Training and Injury Recovery

Posted by
November 6th, 2008

By far the most difficult aspect of weight training is injuries. In every day life we have the chance of being injured. Regardless whether it happens in the gym or not it will impact our weight training always. You do have control over how you let it affect your training.

Of course there is always the chance your injury will be severe that you have no choice but to stay home. For the most part though all injuries aren’t some thing you should let impact your in gym performance.

The pitfalls of taking time off for Injuries

One thing I have noticed over the past 11 years about the average person, is when they receive an injury they try to avoid the gym. This is by far the worst thing you can do. By doing this you are setting your weight training back by several weeks, unless of course you are only taking a few extra days off. Some times when you have been training hard a few extra days off helps you grow.

Think about it like going on vacation. When has taking several weeks off from work ever been a smart thing to do? You might enjoy your time off, but when you get back to work chances are you’re going to be extremely stressed out by all the work your co-workers failed to complete for you. Well if you take a few weeks off from the gym your strength is going to be temporarily zapped.

So we made it to the gym! Now how to train the injury?

Well it is quite simple; all that you need to do is remove any exercises that aggravate the injury. Some times this is easier said then done. But for the most part when you injure a muscle you can find a movement or position that doesn’t hurt.

Of course broken bones, sprains, and tendon rips generally make this a little hard to accomplish. So you may need to stop working out a portion of your body. That how ever shouldn’t prevent you from working out other parts.

Whatever you do, don’t be a dummy and go in with the idea you can work through the pain. Pain management is an important thing, and if you are walking out of the gym feeling horrible you are doing more bad then good. Some times it is hard to train with out slight discomfort, but there is a world of difference between slight discomfort and irritating your injury.

Some of my own personal injuries and how I dealt with them

6 months ago I had recovered from a broken toe in my right foot, which hurt and caused my foot to swell really badly. I failed to go see a Doctor for 6 weeks, but when it wasn’t healing fast enough for me my doctor diagnosed me. However I re-broke it some where between my X-ray and the Doctors phone call so I had another 6-8 weeks recovery to do.

Now I have always preferred squats and deadlifts, but now with my foot needing rest I switched over to machines to keep the blood flowing and strength in my legs. I did still work my upper body as hard as possible. After the final phase of healing was complete, when I returned to my normal routine I was amazed that I had not lost an ounce of strength.

Another example is my Triceps. They are prone to tendon flares up now and I have honestly found training my Triceps directly works for a few weeks, but they flare up so badly they hurt to the touch. Now I know what you are thinking, how do I work out my Triceps if they will just hurt more? It’s pretty simple since all pressing motions I use still force my Triceps to work.

You just need to experiment with angles and other exercises. I find doing reverse grip bench presses still give my Triceps a solid training better then close grip bench presses. By the time I am done my chest and shoulder work out my Triceps are equally as tired. I honestly haven’t done nor even needed to do a direct exercise to my Triceps, though I am sure if I needed to I could find a machine or two I could train on.

Just play it smart with your injury

In the end you need to decide, is this injury I have some thing I need to avoid the gym for. Feeling like you shouldn’t work out isn’t the same as knowing you shouldn’t work out. We can all find enough reasons why we can’t make it to the gym, don’t let an injury be one as well unless you have to.

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