Dealing With Minor Injuries

If you train properly for long enough you will eventually pick up a soft tissue injury, it happens to everyone. Even training under the supervision of a Glasgow personal trainer does not completely eliminate the possibility of picking up little injuries. There are certain steps you have to take to successfully return to full fitness when this happens and they start immediately after the injury occurs.

As soon as you feel any obvious asymmetric discomfort during a gym session you must stop what you are doing and assess the situation. I would always recommend that you immediately discontinue training the area that is sore. The goal here is to limit any damage, not compound it by continuing to train the affected area. This does not mean that you have to stop training altogether.

Any exercise that does not cause pain in the affected area is likely not causing more damage. Pain is the key indicator in this situation so listen to your body, not your ego, and don't make the problem worse. If you are not sure if it is safe to keep training you should leave the gym immediately. Better to miss 2 to 3 days of training than 2 to 3 weeks or months.

At the first chance you get you should RICE your injury. RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compress and Elevate. These steps are intended to limit the swelling that happens because of the injury Rest means just that, avoid putting unnecessary stress on the injured area. Ice simply means you should apply ice to the affected area. Ice is applied because cold constricts the blood vessels which limit the blood flow to the area. Reduced blood flow means less swelling and a faster recovery. Ice is best applied using a white polystyrene cup filled 3/4 full of water and frozen ahead of time. Cut the cup to expose about an inch of ice then massage this ice into the injured area.

Compress means apply constant light pressure to the area which also limits blood flow to the area and subsequent swelling. This is best done with a large tubi-grip bandage folded over 2 to 3 times. It is important to extend the compression well beyond the point of pain to help any existing swelling dissipate from the damaged area as much as possible. If you are not icing, you are compressing. Elevating the injury also aims to limit swelling by making it harder for the body to circulate blood to the injury. This is not always practical but if you can do it you should.

As soon as you have iced the injury and have compression applied you must seek qualified professional help. I would always recommend seeing a private physiotherapist. Injury treatment needs to happen quickly and a referral from your doctor may take weeks which will cost you unacceptable and often unnecessary time away from training. Many doctors will give the generic "rest for a month" advice which will allow the injury to heal. Injuries tend to need more than just rest to heal properly. They need active and immediate rehabilitation which drastically reduces the likelihood of it re injuring at a later date. Your body should be worth the 30 pounds or so it will cost to see a quality physiotherapist so do it.

Attend the physiotherapist session and pay attention to what you are told. You should be given instruction on rehabilitation activities that you should do to increase the speed and quality of the recovery. Don't expect yourself to remember everything you are told because you may be given a lot of information so take notes in necessary. Follow these instructions religiously, most people don't and the injured area can become a life long problem.

Your gyms sessions should now be a hybrid session comprising of your normal training minus the movements that cause pain in the injured area plus the rehabilitation activities that your physio has prescribed. This ensures that while one area of your body may regress due to the injury all other areas should progress faster as you can now focus your energy on them. Don't use an injury as an excuse to stop training all together, do what you can and continue to train hard. As your injury progresses your rehabilitation exercises will change.

Continue to follow your physio's advice to the letter and if this calls for a test of the area do so with great care and if you feel you did not pass the prescribed test do not advance your rehabilitation because you are not ready to do so. If you feel that you are ready to transition back to normal training I would again recommend getting your physio's approval and advice on how to best do this. Do not let boredom and impatience cause a setback.

Iain Smith (MPhil/CSCS) owns Standout Gym, an independent warehouse gym in Glasgow, focusing on weight loss. He offers small group training as an affordable alternative to Glasgow personal training. Iain is a former international decathlete with 17 years coaching experience. www.standoutgym.com.