Some words of wisdom from someone else regarding injuries

Any strength & power related training topic (powerlifting, strongman, olympic lifts, etc)
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AhBen
15lb curler
Posts: 575
Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:40 am

Some words of wisdom from someone else regarding injuries

Post by AhBen »

Got this from elsewhere.. dedicate this piece to Sufian and Ryan.:wink:


As a lifter who has pulled off some pretty intense injuries, I think there are a few rules in regards to training and getting hurt. Granted, this may not directly apply to you, but I think it's worth noting.

First, I think 99% of injuries are minor tweaks. Why and what? Who knows, but they hurt for a while and go away, especially if you don't do anything stupid. Ibuprofen may not work, icing helps kind of, but time is the big one. You can train through these without anything more than being annoyed.

Second, especially in regards to the lower back, I think people are quick to assume they're really injured when they've just tweaked something. SI joint, dorsal sacral ligament -it could be a bunch of things. Even if you lift with perfect form, sometimes the crap hits the fan and you pay for it for a day/a week/a month, etc.

In general, the best rule of thumb is to ice, to gently stretch (and I mean, gently stretch, at least for the first few days. In fact, if you wanted to wait until a week to start stretching it, more power to you), and to get blood into the are through light, higher-rep exercises.

I think the worst thing to do, for any injury, is nothing.

If I had a penny for every time it hurt to round or arch my back, I'd fill up a sock and hit everybody with it.

I read your post, and I think you'll be fine. I think it will hurt for a while, and then it will get stiff, and it will be up to you to decide if you're going to train through/around it, or, bring everything to a halt and dictate a plan for a few weeks of babying it.

My personal suggestion would be to ice when it hurts, take some ibuprofen and when you workout, do whatever doesn't irritate it a bunch, but, don't avoid things that hurt it completely.

You might not want to pull, but some light band GM's or 45's could help.

To me, there are three distinct realms of tweaks: hurt, injured, and all F'ed up.

You're probably hurt, that means it's a small tweak. You might not really have to change your training, depending on your pain tolerance. You won't be a cripple if you squat next week, for example.

If you're injured, it usually requires a trip to the doctor, and a serious re-organization of training. And I don't mean a doctor visit just to be sure, I mean treatments. Partial tears, minor disc problems, etc. Very few people, in all honesty, get here. Most claim to, but few are.

The last one is all F'ed up. This is when training takes a back seat to getting healthy, we're talking complete ruptures, severe disc problems, or the loss of 8 limbs. Very, very few people get close to this. A lot of people claim they do, but they don't.

I know, this is kind of out of nowhere, and it's in no way meant to be an attack -it's just something that seems to come up with lifters everywhere, all the time. When you get to the higher levels of the sport (albeit this sport, or that sport, or whatever sport) you'll look back and think, "man, I can't believe I posted that, I just had to deal with being annoyed with my lower back for a week or two and then it cleared up."

Good luck.

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