Take 2

Welcome to afitnewyou!  This week I would like to encourage you to continue with your training even if you have a set back due to an injury.  Everyone, average Joe’s, weekend warriors, and professional athletes alike all suffer from an injury at some point along their fitness life.  And while you should treat the injury appropriately and get some rest, it shouldn’t be the time and/or excuse to stop your training completely.  Its kind of like that old joke where a patient walks into a doctor’s office and says “Doc, it hurts when I do this.” And the doctor replies “So don’t do that.”  While that is a classic joke meant to be funny, it should also be a reminder to keep exercising, so you can stay on track to reach your fitness goals.  But, the key is, as the doctor says…just don’t do what causes you pain.  Instead, focus on another area or fitness component to keep you moving.

Alicia’s main fitness goal is to lose body fat, and gain overall strength and conditioning.  When she was younger she was a competitive gymnast.  The wear and tear from her former competitive career contributed to her to having a minor tear in her rotator cuff while participating in her current recreational tennis play.  Although the injury wasn’t physically debilitating, she became emotionally debilitated because the pain she felt from the injury caused her to think that she couldn’t exercise anymore.  The physical pain caused her mental anguish as she was unhappy with her body composition, the way she felt she “looked,” and the thought she could no longer be physically active.  Being that the tear was relatively minor I suggested that she could continue to train.  I suggested that she focus on exercises that would improve her “cardio” and lower and mid sections so that she could remain physically active.  I also suggested that she did upper body and shoulder exercises to improve the strength and function of her shoulder that would aid in her recovery.  Her injury was not a reason for her to stop exercising completely.  I explained that if any one exercise or movement caused her pain in her injured shoulder to simply not do that exercise; but she could still perform exercises that did not illicit any pain.  These ideas reinvigorated her to work out again.  It helped her work on her body composition. And to this day, she was able to heal her shoulder without needing any surgery.  She is even very happy to be playing tennis again.

When and injury does occur, it is considered trauma, and it should be treated appropriately.  The severity of the injury, will determine the treatment.  But most of us know that after suffering from an injury so severe that surgery is required, physical therapy will be prescribed.  And the therapy will include a series of exercises designed to target the specific muscles that were injured.  But most injuries are not so severe, and may only cause us minor pain for a relatively short period of time.  These injuries should not be used as excuses to stop working out completely.  You should continue to exercise, but choose exercises that do not cause pain, and/or do exercises that target other areas of the body.  Fitness isn’t one dimensional, so you can always focus on another area.

I am strong believer in the idea of safety first.  And when someone has an injury it should be treated properly.  Then with consideration of the injury the appropriate exercises should be chosen to both help heal the injury and make the area stronger to avoid a repeat of that injury.  It is a rare time when someone shouldn’t move at all and avoid exercise completely.  Think about it, even laying in a hospital bed will lead to sores if you don’t move.  So get up and lick your wounds if you are injured.  There are plenty of other ways to keep moving to a fit new you!