Getting ‘hurt’ or ‘injured’ is a part of life.
Expecting to find an program, gym or exercise routine where you never get injured is a fantasy.
Even sitting gives you health problems.
Accepting injury as a part of life increases your resilience.
If you are resilient.
Injuries become a detour not a roadblock.
You will always make progress. Literally nothing will stop you. Seriously.
You should know…
There are two types of injuries.
Chronic and Acute.
In gyms across the world chronic injuries are more common than acute injuries.
Chronic pain comes from poor movement patterns, muscle dysfunction and lack of proper recovery.
Acute injury can strike unexpectedly.
Tripping on a box breaking your wrist, rolling your ankle on a run or dropping a weight on your foot.
Both need to be taken seriously.
Both have different treatment approaches.
But this is not why you are reading this.
You are not here to be told to roll out your muscles, stretch your joints and see your chiropractor (you should already be doing this).
You are here reading to find what to do for your training when...
You’re injured.
A small tweak, sharp pain or swollen joint.
Let’s walk through what you and every person goes through.
You need to identify these stages to overcome them.
The 5 stages of injury...
1. Denial.
The pain is immense. A knife in your shoulder when you raising your arm.
You just keep telling yourself...
“Once I get warm it will go away”.
Even though you know later tonight the agony in your left shoulder will keep you awake.
A week has gone by...
No improvement.
You make the intelligent decision 3 more serves of ibuprofen should fix it.
It doesn’t.
2. Anger.
Perhaps the darkest point of any injury.
At this stage the pain is setting in nicely.
After weeks of trying nothing it’s time to take action.
It’s time to blame someone or something.
Let’s start.
Your gym.
Your training partners.
Your job.
Your program.
Your genetics.
And many more…
Let’s move to the next stage
3. Bargaining.
Now that you have become the grinch…
Unhelpful fantasising often takes up a large amount of time in your day.
You are constantly thinking of…
How strong you would be.
How fit you would be.
How much better your life would be.
If you weren’t injured.
It is an emotional rollercoaster lasting months or sometimes years.
I know because I went through it for 29 months.
An up and down journey involving thousands of hours and dollars on rehab programs, intense treatment and specialist appointments.
This knowledge is what I now share with all my clients.
4. Depression.
You have tried everything with nothing working longer than a few days.
Not only has this injury ruined your training but now it’s affecting your life.
You have lost your inspiration, motivation and confidence.
Coffee tastes dull, movies seem boring and you really are not looking forward to work tomorrow.
Quitting seems like the best option.
Give up the gym, stop exercise and avoid anything remotely physical.
5. Acceptance.
You accept it is easier to do nothing.
To plod through each day. To be unhappy and hold down the title of ‘Cripple’.
If you’re being honest with yourself…
Exercise really wasn’t for you anyway. Yeah sure it was great at the start but let’s be real you’re not cut out.
It’s best to just go back to how things were.
I think you should take up walking full time.
Ok.
Snap out of it.
Had enough and ready to avoid the injury cycle?
Follow these steps:
Speak to your coach.
Your coach wants to see you in the gym training.
Every member at Creature is accountable to a personal coach with access to an infinite library of rehab programs.
There is simply no excuse.
2. Don’t break your routine.
Now you have your modified program don’t fall out of habit.
Yes you’re doing something a little different but that is no reason not show up and work hard.
3. Set new goals.
If you hurt your back deadlifting it’s time to set a new strict pull up goal. If you hurt your knee squatting it’s time for a deadlift goal.
Whatever the injury set a new target to keep striving towards.
A final word from me…
A chronic double knee injury set me back 29 months of training.
Multiple injections, scans and treatment sessions had little effect.
But I never gave up.
I used the process above and now I am pain free and better than ever.
I see my clients, family and friends across the world go through it every day. I also know those using the above process are happier than ever and still thoroughly enjoy training.
Don’t keep injuries to yourself.
You’re not a hero.
If you are in any of the stages of grieving above start with step 1 and start kicking some goals.