When You're Injured
If you are an active person always seeking greater heights of strength, you will eventually get injured in some way. Let’s talk about what to do when that happens.
So You Got Injured
It is theoretically possible to avoid injury your whole life, even with the most rigorous of lifestyles. However, the odds are against you. It is highly likely that at some point, something will give. You will either make a mistake, or sometimes wear and tear simply take their toll, despite your best efforts.
This can be discouraging, to say the least. While injured, you cannot exercise, train your sport/hobby, or even perform daily tasks the way you normally would. But notice what I’m telling you here: I’m not saying you can’t do these things at all. I’m saying you can’t do them as you normally would. You need to both stay resilient and get creative, so that you don’t become sedentary while you recover.
Doing What You Can
The most important thing to do while injured is to still do SOMETHING. You can’t just spend months on the couch doing absolutely nothing because one part of you needs to rest. The degree of variation required to stay active and to which you can stay active will vary according to your activities and injury, but it’s very rare to not able to do anything at all.
For example, if your arm is injured, run or walk. If your leg is injured, do lifts that only require your upper body. You get the idea. The point is to never allow injury to discourage you or prevent you from always striving toward your best and strongest self.
A final note on training while injured: I am NOT advocating forcing yourself to do anything that worsens or aggravates your injury in the name of being stronger. That will only take you to one place: back to the hospital with a worsened injury and longer recovery time. Train hard, but train smart. Let yourself heal, so you can back to work as soon as possible.
When Were You Injured?
As always, I want to hear from all of you. Tell us your injury stories, and what you did to stay active during recovery.