how to deal with your injuries
It can happen to the best of us. INJURIES, this word who scares each athlete, being an amateur or a professional, pushing your limits each time tends to have a result that can benefit or harm you. Our reaction toward an injury is always unreasonable, thinking of taking some rest after feeling a bit of a pain will cost you your gains, but it’s totally wrong, letting your ego is the first thing to consider towards healing an injury. Here are some strategies on how to deal with them.
Before getting started, I wanted to mention a very important point that is being neglected:
WARMING UP PROPERLY
“Prevention is worth a pound of cure”
How many times did you see people getting the to the gym and starting lifting weight right away (if not you are one of them), seems stupid and easy but a risky habit to take.
If you quickly flex or place tension on a cold muscle, you increase your risk of injury to that muscle. I suggest to do a quick circuit of 5-10mn with non-stop movements like: Jumping jacks, Push-ups, Squats, Lateral dumbbell raise … Etc. So, you can get the blood flowing and start feeling ready to start your training.
With that being mentioned, the causes of injury vary from the lack of warm-up or warming up bad, not using proper form when doing the exercise, having a bad eating habit or not getting the right nutrients into your body. Let’s move to recovering faster and getting back to do what you love!
1- accept and be conscious about the injury
First thing after feeling a pain in the gym is panic then try to pretend the injury didn’t happen, and keep pushing it, but the right thing to do is taking a step back viewing the long-term goals before adding the phrase “I used to lift” to your vocabulary list and it’s not worth. It’s okay, you will lose a bit of strength and muscle, be conscious about it and focus on the quality recovery.
2- Nutrition
This is the most crucial point, it’s the most important factor in injury recovery. Our body need food to recover and repair, healing from an injury can take weeks or even months … Our lifestyle and eating habits may help accelerate this process.
Certain foods can promote inflammation within the body, while others have an anti-inflammatory effect.
Avoid inflammation-promoting foods such as fried foods, processed white flour, eggplant, cayenne, tomatoes, potatoes, and hot peppers, and eat more foods that are high in omega-3 fatty acids.
3- train around the pain
First, is to eliminate the movements that causes pain to the injured area, second thing is to try to see if there is some alternative exercises for the same muscle group. You have a weak muscle that you were wishing to have time to work it more? So, DO IT.
4- use ice
Ice helps reduce swelling and provides temporary short-term pain relief by reducing blood flow to the injured area. I recommend using ice post-workout for 15 minutes at a time for up to an hour. 15 minutes on, then 15 minutes off.
5- drop the training volume after getting back
Means to not jump straight away to the reps or weight that you used to do before the injury. Try to start slowly for the 2 weeks after getting back, by doing light weight and high reps to give the muscle time to adapt again. By performing frequent, low-intensity exercises and higher reps, you can activate the injured area and accelerate the healing process by getting the muscles moving.
BONUS TIP : REHAB AND PREVENTION
First, if you have a serious injury follow the recommendation of your doctor before getting back again, thinking about resting and wishing that the injury will fade away will sometimes puts you in more critical situation in a long-term view, it is better to rest for 2-3 days instead of 3-6 months.
The percentage of re-injury is high when recovering and getting back to train again, you have to be vigilant and start slowly, because the degeneration of your muscle tissue due the time out of the gym can put you at a high risk of a re-injury.
It is better to focus on mobility and range of motion around the injured area, Proper rehabilitation can also help preserve muscle strength and size.
Here it is. Make sure to follow the tips, be diligent, adjust your mindset, focus on the important things and get back to it again or better prevent it forever.
Did you get into some serious injuries? how did you treat it ? are you still suffering from it? Leave your feedback in the comment section.
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