The rush…

The adrenaline…

The sweat…

What do you do when all of those things suddenly stop? For those who love to exercise (whatever that exercise may be), it is extremely difficult when an injury occurs. There can be a lot of things that can run through a person’s mind.

  1. Will I be able to recover?
  2. How much ground am I going to lose during my recovery?
  3. What if I can’t continue doing what I love?

Does that sound like you?

For most of my life, I’ve been injury free. I’ve had some lower back tightness from time to time, some fingers that have been dislocated, but nothing really major that stopped me from actually exercising.

Recently, I’ve had some tight hamstrings. I did a 1/2 marathon a few weeks ago and didn’t properly stretch afterward. I had to quickly get back on the road, and I certainly paid for it. A few days after that I had a terrible pain running from my right butt cheek down my leg. Thankfully, I’ve been able to resolve the issue.

Injuries will happen. When they do occur, we will have to be smart about how we handle them. Below are some tips about how to how to handle sports injuries.

  1. Acknowledge what is happening. Don’t ignore what’s happening. I couldn’t ignore the pain in my leg. I have come to terms that I really need to address one of my major weaknesses: flexibility. I’ve known about it for a while and haven’t invested the time into getting better. That’s about to change.
  2. Slow down. Typically, I want to go all out. But this pain in my leg wouldn’t allow me to do it. Throughout the last few years I’ve learned that if I slow down a little bit, it will not cause me to lose any of my gains. In fact, cutting back on the frequency of days I lift will not cause me to lose strength. It’s okay to slow down and allow your body some time to recover.
  3. Get treatment. This can come in a variety of ways. For me, I went to the chiropractor. It didn’t immediately take away the pain, but one week later I’m much better. I followed that up by then getting a deep tissue massage. That also felt great and I ‘m going to do it again.

Injuries are no fun. But if you can address quickly and wisely, then you can be back on the field, track, or court in no time.

I CAN DO…SO CAN YOU.

What additional tips do you have that others could benefit from? Please share.

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