Injuries effect all
In the last NK Fitness go live talk we spoke about injuries. It was my subject to chose. So I thought I would pick out all the main point for you guys and see if you would incorporate them into your life if you get an injury in the future. Or if you have had an injury in the past and didn’t know how to deal with it. As a Personal trainer in Windsor there are some clients that have injuries and we as trainers have to measure them that it will get stronger but you have to use it.
In the talk
During the talk I asked Nathan and Toby a series of questions about there injuries. Wherein they went into some detail explaining what helped for them. If you are an athlete or even a a conditioned gym goer who wants to know a bit more about injuries then read the next 5 questions fro the go live video.
What injuries have you had in the past?
Nathan: I had a 5 left shoulder dislocations through the ages of 17-25. One of these was through playing rugby
Toby: prolapsed disc when I was 15
What was the worst part of being injured?
Nathan: The worst part of it is that its a very painful injury at the time. But knowing the nature of a shoulder joint, its a very shallow ball and socket joint. So when you dislocate it and make that joint lose the chances or reassurance are higher. So its that realisation that the injury will happen again. Also the fact that I was playing competitive sport made it even harder because it jeopardised my future career in the sport and even my ability to play sports.
Toby: Immediately at the the time if I did anything more than a walk then it would hurt immediately afterwards. And I would just have to sit and lie down. The worst part moving forward is that I had a load of injuries. I tore each hamstring twice in the last full season of rugby I played which we proved as a result of that back injury.
I was quite good and every hour when I was at school I had to get down in the middle of my class and do stretches for my back. Which at 15 you don’t really want to be doing. I was in the school sports teams and then I couldn’t play sport in school or outside of school. And I was the idiot doing stretches.
Once healthy how did you get back to training without repeat injury?
Nathan: Well whatever I did I didn’t do very well because it kept happening again and again. With a dislocation quite often your not recovered. There so hard to recover from so I did every thing i could at the time. Common shoulder rehab at that point wasn’t as good as it is today. Now we have the knowledge of band work for the shoulder girdle. However none of that really prepares you of the violent forces that go through you whilst playing sports. And Ive hurt my shoulder doing gymnastics and weight lifting so I never really ever recovered.
Toby: I did all the correct stuff but then I stopped. However, what I thought was me just getting better naturally I was actually compensating. My body naturally found a way to do things, it turned out that i was very quad dominant in what I did. So when the hamstrings happened we went right back to the beginning. Now I do a number of glute timed exercises to make sure that my glute, quads and hamstrings fire at the right time. I did all the boring stuff that I didn’t do before along side doing all the strength work.
How did you get through the days of not being able to train or play sports?
Nathan: I think you have day when recovery is slow, the great thing is that there is always something that you have to be doing. Injury should be viewed like a cloud with a silver lining because they give you opportunities. There is a lot more time to address other aspects like fitness or body composition goals because your not in a full on in season program. Its quite easy to stay positive as long as you have your goal settings right when you injured.
Toby: When I actually prolapsed my back I was playing a lot of music so I ended up doing more of that for the year I was out. But when I did my hamstrings I was just playing rugby so it was more of an issue psychologically. I struggled more when I injured my hamstring that initially injuring my back because I had music.
What had changed in your training after the injury?
Nathan: After so many dislocations most people would consider an operation, but thats something I never did. All I did was modify my activity. In later years I did end up playing rugby again, but I didn’t end up tackling on my left side. Modifying how I played also made me compromise how I played. And not until the last year I didn’t do to much over head work in terms of weightlifting. This is largely from me being worried about me injuring my shoulder. So Toby suggested to be to practice holding things over head to strengthen the joint. Don’t Shy away from the injury tackle it head on.
Toby: I stopped worrying about it, that i had to change this and I had to change that. I went and did all the little exercises. Way less stretching of my back and more strengthening of my back. But also stretching all the muscle around my back that had been compensating. Not being afraid of doing the heavy deadlifts if its written in the program.
Take aways from Nathan
- confront injuries head on
- After you can use the effected area start using it straight away.
Take aways from Toby
- Don’t be afraid of an injury, an injury is there because it’s telling you that there was something wrong and now it’s your chance to make something right.
