INJURIES! - Know them to fight them!
- Darsshan Wagh
- Jun 29, 2020
- 5 min read
Throughout this lockdown, I have been encouraging you all to exercise at home. But I have forgotten to discuss an important aspect that goes along with it - Injuries, how to recognise them and deal with them! I have spoken about this in the following video which is in #Marathi, and below the video, I have written at length about this in English. :)
As a Strength and Conditioning Coach, one of my responsibilities is to prevent injuries from happening to an athlete because injuries can be career-threatening for them. For us, injuries can put us out of action for days to weeks at times and they are the ‘number one’ reason for people to end their fitness routines. Getting back into that motivated state of mind after a long fitness gap is extremely difficult and what happens is a gym membership turning into a mere ‘donation project’.
So, exactly HOW do I help prevent injuries? Well, there is a lot of science and study that goes behind it - ‘Biomechanics’ of the body which is knowing exactly how each and every joint and muscle functions and ‘Kinesiology’ - which is the science of movement. However on the client’s end, the most basic way to prevent injury during exercise is to follow correct technique and posture.
However, sometimes, even if you follow the correct posture and technique, there is a chance that injuries may happen. For example - you may land hard on your ankle while doing a squat jump, or you can strain your wrist while doing a push-up. Here I will give you some procedural tips to follow in the event of an injury to minimise pain, escalation of the injury and also your recovery time!
INJURY ASSESSMENT : The first step of Injury Management
The first step to follow after an injury is to assess it. For that, you need to know the basic two types of injuries - Acute and Chronic. The ones described earlier are ‘acute injuries’ - stubbing your toe while walking, spraining ankle while running, hamstring pull while bending etc. all qualify as ‘acute injuries’ - characterised by sudden trauma or event. Acute injuries are relatively easy to diagnose simply because most of the times, they are visual, sensory and their causal factors are clear.
So, if an injury has happened to you while exercising and you have concluded that it is an acute injury, then what should you do? Now, we come to the point of ‘first aid’. In my 20 years of experience in the fitness environment, I have come to notice that even my most educated client will have very limited (and many times wrong) working knowledge of injury-related first aid. As a trend, people resort to a very few tricks - pain relief sprays, crepe bandages, hot water bags etc. - most often times used in a wrong manner in the wrong place. Today, I will give you few important and easy to remember tips for correct first aid in case of an acute injury.
Immediately after the acute injury happens, if it is not an open wound but is a swelling / bruising, you should follow the RICE technique - REST, ICE, COMPRESSION, ELEVATION.
Take special note of the ‘Compression’ point - The injured part should be immobilised, the compression should not be too tight, and you should always loosen the compression before sleeping.
The next thing to remember is No HARM - No HEAT, ALCOHOL, RUNNING and MASSAGE. This is because heat increases bleeding to the area, alcohol decreases rate of recovery, running or any rigorous activity increases blood flow to the area and massaging can increase inflammation in the affected area.
After you take these steps, next step is to call a good physician who can further refer you to the appropriate specialist depending on your injury. (I stress on the word ‘good’ because we want a physician who can go beyond ‘pain management’)
If not treated appropriately, acute injuries can aggravate into chronic injuries!
CHRONIC INJURIES
For chronic injuries, the situation is a little more complex. There are 3 types to it - postural chronic injury, overuse chronic injury and muscle imbalance chronic injury. The first two are fairly easy to understand and resolve - follow the correct posture and give enough rest and recovery between exercise progressions.
The third one is best explained using a very relevant issue I see - of that lingering joint or muscle pain in a post-operative scenario. For example, if you have had a knee operation couple of years ago but still experience random knee-pain events without a direct causal factor - you are dealing with a muscle imbalance chronic injury. In this scenario it is very easy to blame the doctor of having done a less-than satisfactory job but the real issue lies in rehabilitation - of being satisfied with mere pain-free range of motion and resumption of daily activities. Whereas, your muscle and joint have not been programmed properly for resuming a fitness-oriented lifestyle. After a knee operation when your leg is in a cast, there is muscle loss / atrophy that sets in. For a knee joint, there are 7 major muscles that make it work. They all experience muscle loss but in various gradations. During rehabilitation, they also recover at various gradations. Pain-free range of motion doesn't depend on the this, but the strength of the joint definitely depends on you gaining 100% of these capabilities in every muscle back. So, if you want to pursue fitness - which simply put is the process of getting stronger - then you will need all 7 muscles working at 100% capabilities.
So what can you do about a muscle imbalance chronic injury? Let me first start with what NOT to do - take painkillers. They will only work on the symptoms and you will have many more years with the same pain coming back in waves. Such injuries can be cured ONLY through exercises - which can rebalance the capabilities of your affected muscles and the joint.
Whom do you go to for help in such cases? Sports therapists like me are trained to decipher the muscle imbalances through various tests and can help you get to the root of the problem. Sports medicine professionals and Sports Physiotherapists can also help you with non-invasive techniques to cure your injury.
So as you embark on your fitness journey, I hope you never have to use these tips but if you unfortunately encounter an injury, I also hope that after reading this, you are able to make informed decisions and recover as soon as possible.
SPECIAL NOTE:
DOMS - The good natured imposter among the gang of injuries…
There is one more type of ‘pain’ emerging from exercise which is wrongly perceived as ‘injury’. Everybody has experienced that body pain which sets in for the first 2-3 days after starting a rigorous fitness regime. Sometimes, it is so debilitating that daily activities which could be done easily become painful! Worry not! This is in fact a very desirable situation! In exercise physiology, we call it DOMS - Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness and it is a sign of good recovery happening in your body! So, every time you resume fitness after a long gap and experience this syndrome, please power through this ‘sweet pain’ and continue your fitness journey.
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