How to Recover from an Injury
Written by a Fitness Professional that has had setbacks from severe injuries
Before I became a fitness professional, I was a lifelong athlete. Injuries in athletics are more common than ever with the rising level of competitiveness and training intensities. Prior to personal training I raced motocross at an elite level. This sport provided me with the motivation to elevate my training off the bike to become elite on the bike. One injury is all it took to take me out of the sport I love. Here is my story and tips on how to overcome the physical and mental battle of injuries.
The Injury that inhibited me from continuing to race motocross at a high level was a sterno-clavicular fracture and dislocation. For anyone that doesn't know what this is, I dislocated my collarbone, propelling it into my sternum, which then lead to me fracturing my sternum and breaking my collarbone.
REST
This is one of the most important yet challenging steps in the recovery process. Resting is needed for the body to put the energy that you would normally use in activity towards recovering the injury sight.
Resting does not have to mean lying in bed all day. I suggest finding social outlets, journaling, and learning. You may be wondering why you should learn or journal. Keeping your brain engaged and constantly challenging yourself mentally will help with any depressive thoughts about the injury and can easily pass time.
Set mental goals for yourself as you rest. For example, learn more about recovery from injury or how to bounce back from injury. Keeping yourself accountable for these goals will give you a different sense of accomplishment and will trigger similar receptors as the ones post exercise.
MOBILITY
After you have been cleared for exercise by your doctor and before you engage in any exercise, you need to start will mobility. Focus on getting back to near 100% ROM (range of motion) before starting strenuous exercise or physical activity.
Practicing mobility improves the rate in which a muscle can be stretched and how far that muscle can be stretched without further injury. Stretching a muscle through a range of motion allows the area of injury to return back to its normal resting length (the length of the muscle prior to injury).
Although mobility focuses on the motion of joints and muscles through a range of motion, it is just as beneficial for someone dealing with a broken or fracture bone. Typically, when someone breaks a bone, they are put in an immobilizer that inhibits the movement of that area to allow time to heal. With that comes muscles become tighter and a decrease in range of motion in that area. In the case of my injury, my pectorals and scapula lacked mobility, so I practiced a lot of pec stretches and scapular movements to allow the joints and muscles to become more mobile.
THE RETURN TO EXERCISE
After you have practiced mobility and increased the range of motion in the sight of the injury, you should return to exercise. Returning to exercise does not mean using the same weight on bench press that you used prior to injury.
In this stage, focus on isolated lifts that trigger the muscle fibers in the site of injury to activate. This will increase blood flow to that area and allow the muscles to recover from muscle atrophy.
When I returned to exercise, my strength, endurance and power movements all took a hit. This is a frustrating process but is the reason why you need to focus on getting the right muscles to activate. I recommend working in a higher rep range (12-15) for the first month back to allow the muscles to re-adapt under pressure and loads. Increasing the rep range and decreasing the weight for the first few weeks of returning to training is needed to regain strength and optimal recovery.