Injuries suck

Injuries suck, they take you away from what you want to be doing and if you come back too soon they only get worse. One of the hardest things for me to do when I start feeling a tweak of pain is to stop. I keep wanting to push pass it thinking it will go away if I ignore it. I usually tell myself in my best “DeBo talking to Smokey” voice from the movie Friday, “Stop being a b!tch and come on!“. So I keep going, and that’s about the point where I get hurt.

Listen to your Body.

“Pain is weakness leaving your body”, is how the saying goes. But let me tell you that pain and swelling is also your body’s way of letting you know something is wrong.

If your knee is swollen, or your back hurts when you bend past a certain point, that’s because IF your body didn’t shoot some pain at you to stop you, you could keep going and possibly do some greater damage. Maybe even long term damage. The kind that hurts and puts you out 6-8 weeks and kisses your season good bye. The kind that gives you the ability to tell when it’s going to rain or snow by the swelling in your joints.

Unless you have millions on the line or some other make or break moment that could have a significant impact on the rest of your life, it’s time to listen to your body and let it recover. Give it some RICE, and attack the weights when you get better.

You are not a quitter, you are not weak, you are just injured

Coaches need to step up

If you are an athlete, it’s hard to rest your injury because you have the competitive pressure of not wanting to let someone take your spot. You want to show your coaches that you “really want it” and that you are committed to the team. So that means that as a coach, it’s up to you to keep an eye out for your team’s safety and not let them hurt themselves to try and impress you. Us coaches are often guilty of trying to over exude that tough guy mentality and think we are making our athletes tougher by making them play hurt. We yell things like “walk it off” and “just push through it”, and sometimes act like we’re in the scene from “The Program” where we ask the athlete if they are injured or hurt.

one of my favorite football movies, “The Program”

Coaches need to step up and do the right thing. Asking an athlete if they can go on when you know they are hurt is simply irresponsible. Most athletes will say yes and try to go on. I’m proud of the team of coaches I work with and the support we get from the head coach. We don’t baby our guys, but we also don’t let them make a small injury worse.

Just the other day…

As an example, I was recently working with someone who was having trouble with deadlifts. I was working with them to correct their form and we seemed to make a break through. They moved on to a different station and I started making the rounds. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this same person drop the weights and grab at their back while performing a squat. It looks like the bad form had caught up and they tweaked their back. I stopped him from continuing and this young man looked me dead in the eye with his face twitching in pain and said “I’m ok, I want to keep going. I’m not a quitter.”

What would you do? If you’re coaching this young man, what would say to him? What do you think would happen to his back if like in the same scene from “The Program” we accept his self diagnosis and allow him to continue?

I can assure you this gentleman did not touch any more weights for the rest of the day. We instead stretched out and I gave him some tips on how to care for his ailment. I followed up with him for the next couple of days and he has since made a quick recovery.

I’m hurt already, now what?

Ok, so maybe you are already hurt. Or maybe you’re not an athlete, you just decided to put on another 45 lbs plate to see if the girl across the gym would notice when all of a sudden, as the Hodge Twins would say, You Snapped some stuff up! So what you do now?

Listen to your body and get some rest! We both know that you’re going to want to get back as soon as you can, so when you do, train AROUND your injury. What dos that mean? Well if you hurt your back… then don’t do ANYTHING that requires effort from your back. If you hurt your shoulder… then don’t do ANYTHING that requires your shoulders.

That’s common sense, but it’s also pretty freaking limiting. This means you may have to only use machines, bands, or just stick to cardio while you are injured or hurt. Of course, I am assuming that you already iced your boo-boo for the first couple of days and are now using some form of heat therapy along with a good warm up and post workout stretches to help with your recovery.

Once you feel like you are ready to go, don’t go right in and pick up where you left off. Remember that where you left off is where you got hurt last time. Take the intensity or weight down 50% or more and start there. If you feel like it’s light, then just do more reps. Don’t push yourself back so quick that you re-injure yourself again. Keep listening to your body and if you start feeling like you are aggravating the injury then just stop. Remember, warm up and cool downs will help get you back quicker but can also help prevent the injuries to begin with. So keep doing them even after you feel great.

Say it with me, I’m not a quitter

So just in case it wasn’t clear, if you are hurt and you are not giving up on the chance of a lifetime, then don’t turn your hurt into an injury. You are not a quitter, you are not weak, you are just injured. How you handle your injury will determine if you come back stronger.