Let start by saying I’ve had a lot of injuries over the years and that I have regrets of the things I’ve done. Spending more time in gyms and martial arts studios then anywhere else in my life and pushing myself to the brink of what I can handle physically is bound to end up in injuries. The lessons I’ve learned along the way are priceless.
I’ve had ligament and muscle pulls, strains and tears, broken bones, hematomas, dislocations, cauliflower ears to the point of surgery, nose cauterizations (multiple times) so my nose wouldn’t bleed when I got punched, shins with lose of feeling from nerve damage and the list goes on. Some of these injuries have cool stories behind them some of them you just dislocate your elbow by falling down stairs, not so cool!
With all the things that can go wrong, how do you deal with an injury when it happens? Do you feel bad for yourself? DO you regret what you did? Do you keep working out? or just shut it down? Whats the right way to go about it?
Here’s my take. Number 1 no matter what happens in your life do NOT feel sorry for yourself cause no matter what happens somebody has had something worse happen to them and they sucked it up and picked up the pieces and made it into something great. Your recovery becomes 10x longer when you wallow in your own self-pity.
The first question you should ask yourself is what can I do right now to help me take a step to being better?
Then you find a medical professional and get a proper diagnosis and physio(or similar therapist) to help you to start working towards recovery of the problem.
Then you ask that physio what exercises your are allowed to do while recovering, if it’s your elbow, you can do a squat variation and run, you can do core work, if it’s your knee you can work on your bench press and ski-erg. If it’s both we can find ways around it to keep you moving.
From there you hit the gym with the attitude that you are going to get better at the things you have control of. The blood flow will be good for you, the attitude will be better for you, being around people sweating will be better for you. That’s what you do.
I’ve had a labral tear in my shoulder for a while now and I can’t lift heavy overhead but I can still PR my deadlift and for that I’m thankful!!
With that being said if you have no injuries you should wake up every morning and be greatful for the opportunity to train hard because it can be gone just like that. Don’t take it for granted, enjoy every single moment!
-Coach Dan