Dealing With Injuries in Your Workout

Every now and then everybody gets dinged up in some form or fashion. The knee, hamstring, back, shoulder, wrist, neck, ankle can range from sore to nagging to downright painful. Lately I’ve had a little lower back stiffness, a nagging knee, and some pain in my shoulder and wrist. No matter what the injury or quasi-injury, my thought process stays the same.

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First, I determine whether something is just there or whether it’s a new occurrence. For example, I have a good back but I have built muscle over some problems that happened when I was 18. (Story: When I was 18 I was spotting my friend on a 300 lb bench press. He asked for a lift off but when I lifted off he didn’t and so I pulled my back pretty bad. I never got any treatment and eventually it went away but my back will still pull/give me sharp pain if I lift too much weight to this day – though I still do back exercises.) So first assessment is to determined whether the injury is something you have to deal with or whether you need to be weary of it.

Secondly, evaluate the severity of the injury. If it’s extreme, you either need to go to the doctor or do your own analysis and rehab yourself. (Another story: I have twice completely torn my hamstring. I didn’t really need to go to the doctor because I knew what had happened so I just stayed off it for months and then slowly rehabilitated the muscle back. My advice: NEVER EVER pull your hamstring. Stretch at all costs.) If your injury isn’t severe, do a common sense evaluation of what you’re dealing with and resume your workout accordingly. However, when you do pick your workout back up, be smart about it and work your injured area lightly.

Last, continuing from that last sentence, give your injured muscle, joint, tendon, or whatever a break. Rest works wonders. After you’ve had a good amount of rest (relative to your injury) slowly work your injured area back into the regular routine. You’ll have to play catch up for awhile but it’s better to progressively slowly than fast.

With an injury, you don’t want to be a workout warrior or a he-man/she-woman. I’ve made the mistake and plowed right through a twinged back and ended up paying for it by putting my back workouts out of commission for a month. Weight training and exercise should never injure or hurt you in and of itself. If you feel pain, drop what you’re doing and find out why. You may be over compensating, using bad form, or otherwise unnecessarily agitating your body