major injury. As athletes we continually want to do more and an injury forces us to do the exact opposite. The most important aspect when faced with an injury is your mindset towards the injury. The body is controlled and feeds off your mind. Having a positive mindset will go a long way to help overcome an injury. It may feel like it takes forever to be fully health but once you are there fully appreciate where you're at. Be grateful for your health and how you managed your injury. Every injury is not a setback but an opportunity. An opportunity to practice patience and an opportunity to learn more about your body. You will be challenged but you will also come out a stronger and more resilient human.