How do you strengthen an injury?

It’s a simple yet complicated process, strengthening and injury.

The list below looks straightforward, but as we will see from an example of my own shoulder, injuries can be much more than they seem. The basic process is – Fitness First Aid (1. Deduction, 2. Building the Band-aid, and 3. Review.) then… TIME and NOTICING.

For detail on the stages of Fitness First Aid, see my last newsletter. In this article I will share some examples of the time it takes and what we need to notice.

WHEN TIME IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE:

Tissues can take up to 12 weeks to heal (again, see Fitness First Aid) but sometimes there’s a significant hang over that happens beyond tissue healing, especially for chronic injuries. For some people with chronic injuries, solving them can take years, because their body has created a neurotag, where a particular situation or movement causes pain, even if there’s no physical injury. For more info on what a neurotag is and how they work, see the work of Lorimer Moseley, pain scientist – here’s a brief video and starting point > https://youtu.be/zqO5xr4FwcQ.

This is why it’s SO IMPORTANT and life-changing to address injuries as they arise, work through them with consistency and avoid reinjury. In other words, look after your body now and it will look after you. Ignore your body at your own peril.

WHEN TIME IS ON YOUR SIDE:

In the short term, we are less likely form neurotags, which means we have less problems to solve. But even with minor injury there will be compensation patterns, so having someone check your movement after injury (yes, this includes birth injury, slips and trips and things like whiplash from car accidents) is always helpful.

Let’s use my shoulder example from Fitness First Aid. It appeared to be an acute problem, with an event (toss to bridge) that I could point to, however I have been giving the rehab plan I was given by Tash (and now an update by David) a solid go and still feeling like it’s not quite solved. There’s still a bit more time to go before I really worry, but throughout the process I have been noticing my own behaviour, and it turns out that this problem may not be acute.

NOTICING:

Much of our movement is subconscious (this is a general statement, some people with very active minds are constantly aware of their movement), and only when we pay attention to what we are doing, the small daily tasks, do we really learn where our movement issues come from.

For me? Picking up and putting down weights. My left shoulder doesn’t set back automatically like my right one, and I am in a bad habit of putting the left weight back first, which means I don’t rotate well (you guys lift HEAVY and I am bracing my core) and I let the left shoulder pull forward to compensate.

Now when I put your gear away or set it up, I am telling myself to set my shoulders. I also tend to slump my shoulders when I drive, wear a backpack and sit at my desk. My right shoulder has always sat a bit forward of my left so I am very aware of that one needing to be tucked back, but the left was largely left to it’s own devices. Now, it’s part of my rehab to do the correct pattern all the time – shoulders back and slightly up. Everywhere, every time I remember.

Many clients get awesome results by noticing the things they are doing to contribute to their injuries. Maybe it’s getting into that too low car and pissing a knee off, reaching over to the back seat to give the kid a snack and pinging that shoulder, or carrying a bag only on one side and annoying the lower back.

Injuries don’t happen in a vacuum, most happen over time and in small ways, and then BOOM you’re being flipped up and suddenly all the times you’ve let the shoulder slip into a bad pattern really matter.

Are there any things that you do that are contributing to the injuries or niggles you’re trying to solve? What can we do that is easy and gentle to solve them? Next week I will go through some low-impact examples of injury recovery exercises.

If there’s a topic you want discussed, please email me! Sally.bromley@live.com.au