Dealing with injuries

Injury is a part of life and unfortunately training sometimes, but dealing with it can be harder than you think. We do our best to avoid the chance of injury here at Steve McGrath health and performance by:

• screening all our clients every 3 months,
• individualised training programs for clients
• we recommend getting a physio session each month
• really focusing in on technique when it comes to training

But even with all of that something small or major can happen outside of your control can lead to an injury.

 

 

 

We have had many clients come to us recovering from injury, gaa players with it band syndrome, runners with knee injuries, parents that have hurt their back lifting the shopping to the car and plenty others.

There is more then just the physical aspect of dealing with an injury, you also need to be able to deal with the psychological aspect of being knocked back by an injury. We do our best to support all our clients through all these obstacles

 

Here are the major areas we see people struggle when injured.

Physical:

 

• Seek Help. See a qualified physio or specialist. You can’t guess what’s going on with your body or google search your symptom’s. Leave them examine you and follow their instructions.

• Rehabilitation. Focus on your rehab exercises your physio gives you, don’t just do them for a couple of days and forget about them. They’re key to your recovery and re-building strength should be a constant part of your everyday mobility work.

• Get a coach  that has the skills to work with your physio or specialist to help you recover from your injury and avoid further injury.

• Listen. Follow your physio’s guidelines and what you need to be doing to get over your injury, if its rest you need then rest or  if you need to do certain exercises then just DO them!!

• Pain. Avoid training through pain at all cost, you more than likely will be doing more damage to yourself. Train around the injury and avoid aggravating it anymore once your physio says its ok.

• Recovery. Let your body recover, plenty of sleep and good nutrition will help the body in a heal.

• Nutrition. Adjust your nutrition, if your are doing less training then your going to have to eat a little less.

• Be Proactive. Get a regular physio session to re-access any old injuries or niggles before they become a major issue.

 

Psychological:

 

• Giving up. Don’t stop training and pack it all in just because you’ve got an injury that’s an easy excuse to use, once you physio says its ok to work around the injury you can if not rest up and make it your goal to get back.

• Goals. Re-access your goals, if it’s a major or a minor injury your short term goals will need to be assessed. Your first goal is to recover everything else will come from that.

• Frustration. Being injured can be frustrating you might not be able to preform simple everyday tasks, you might not be able to do something you’ve been working hard on in the gym or you may not be able to compete in your sport. You needed to focus on your recovery and soon you will be able to get back doing these.

• Focus on your rehab exercises from your physio , don’t just do them for a couple of days and forget about them of course they are going to be boring but what the pain of an injury or the pain in the ass of having to the same small tings over and over.

• Mindset. You need to get you head in the right mind space to deal with a layoff from either your training or sport for however long. You will not be able to train of the same intensity you were training with before your injury. Being positive about returning to your best needs to stay in your head.

• Fear of Re-Injury. When returning from an injury you are always vulnerable to another injury. Starting easy and listening to your body is key to avoiding another injury building up to your previous level will take time so you’ve got to be patient.

 

So there you have it some of major aspects of dealing with an injury and how to overcome it. So if your injured make sure you use put all theses points into use and if you are unfortunate to pick up an injury in the future remember not just to keep driving on with your training get it sorted now. Think of your body and your long term health its not something you can afford to mess about with.