Exercise & Injuries

You’ve been hitting the gym consistently and seeing some positive changes and then it happens. Something happens and now you’re hurt. Maybe it’s your foot. An ankle, shoulder or low back. Whether it happened in the gym or not, doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re hurting and not happy about it.
Here is the proverbial “fork in the road”. Are you the kind of person that packs it in when obstacle presents itself? Or will you find a way to use this opportunity to keep moving forward. I’m not telling you to exercise despite your pain. “No pain, no gain” isn’t a healthy mantra.
This isn’t to say that rest may be beneficial, however, most times rest is not the best answer.
I talk to way too many people that need to start to exercise, but don’t start due to pain. Even worse, the pain is something they have been suffering from for many years!
Often if you dig into the reasons an overweight person does not exercise, some kind of injury or pain plays a big part of them avoiding exercise. Or at least it may be associated for the initial weight gain.
Most times, we recommend to use the time of injury to work on other aspects of fitness. If you’re dealing with shoulder pain, why not use the recovery time to focus on unilateral work for the opposite arm, running, or lower body strengthening? If you’re knee is giving you issues, instead of packing it in, and usually packing on pounds; consider focusing on building strength in your upper body? Or if you truly need 6-8 weeks to recover from a procedure, consider using that time to get laser focused on your nutrition.
In recent years, we have seen many more people with injuries contact us about getting started training at our facility. It’s exciting to see the drive of someone willing to put in the work despite an injury and working towards other goals.
On the other end, are people that stop training because they “can’t get the most out of training because of their injury”. Sometimes I’m able to bite my tongue, however often I’ll ask them tough questions, knowing that if I don’t, it’s likely no one else will. It may be as easy as asking the person with knee pain, what they think the person without a leg would do?
History will show that if you fall out of rhythm doing something, the odds are great that you won’t return to it.
Next time an injury or pain is an obstacle keeping you from your goals, considering seeing it as an opportunity.