Learning from Exercise, Sport and Adversity
By Sports & Exercise Physio, previous Carlton & Gold Coast Suns AFL Physio, Mark Homewood
“Injuries are our best teachers.” Scott Jurek, Ultramarathon runner
Sometimes you’re the hammer and sometimes you’re the nail. Sports and exercise provide us the opportunity to challenge ourselves to achieve feats that we never thought possible. Whether it be a personal best over 5k, completing your first marathon or helping your teammates to victory, we learn from these triumphs and feel a sense of fulfillment in knocking over a personal goal.
Sometimes, despite the best-laid plans, things can go wrong. Injury can rob of us the chance to compete or severely impact on our training and decrease performance. But an injury doesn’t need to result in wasted time on the road to recovery.
Here are my top 5 tips to deal with injury:
1. (Relative) Rest
Your body more often than not needs a period of rest to ensure adequate healing. The length of this period of rest is naturally dependent on your injury and you will be provided with recommendations on how to rest your injury and for how long by your physiotherapist or sports physician. Injury will place your body under additional stress so it may be a good time to take a few days away from the gym, relax at home, gather your thoughts, spend some time with family, get outdoors and gather your and get your mind and body on the same page.
2. Get some support
Dealing with your injury doesn’t have to be a struggle you need to face on your own. Find a physiotherapist or exercise physiologist (at Gold Coast Physio and Sports Health naturally!) to help guide you through your rehabilitation journey. We can collaborate with you to help construct a pathway to recovery and improved levels of fitness and resilience. If you need more support, consider a Sports Psychologist.
3. Fuel your body
Ensure that you are fuelling your body with quality food to ensure optimal healing and recovery. Eat your veggies, plenty of lean protein and reduce your intake of processed foods that may impact on your healing. A sports dietician (yep…we have one at Gold Coast Physio and Sports Health too) will help you to plan your meals and deliver quality nutrients to your body, getting you back on the training track as soon as possible.
4. Improve yourself
Focus on what you can do still do – not on what you can’t. If you have a lower body injury, look to cross-training activities involving the upper body, such as boxing or swimming to maintain your conditioning. Riding a bike, particularly a spin bike or trainer, or the elliptical/cross-trainer (or an Alter-G Treadmill if able) is an excellent way to maintain both your aerobic and anaerobic fitness. Use the downtime in your regular training activities to work on any deficits, such as trunk strength or shoulder health or aim to improve your mobility or flexibility. Consult with your physiotherapist or exercise physiologist for exercise prescription to tackle any weak links whilst you have the extra time to focus on them.
5. An opportunity to learn
Use your recovery time to reflect on any potential training errors that might have influenced your injury. Could it have been prevented with a better training program, or the addition of specific strength and conditioning exercises? What can you add or subtract from your training, lifestyle or the way that you compete in order to minimise your risk of subsequent injuries? This is an area where your physiotherapist or exercise physiologist can provide invaluable advice and recommendations to ensure that you recover from your injury and become more robust and resilient.
Treat your injury as an opportunity to learn and improve, hardening both your resolve and body through triumph over adversity. By seeing your injury as a potential blessing in disguise you can get back to training and competing and come back better than ever.
“An injury is not just a process of recovery, it’s a process of discovery.”
For an appointment, phone us on 07 55006470 or Book Online www.mygcphysio.com.au
