Being injured sucks, but unfortunately, it’s one of the things you sign up for by being a human being.
Every lifter has inevitably felt the pain of being injured, the little niggle that has set you back a few weeks. It’s a completely natural part of being normal, functional human being. I have yet to meet one person that has moved throughout their life, without once experiencing pain or injury.
The question becomes then, how do we manage it?
Well of course that depends on the context and extent of your injury, but hopefully today we can shed some light on the issue and give you a little more clarity.
The Era of Corrective Exercise, for the sake of Corrective Exercise
I want to preface this by saying, that I do believe there is a time and a place for corrective exercise.
But I also believe that there are a lot of people that use corrective exercise as the law, not the rule.
They have a bad workout, a bad week, or a bad month and they completely throw the baby out of the bathwater, change the plan entirely and start doing a corrective exercise program.
Breaking news! We all have “dips” and “troughs”, but that doesn’t mean you stop doing the plan!
Instead, you identify the problem and maybe add a little corrective exercise in at the end if warranted.
Or you make some adjustments and continue training, but to change the entire plan?
The reality of the situation is this, some human beings, when they experience hardship will run, some will face it head on. When the last session already felt heavy, and I am asking you to add another 2.5kg to the bar, what do you do?
Do you front up? Or do you hide?
In a few circumstances, I have witnessed people run to a corrective exercise program when the real program gets tough.
I have also seen people treat the situation logically and do what they can to lift around the issue, rather than hide entirely.
The overriding goal of this article is to inform you how to lift around a niggle or injury, to ensure continued progress.
Defining the Role of a Strength Coach
There are often blurred lines between the role of a top-level strength coach and a high-level physiotherapist.
I think it’s important to define those differences, so everybody knows their lane.
A strength coach helps you get strong (which happens to solve most problems anyway) and finds ways to help you manage niggles so you can carry on lifting.
A physiotherapist then, helps you rehabilitate a specific issue or problem with your body.
Strength training, however, fits into that picture throughout that entire process. It’s just about understanding what you can and cannot do.
A part of the role of a strength coach then, is understanding how to amend training, so the client can continue progress, and continue getting stronger.
Even if they are undergoing physiotherapy, lifting still plays a role in the background, and it’s the role of the strength coach, to understand how you can amend the training to continue progress.
The reason we carry on lifting, rather than stopping completely, is because physiotherapists will address the specific weakness. They will not look at the entire system.
This means that if you are only addressing a specific part of your body, the rest of the system in turn gets weaker.
Being weak is never of a benefit to you.
Losing strength, is never of a benefit to you.
It’s important to carry on the lifting process then, to ensure we are doing what we can to continue progress, and to prevent any degeneration of muscles, connective tissues, and the neuromuscular system as a whole.
“Making things heal, rather than letting them Heal”
Now we have defined the role of a strength coach, let’s move onto the point of why it’s important to be proactive in the injury process, rather than passive and reactive.
“Making things heal, rather than letting them heal”.
“Letting them heal” refers to giving up all forms of resistance, to let the structure heal. “Making the injury heal” on the other hand requires proactivity.
If you stop and do nothing, you are telling 100% of your being that you are weak.
This also has negative impacts on overall function, in doing nothing you are making your muscles, nervous system and connective tissues weaker.
Instead, continuing your lifting with what you can do is ALWAYS the best solution.
Benefits of this include:
- Restoring Range of Motion: After an injury or surgery, it is common for joints and muscles to become stiff and lose their normal range of motion. By exercising the muscles through a full range of motion, you help restore and maintain function.
- Strengthening Muscles: Controlled strength training helps strengthen the muscles surrounding the injured area. Stronger muscles provide better support and stability to the injured joint or area, reducing the risk of re-injury and improving overall function.
- Enhancing Muscle Function: By working muscles through their full range of motion under load, you can improve their ability to generate force and perform functional movements. This can be particularly important for rehabilitation after joint injuries or surgeries where regaining functional strength and stability are essential.
- Promoting Tissue Healing: Exercise stimulates blood circulation and increases the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to injured tissues. This can help promote healing by enhancing tissue regeneration and reducing inflammation.
- Preventing Muscle Atrophy: When an injury or surgery limits your ability to use certain muscles, they can undergo atrophy, which is the loss of muscle mass and strength. Loading the muscles through resistance training helps counteract this muscle loss, preserving muscle mass and strength during the rehabilitation process.
- Enhancing Neuromuscular Control: the compound lifts involve a full range of motion and resistance. This helps improve the coordination and control of muscles. This is important for restoring normal movement patterns and functional activities.
- Psychological Benefits: Engaging in meaningful physical activity during the rehabilitation process can have positive psychological effects. It can improve motivation, boost mood, and increase overall confidence and well-being.
The 5-Step Framework
This is the exact framework that I use with both my training and my clients:
1: Form
Does your form need to be adjusted? Are you doing the exercise as how it is intended to be performed?
2: Position
Is a certain position hurting you in an exercise? For instance, do you get pain in your shoulders if you wide grip bench press? Does this decrease when you narrow the grip? Are you getting knee pain from your squats? Does it decrease when you open out your stance or vice versa?
Many times, I have reduced the range of motion and that has worked a treat. Then, the goal is to gradually reintroduce range over time.
3: Speed
Is it the speed of the movement? Can we adjust the speed and does that increase or decrease pain symptoms?
4: Load or Programming/Periodisation
Do we need to adjust:
- Load
- Sets/Reps
- Frequency
- Rest Periods
- The recovery time and periodisation
5: Exercise Selection
This is a last resort, but do we need to completely swap an exercise out and regress it? For example, low bar squat to a high bar squat.
The overall goal of the 5-step framework is to identify the problem out of the 5 different areas, then provide a solution and stick with it. Then, if an exercise had to be modified or regressed, look to gradually reintroduce the normal pattern over time.
As a general guideline, always refer out to a physical therapist or doctor if you or your client:
1- Experience loss of function in the body.
2- Experience pain so bad it prevents sleep.
3- Experience drastic decreases in strength e.g unable to tighten grip.
I hope this article helps you on your lifting journey!
