Folks,
Have you ever been hurt or had an injury? I have. And I will tell you, IT SUCKS. Your life revolves around every waking second of your injuries. You ask yourself “ Am I going to be in pain today? Where is the pain that I am use to feeling? Oh… Wait… there it is…” Or my personal favorite, “Hey, I don’t feel that bad in my hip today, now if I could just figure out this shoulder thing.”
I have been injured before and still have injury. My injuries are my own doing, just like yours are. We can’t get around that fact. What we can do is get up each day, train, and focus on trying to get better each day.
I read something recently. It said to measure progress by pain or absence of pain is an indicator but not the only indicator of getting better. While pain is unfortunate and causes a lot of anxiety. There are other things that you can do to measure health and progress of your health. The biggest one for me is, how well can you move.
If you can move well, and tend to have slight or no pain during movement I think your body is getting better. In fact, I know it is, because you have improved your ability to function and told your brain, “ I got this”.
That is a huge part of the rehab process. Getting back old strength and motion where it was once lost. Just continue to do this each and everyday and check in with yourself. Asking, do I still experience pain? Am I better able to get into this position? How am I feeling after my workouts?
Now that that is said. Let’s talk about what training should look like.
DISCLAIMER TIME.
I am not a doctor and don’t plan on heading to medical school and would always heed the words of your doctor.
Now with that said, I think people should always train and exercise, regardless. There is always a health marker that can be improved even with your ailment. A good coach well versed in strength and conditioning should have a good sense of how to keep you safe and out of injury. Things like range of motion in a squat or chest/shoulder press can and should be modified, because let’s be honest, life unfortunately does not stop completely because of that injury. Unless it’s truly debilitating.
You need to keep what strength you can and what range of motion you can. If the pain becomes substantial, avoid that motion and lightly play with others, so you can keep the area moving and it doesn’t freeze up.
My last and final point is, get some rest when you are not working or training. Right now you can’t change what’s going on or what has happened and all that worrying is only preventing you from getting better. Sleep!!! Please, Sleep!!!! It is where everything will help you the person get better, so that you can kick some serious butt in the near future. If you are having trouble sleeping because of anxiety, write those things down. On paper, it will help ease your mind and get the angst out. If it’s a physical, positional problem related to pain, become an explorer. Play with pillow positions, shoulder, leg and overall body positions. Don’t lose your mind by what Dr. Oz says about how many pillows you need, you are not him and you need sleep.
SO GET IT! As naturally as your can.
If you are in pain but still have health and fitness goals, feel free to email us at Info@coreprinciples-sc.com or hit us up on Facebook at Core Principles strength and conditioning.
Best,
Coach Jim
