Spring training

Spring Training Tips: How To Get Back Into Exercise After Injury

Getting back into exercise can be hard after injury. You don’t want to make things worse, but you also don’t want to sit around and do nothing. One of the biggest mistakes people make when they get back into exercise is overdoing it and not respecting the healing process. Obviously getting back into a routine is highly specific and depends on the type of injury and its severity, but here are a few rules of engagement to get back on track. 

New Thresholds – When getting back into exercise what you used to do will most likely have to be worked up to again, and what you used to do may have caused the injury so that needs to be evaluated. 

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For example, if you’re used to walking 6 miles a day and you have a knee injury, when you come back, you’ll have to cut the number of miles down so you don’t overload the injured knee.

Workload is Cumulative- Most people get caught in single events or occurrences that setback the injury. Typically it’s the accumulation of activity over the course of a day or several days that leads to a setback or relapse. It might not have been the biking you did on a particular day, as much as it is you biked several days in a row.  Be mindful of the cumulative effect.

Pain Does Not Equal Regression- Depending on the injury, there’s a level of pain that will be associated with moving the injured tissue that will likely happen regardless of what you do or don’t do. Many try to avoid pain because not only does it hurt, mentally, it’s a sign of things getting worse, which is not always the case. There will usually be a level of pain during movement that you’ll have to accept, and what you don’t want is increasing pain.

Your Timeline May Not Be The One Your Body Is On- This is a nice way of saying be patient. Many people don’t exhibit enough patience with the healing process occurring in the body. The body is wired to prevent future and further injury, whereas you, the person, are interested in getting back to your activities.

Outcomes in the Moment May Not Come in the Moment- Often people will unknowingly overdo activity because in the moment they feel no pain. This can be deceptive because the body can get into a pain pattern later in the day or even a few days after. It’s always good to err on the side of caution and reduce the amount of work to test it out and see how your body handles the activity. 

-- Brandon Mentore: Optimal Sport Health Clubs Personal Trainer/Health Coach, Strength and Conditioning Coach, Functional Medicine Practitioner and Sports Nutritionist