I have been injured too many times in my life to count, and the only thing that has ever helped me to recover quickly and keep me mentally sane was to strength train through the injury. Every time I tell people they can come in and start training as soon as they feel good enough they look at me like I am crazy. Or if someone sees their friend in the gym 2 weeks post op from ACL I always here “wow I can’t believe you are back in the gym”. My question to them is why should they not be back in the gym? I feel that there is a huge myth with injuries and training, the worst thing you can do is get knee surgery and then just sit on your couch for a month. I am not saying that you should be working the injured area right after, but usually there are a lot of exercises for example that do not involve the shoulder or the leg or injured area.
At Wright Training we like to work with your Physical Therapist in aiding you in recovery and getting you back to sport or daily life. For example I could not weight bare for 2 months,but training saved me! I kept my core, upper body and other leg strong. There is a transfer from good leg to bad leg if you keep your uninjured leg strong. The big thing is making sure you are doing the right exercises, obviously if you are unsure how to train the correct way when injured you could hurt yourself. Professional athletes train the rest of their body all the time through injury, so why are they different then recreational or sedentary people?
We all need to recover, rehab as quickly as possible and without re-injuring or injuring a different body part. When a person is injured a lot of times other injuries arise, such as back pain, hip pain or knee pain in the uninjured side. Continuing to move and train will help keep a lot of these injuries away and also make you feel better mentally and physically. At Wright Training we individualize and will continue to individualize you in a class setting and in a private session. No human body is the same and no injury is the same. When injuries arrive and they will , don’t let yourself fall victim to waiting it out and total rest. Your body will thank you at the end of that road to recovery.
Be well, be strong,
Crystal Wright
According to painscience.com “Muscle substantially defines fitness, and therefore considerable fitness can be achieved with strength training alone — and without the drudgery of relentless cardio workouts, and without their injury and re-injury risks. Such workouts — especially running, cycling, and swimming — are brutal on joints and tendons by nature. The risk of repetitive strain injuries are baked right into them! Strength training can keep you in shape, while also giving severely fatigued anatomy a badly needed rest — rest which is the single most important factor in rehabilitation from many of the world’s most common injuries.”
