What do we do when we get hurt.

Yes we’re fitness professionals, but we’re also human and we get hurt too! We have a mixed approach to injuries and just like workouts - it’s not a one-size-fits-all remedy. You have to do a lot of things. We hear "if it hurts, don't use it" all the time and honestly, we think that's terrible advice. Suppose you have a broken bone -- yes, great advice. But that's rarely what's happening. It's not one thing -- it's all of it working together.

More often, someone says "my knee hurts" or "my hip is bothering me," and with a little soft tissue work, some mobility, and targeted strengthening to remind those muscles to join the party, we usually feel a whole lot better.

Assess the situation

What did I do? Did any particular movement or activity cause this injury? Sometimes it’s pretty straightforward - yep it was totally that time when I picked up my child wrong and threw out my back! Or, we have to do a little digging - it was two days ago when I just ran without warming up. The injury doesn’t always happen immediately. Sometimes it takes a few hours to show its lovely face or even a day with ongoing soreness or tightness that keeps getting worse. 

We pay attention 

We never ignore an injury. Okay, maybe when we were younger, but we’re wiser now with responsibilities, so we can’t ignore them! Internally, we ask ourselves a few questions. Where does it hurt? For how long? How did I do it (sometimes we don’t know!), What is the injury (again, sometimes we don’t know)? Either way, it’s not normal, and we pay attention to it. We do not ignore the injury, because in the long run it will only get worse and keep showing up.

Let pain be your guide.  If you have an injury that hurts, find modifications, ranges of motion or alternatives that do NOT hurt.  If it hurts, don’t do it.  If you’re able to do something pain-free, then go for it.

We go to the professionals when needed.

Obviously, if we get seriously hurt, we go to the doctor - sometimes begrudgingly but we do it. If an x-ray is needed etc we do it. We advocate for ourselves and ensure we’re on the same page, but we also get any imaging that we may need in order to rule out anything serious. We take medicine ONLY if we need it. We don’t mask the pain; we don’t rely on pain meds to make the pain go away. We stretch, do targeted strength moves, we roll, we rest when necessary. 

We heal

Sometimes our injuries require us to take a backseat and rest. More often though, we just lighten things up; it all just depends on the injury. Movement is our medicine, so we focus on what we need to do to heal the area that is injured. Gentle movement, gentle massage, compression wraps, and heat often can promote and speed healing through increased blood flow.  We rest when we need to, we foam roll, we get a massage, go to the chiropractor, we eat more protein - we bring in our army of tools to get us back on our feet. At the very least, ensure that you do this when injured.

We switch up our workouts 

When we’re injured, sometimes that means we have to put some of our favorite exercises on the back burner to ensure our safety. We focus on what we CAN do instead of what we can’t so we don’t let our injury get to our head. YES it’s frustrating - UGH NOT MY BACK AGAIN!!! But we don’t let it get us down. 

Try something else – don’t quit your routine cold turkey.  If you’re a runner and you have an injury, use this as a chance to try something new.  Up your strength training.  Get in the pool and aqua jog or run in the pool in the shallow end with your feet touching the ground.  Get on a bike, go for a hike, or try doing your current training plan but on an elliptical or ARC Trainer.  Do your same intervals or tempo runs, just on the machine instead of the roads or track.  Whatever you do, don't give up.

Real life examples

Melissa

As a dancer my vice was my back. I was lucky to not have injuries to my ankles and hips but my lower back - ouch. That’s actually how I found Pilates!! Now that I’m older (and wiser) I do a lot of exercises to support my back, but even those don’t always protect me with my lifestyle. I’ve got two little kids, and my littlest loves to be picked up constantly. So holding his little 20lb body all day can take a toll on me. I’ve thrown out my back a few times to the point where I was totally bent in half. Yep, that was humbling. So what did I do? I obviously knew what was causing it (thanks, little guy!)… so I realized I probably wasn’t using my abs all the time to support my back when I held him. So I focused on keeping my core engaged every time I picked him up, and when I couldn’t hold it anymore, I put him down and took a break instead of pushing through. I rolled, took Epsom salt baths, stretched at night after putting him down, and did more supportive exercises for my back and core. You can do all the things and still get hurt; trust me I know and am living proof! BUT, exercise is my insurance policy, so I keep doing it! I feel when my back is about to spaz, and I take action instead of pushing through the pain hoping it’ll go away - it won’t. Even when I’m not in pain, I still do the stretches, exercises, etc to support myself so if and when I do get hurt I can get back on my feet sooner. 

Bryan – knock all the wood in the world.  I’m feeling pretty good right now with my running while trying a few new things.  I’m only running on soft surfaces – grass, trails, hard sand, track and also some interspersing of treadmill work. I’m also being super, super consistent and diligent with my mobility work.  Focused and often multiple times per day.

Laura - Knocking on wood here, too! For the most part, I feel pretty good. The aches and pains I do encounter are general ones that I can almost always pinpoint to something specific -- an exercise I overdid, or a movement I've been skipping lately.

When something feels tight, stiff, or cranky, my instinct is to lean into it, not away from it. Instead of resting the spot, I roll, stretch, and move all the places above, below, and around whatever is bothering me. That usually loosens things up pretty quickly.