Working Around Injuries 

Working Around Injuries

*Disclaimer: this is not intended to replace advice given by your medical professionals, please consult with your (Doctor, physiotherapist, athletic therapist, chiropractor, etc) for any major medical concerns. 

Injuries happen! And not always in the places you most expect. Yes people do get hurt at the gym. Although we do our best to coach you correctly, emphasize proper movement patterns, and scale ‘modify’ exercises, there will come a time in every athlete's life where they are dealing with some form of physical injury. Those injuries can also happen outside the gym as well. Things like sleeping funny on your shoulder, spraining your ankle in pick-up soccer, and a host of other mechanisms can lead to injury. 

Today we are going to focus on how you can stay positive, continue to work around injuries, and maintain a strong mindset when managing your rehab. 

How to Think About Your Injury

• Focus on what you can control. [Remember Circle of Concern vs. Circle of Control] While you can’t control the fact that you’re already hurt, nor can you make your injury just go away. You can control your actions moving forward which should drastically improve your recovery time, and the degree to which your injury does in fact recover. 

• Find the lesson: An injury can be an excellent opportunity to learn about yourself. More times than not injuries arise from improper mechanics, cutting corners, or just not noticing subtle faults in your movements. So dissect your movement, and see if you can find any weaknesses to correct moving forward. 

• Pick & Practice: So maybe you sprained your ankle, and you won't be allowed to squat for some time. Sure that’s unfortunate, but perhaps its also an opportunity. Now you can spend more time working on that pull-up you’ve wanted to do! So speak with a coach and find out how you can work to improve that skill, while you work through your injury. 

• Built Not Bought: You can’t just buy your way out of an injury with pills, fancy bands, or exotic treatments. You’ll need to learn to rehab that injury one step at a time. If it's a shoulder injury, you’ll likely have to regain your range of motion, before you work on recapturing your strength. Recognize that everything happens in steps. Don’t skip those steps. 

• Modify: When it comes to classes you’ll likely have to substitute for some time. That's fine! That’s what our coaches specialize in! So next time you’re injured and you see Squats on the WOD, just show up a few minutes early for class, inform the coach and we will make sure to find you substitutions for your injury. 

• If you’re really looking to accelerate your recovery you can speak with one of our coaches about personal training sessions. 

• Look How Far You’ve Come: When working through an injury there will often be a rollercoaster of emotions. So it can be helpful to reflect on how far you’ve come from day 1 of the injury, rather than looking at how far you still have to go. Appreciate the little victories and keep on following the steps, and you’ll be back at it before you know it! 

Working Out While Injured

The #1 consideration is your health/safety in classes. So if you ever feel uncertain or concerned about an exercise and its potential risk, please inform the coaches and we will look to provide you with a substitution. That’s fine! Don’t feel bad for asking, or feel like you’re bothering us! It’s our job! 

All workouts as you well know are ‘scalable’, and this applies to injuries as well. Often times you can still get a fantastic workout with a very similar stimulus to the rest of the class with small modifications:

A list of scaling ideas:

• Decrease the load (focus on form)

• Change the volume (reps & rounds)

• Modified tools (use DBs instead of barbells, wall ball in place of KB, etc…)

• Decrease the ROM (move through a pain free range of motion)

• Unilateral Training (Single Leg/Arm exercises)

• Decrease impulse (impact) [Rowing instead of running, Step Ups instead of Box Jumps]

• Reduce Speed ( Strict instead of kipping )

When hurt, if you’re comfortable with it we highly recommend that you educate yourself on the BTB Scaling options. Come to class with a daily plan for the workout, run the plan by your coach. This will help to develop you as an athlete, rather than just relying on your coach! 

Recovery Strategies

Speeding up your recovery from injury is very much in your control. By eating well, sleeping, and taking part in mobility and strengthening work you can greatly improve your rehab, and oftentimes even come back a stronger athlete! So let's talk about some approaches to boosting your rehab. 

Work Around The Tissue

When injured ie. Knee it's often the case that the muscles above and below the injured site become stiff and sore. So spending time with a foam roller or lacrosse ball and massaging the tissues North and South of the injured site can help to improve the health and recovery of the affected area. 

Fixing The Flaws

Injuries may not always be directly related to the way you move, but oftentimes they are. So if you’re managing a knee injury and you recall your coach always telling you “knees out when you squat” now is a great time to really start to work on those faults. So try working through a reduced range of motion, and fixing the faults in your movement pattern. 

An Ounce Of Prevention Is Worth A Pound Of Cure

Most injuries are a result of the ‘straw that broke the camel's back’ rather than an acute accident that just happened to us. So as you’re on your road to recovery start to investigate probable causes of your injury and make sure you nip them in the butt moving forward. A great rule of thumb is to master movement quality first, before you add speed, or load. 

We hope this article helps you work around your injuries, stay active, and if you need more assistance please don’t hesitate to speak to one of our coaches.