What is the right way to recovery from injury?
Many will say rest after injury, I say there is more to it than rest and not exert yourself.
Okay, I may be exaggerating there but it really felt like I was broken. On one of my last sets of squats I lost my concentration and form and felt a pop in my lower back. I finished the set and instantly dropped to the floor frozen with sharp stabbing pain across my midsection. I was immobile for a good 45 minutes and then I was able to move but with a fair bit of stabbing pain with each motion.
Sensible logic will tell you to rest and do nothing for the rest of the day. I am anything but sensible and later that day I caught up with friends and punched and kicked the pads
Injury is something we have all experienced at one point of our lives, whether it be an acute injury or it gradually becoming chronic, what is the right approach to recovery? Let's look at the recommended recovery times for each type of injury.
As you can see according to average healing times for the above injuries the best case scenario is 2 weeks, but most injuries take several months to heal. There is certainly no avoiding initial rest and slowly getting back into it when it allows, but what if I told you that you could potentially improve your healing time?
What I have noticed over my career of lifting weights is that movement is essential even if you are injured. I know everyone's fear is reinjuring the area or even worse causing more damage is what prevents you from stepping back in the gym sooner. However, your body is built with defense mechanisms so you don't further damage the area. This defense mechanism is called pain.
Pain can be an indicator of how bad an injury is, pain can also shut down further movement that causes extra damage to the injury. When I hurt my lower back I still had another set of squats, I got back up despite the pain and tried to finish the set. I could barely do 1 rep because it felt so heavy, and moments ago the weights were flying up. That is the nervous system shutting down, my body was telling me to stop and just a few minutes later I could barely move.
I am writing this article exactly one week after injury and today I just got back into the gym doing 85% of what I was doing last week. The pain is now low to moderate and mobility is about 80%. Let's refer back to the chart above, what I really love about this chart is the factors that influence tissue healing. Let's run through it and I will break down some strategies that could help you with your next injury to heal faster.
Severity of injury - Unless you have broken a bone or completely torn a ligament/muscle your injury most likely isn't that severe to put you completely out of the gym and refrain from movement. A slight to moderate strain will benefit from blood-flow following some form of movement to the area. Which brings me to my next point.
Loading - How much load/intensity you place on the affected area will determine your healing time, if you do absolutely nothing it will slow down healing time. Pain during the movement or the next day will tell you if you have loaded too much. Always start with less and gradually build up.
Movement Mechanics - Always test your mobility in the injured area, if you can move it without much pain you can start using it in a way where you don't reach a high threshold of pain. If you can only bend your back to 90 degrees before your pain reaches a high level then only bend and do things in that range.
Nutrition - Repairing tissue requires good nutrition, especially protein. Make sure you are having at least 100g of protein a day to ensure maximum rate of repair.
Sleep - This is where most of your recovery happens, I am always amazed after sleeping how much better everything feels. Make sure you are sleeping well when injured.
Circulation - Blood flow to the affected area is crucial for recovery as it shuttles nutrients via blood for repair. The right amount of movement and loading can give your injury the circulation that it needs to recover quicker. Movement generally makes everything feel better too.
The main take away is make sure you keep moving and don't be afraid of moving the injured area, your body will guide you.
