Why Injuries Occur – And what to do about them…

Injuries – They SUCK!

No one likes to be in pain, no one likes to be hobbling around feeling like they have a nagging thorn suck in their side

For athletes, it is no different. Literally, years of hard work can be stripped away from them in an instant forcing them back to square one

Not only does it affect your ability to train but it negatively impacts other aspects of your life, your ability to work, your ability to have fun with friends, go out on adventures with your loved ones to muck around and play with your kids

They SUCK

Now I’m not telling you anything you didn’t already know

Of course, injuries suck.

Knowing this, why then do so many of us continue to get injured??

I’ll tell you why because at one end of the scale you have injury and at the other, you have everything else that comes before that

Ego – The hot girl walks into the gym and you convince yourself she is looking and will be impressed when you bench 3 kgs more than you know you should
Competition; training with your mates and they put a little more on the bar than you know you should do but you have a crack because well you don’t want to look like a bitch
Drive; your so driven with you training you been working hard you deserve to be better even though your body isn’t really up to it on the day
Adrenaline; the training atmosphere is unbelievable and you simply just get caught up in it all

The list goes on and on and on…

So when you consider this it’s easy to see how injuries continue to occur

We know they suck but in that split moment we simply FORGET

However, the seed of injury is usually planted well before it ‘blooms’ in that split moment

So I want to give you a few tools you can start implementing into your training today!

Tools that will help you recognize when the seed has been planted

Tools that will allow you to do some ‘weeding’, allowing you to stop it then and there before it grows into something nasty and manifests itself as an debilitating injury.

LET'S DIG IN

Train with Purpose:

After thousands and thousands of hours training myself and observing others one major factor that continually pops up again and again is lack of purpose

Why?

Because training with purpose is not HARD!

As human being we love the comfortable we love the easy, we know we should do something but we keep holding ourselves back.

We know we should pull the sheets off us when the alarm goes off in morning but that’s hard – it's easier just to hit the snooze.

We know we should eat chicken and peas instead of that donut but it's easier to say yes to the donut

We know we should go to the dentist for that check up but it’s easier just to leave it for another year

It’s exactly the same thing with training.

Now you might be a little further along your training journey than others, no longer battling with the drive to visit the gym it has now become a routine for you, a habit.

But this routine way of training can also become a TRAP

Training day in day out the exactly the same way; making the same mistakes, doing the same exercises, doing the same stretches, the same warm up, roughly the same weights – you get the picture, your comfortable “routine”.

Now the problem with this is there is a lack of purpose.

1.What is it that you are actually looking to achieve?

2. What is holding you back from achieving it?

Once you have answered these two questions you can then begin to work with a coach design a program of purpose, be held accountable to do the things that are HARD and uncomfortable – the things you actually NEED to be doing in order to achieve your goals.

Start looking after your body more than your car:

Now for some weird reason, we are far more likely to look after our cars more than we care for our own bodies!

How ridiculous is that?!

Don’t believe me?

Week in week out you fill up your car with fuel without blinking an eye yet when it comes to paying a trainer each week for some guidance we come up with objection after objection: “I can't afford it”, I’m “fine”, “I don’t’ have the time” etc they all come spilling out.

The thing is, a car can be replaced.

Unfortunately, you can't do the same thing with your body – you’ve only got the one!

If you were driving along down the road and you started to hear a strange knocking noise coming from the front left of your vehicle,

What would you do?

I bet that within a week you would have called a mechanic, had it looked at, the part replaced and everything would return to normal.

If the same happened with your body however, you do a workout and you got a weird feeling behind the left knee

What would you do?

You suffer, you push through the pain, continue to train, you do a couple of stretches here and there, a bit of rolling around on a foam roller – you simply deal with it!

Speak to ANY physical therapist and they ALL say the same thing “the sooner you get treatment the quicker the recovery time”.

It seems ridiculous but its true we look after our cars better than our own bodies – THIS HAS TO STOP

Listen to your body:

Day in and day out our bodies are left to fend off a whole cocktail of stressors.

Physical stress:

trauma
intense physical labor/over-exertion,
environmental pollution
illness
fatigue
hormonal and/or biochemical imbalances
dietary stress
musculoskeletal misalignments/imbalances

Psychological stress

emotional stress
cognitive stress
perceptual stress

Psychosocial stress

relationship/marriage difficulties (partner, siblings, children, family, employer, co-workers, employer),
lack of social support,
lack of resources for adequate survival, (employment savings etc

Psychospiritual stress

A crisis of values, meaning, and purpose; joyless striving
a misalignment within one’s core spiritual beliefs

TIP:

If your body just isn’t up for training today listen to it!

If your not firing on all cylinders don’t try and pull up a PB deadlift

If you’ve had a bloody stressful day at work don’t try to take it out on your workout by working beyond capacity

Give your body a break! Listen to it!

Recover harder than you train:

This includes nutrition, breathing techniques, hydration, sleep, stress management, stretching and recovery, massage, ice baths, cold showers, days off, supplements, regular doctor checkups etc.

Just like with “training with purpose” you also need to recover with purpose. Training and recovering with purpose may not be the most exciting or “fun” thing you could be doing but it is what you NEED to be doing. It is hard and uncomfortable, yes but the best things in life often come after hardship.

Let's Review:

TRAIN WITH PURPOSE
START TREATING YOUR BODY BETTER THAN YOUR CAR

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY

RECOVER HARDER THAN YOU TRAIN

And avoid injury because well…

THEY SUCK!

Happy training.

P.S As always reach out at any time - we are here to help

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INJURIES SUCK - HOW TO AVOID THEM

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