If you engage in activities that require physical activity on a regular basis, it is likely that you have experienced an injury due to overexertion at least once. Despite your best efforts, anybody can be injured.
It is important to heal correctly, but you can still exercise with an injury if you are careful. You need to protect the hurt area, but the rest of your body can probably keep moving.
Injury vs. Soreness
It is important to listen to your body, however, it is possible to mistake soreness for an injury. This may then affect what types of exercises are safe to do.
Some pain after exercise is less serious and goes away after a few days. This is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and is common among people who work out. The pain is usually a result of the body getting used to a new type of exercise, working out too hard, or not being warmed up enough.
The pain from DOMS can usually be treated with anti-inflammatory medication, rest, and something to soothe your muscles, like a hot bath. If you want to keep active, exercise usually need not be limited for safety reasons, though it may be uncomfortable and rest may be just what you need to get the most out of your next workout.
If you experience DOMS that is new, does not improve with treatment, or gets worse, it could be indicative of a more serious injury.
Exercising With an Injury
If you are injured, it is advisable to see a healthcare practitioner to make sure your injury is promptly diagnosed and treated. You can then work with the provider to find a routine that promotes healing but doesn't risk making the injury worse. Some injuries may call for you to take a break from activity altogether.
Listen to Your Health Care Provider
The advice your health care provider gives you about exercising with an injury will be based on where it is, how bad it is, and how healthy you are in general.
If you have an injury, your health care provider may recommend that you change the exercises you do, do your routine in a different way, or stop doing some activities until your injury heals.
Your health care provider can help design a resistance training program to help you stay strong while you're recovering. He or she may also refer you to a physical therapist who can suggest exercises to help heal your injury and strengthen the rest of your body.
You should do the exercises your health care provider or physical therapist recommends for as long as they recommend.
Modify Wisely
If you have an injured knee, your health care provider may tell you to avoid cardio or strength exercises that work the lower body. However, you can still work on your upper body unless your health care provider says otherwise. Try doing a sit-down workout routine. This will be a challenge, but it won't put pressure on the injured knee.
If you have an injury to your upper body, such as your shoulder or elbow, focus on lower-body exercises while you heal. You can also modify your routine by skipping exercises that require use of the injured part of your body. For example, if you've injured your arm, don't use hand weights for a few days.
If you have an injury in your lower body, you can try doing workouts that focus on upper-body strength instead. You should check with your doctor or physical therapist first to see what would be best for your situation.
Don't Work Through the Pain
It's important not to push yourself too hard after an injury. Even if you're feeling better, resist the temptation to jump back into your normal routine. If you feel pain in the injured part of your body, or any new pain, stop immediately. This is true even if the pain occurs while you're doing exercises that your doctor or physical therapist recommended.
If your pain is worsening or you experience new pain, speak with your doctor or physical therapist. If pain persists or begins while you are doing a modified workout, you might be able to fix it by trying a different exercise. However, sometimes it may be best to stop completely – particularly if the injury is making it hard to maintain proper form.
When you do not perform an exercise in the proper form, it not only decreases the effectiveness of the exercise, but also raises your risk for further injury.
Give Yourself Time to Recover
If you're injured and your healthcare provider recommends rest, it can be frustrating to take a break from working out, but it's important to listen to your body and give it the time it needs to heal. Pushing yourself to exercise when your body is telling you to rest can prolong your recovery time and make your injury worse.
Remember the POLICE Principle
The POLICE principle is more recommended than the RICE method for treating sports-related injuries.
- Protect: After an injury, protect the muscle or joint with rest and assistive devices as needed (such as crutches or a brace).
- Optimum Loading: While still protecting the injured area, begin to move it gently after a few days of rest. Then gradually increase movement and intensity.
- Ice: Icing can be helpful for reducing pain. Talk to your physical therapist about what's best for your particular injury.
- Compression: Wrap the area with an elastic bandage to help reduce swelling.
- Elevation: Use a pillow, ottoman, or block to keep the injured area elevated.
If you have an injury, you may be able to use a wrap, brace, or splint for support. Make sure that whatever device you use fits properly. Ask your doctor, physical therapist, or trainer for advice.
If you're just getting back into exercising, you might want to start with a less intense routine or work out less often, so your body has time to recover between sessions.
Prevent Future Injuries
After sustaining an injury, it is important to take some time to assess your routine and identify why the injury occurred. This will help you prevent future injuries. Consider why you may have sustained an injury and make any modifications you feel are necessary. A personal trainer can help with making these calls.
A spotter could have helped avoid injury by monitoring the workout and actively ensuring safety with weights. Pushing too hard or too far past limits can lead to injury, so it's important to warm up properly and use correct form.
Doing a variety of exercises that work different muscle groups is important for a well-rounded routine. Make sure you're including exercises that target different areas of your body.
While an injury is never desired, it can remind you of a few important lessons:
- Avoid overtraining: When your muscles are tired, they can't support and protect your ligaments and tendons. Weak muscles can lead to overtraining injuries. Give yourself regular rest and recovery days.4
- Maintain flexibility and balance: Tight muscles cause imbalances that can lead to injuries.5 For example, if your quadriceps (front of the leg) are stronger than your hamstrings (back of the leg), you're at risk for straining or evening rupturing your hamstrings.
- Strengthen your whole body: Make sure you incorporate regular weight training into your weekly routine. Strengthening all muscle groups reduces imbalances that case other muscles to overcompensate.6
6 Common Injuries You Should Never Try to Train Through
1. Stress Fractures
These are microscopic breaks that often occur in the feet, pelvis, or in the tibia and fibula. They are often called “shin splints.” Symptoms include pain that worsens when pressing on the area, single-leg hopping, or running.
Why do stress fractures happen? Stress fractures are a result of putting more stress on your bones than they can handle, typically by ramping up high-impact exercises, including running and plyometrics, too quickly.
Slow down: If you're constantly putting stress on your bones without giving them time to recover, you're setting yourself up for a stress fracture. “It's important to understand that, when you have a stress fracture, you have already damaged the bone,” says Julie Khan, P.T., D.P.T., a board-certified specialist in sports physical therapy and advanced clinician with the James M. Benson Sports Rehabilitation Center at Hospital for Special Surgery. “The best thing you can do is give your body a chance to heal by taking some time off from impact activities.” That means no running, jumping, or other high-impact activities until your fracture has healed. In the meantime, focus on low-impact activities such as cycling, swimming, running in the pool, and strength training.
2. Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome
Patellofemoral pain syndrome, also known as “runner's knee,” is a condition where the kneecap rubs on the thighbone, causing pain at the front of the knee. This is a common symptom that can be accompanied by activities such as going down stairs, squatting, and exercising, according to Melanie Strassberg, a physical therapist at Professional Physical Therapy in Mamaroneck, New York.
The most common cause of kneecap pain is muscle and strength imbalances in the quads and hips, as well as excessive tightness in the connective tissues surrounding the knee, Strassberg says. It is most common in women and young adults.
Stop running if you have runner's knee, as it will only make the condition worse. Talk to a sports physical therapist to find out which strength-training exercises will help you. In the meantime, you can stay in shape by cycling, swimming, or using the elliptical.
3. Achilles Tendonitis
The Achilles tendon is the strongest and thickest tendon in the body, connecting the calf muscles to the heel bone. It is also frequently injured. Acute injuries can range from mild damage of the tendon to a complete rupture, which requires surgical repair. The pain is often felt at the heel and back of the ankle (you may notice a bump of scar tissue), which can feel tight or swollen. Discomfort may decrease a bit as the area loosens, making it tempting to continue to work out through the pain.
One of the reasons why Achilles injuries commonly occur is because people tend to put a lot of pressure on the tendon. This is especially the case for those who have weak calf muscles. According to Weiss, this type of injury is more common for men than it is for women.
Push through it, and Achilles injuries can progress into chronic degeneration, called Achilles tendinosis, or a complete tear of the tendon, requiring surgical reattachment, she says. If you're experiencing pain, pump the breaks and cross-train with cycling over swimming. When you first return to running, reduce your stride length, avoid speed workouts, and stay on flat surfaces.
4. Hip Pain
Hip pain in endurance athletes can be caused by hip impingement, gluteal tendinitis, iliotibial band syndrome, tendinitis, tears, or stress fractures, according to Khan.
Hip pain can have a variety of causes, including decreased core and gluteal stability, increasing exercise intensity and duration before your bones and muscles are strong enough to handle it, or even how your bones sit in their joints. If you're experiencing hip pain, Khan suggests seeing your local sports physical therapist to determine the source of the pain and figure out why you're having it in the first place.
The text is saying that you should stop working out if you feel hip pain, because continuing to exercise will only make the pain worse.
A hamstring strain is a sudden pain or spasm that occurs at the upper leg or buttocks. It occurs when the muscle tears, Weiss says. These tears can range from microscopic to a complete detachment. While tears are relatively uncommon, they require swift doctor intervention and surgery—and are accompanied by intense bruising and swelling.
Imbalances in the hamstrings, quads, and glutes are typically the cause of hamstring strains, but a weak core and lack of a proper warm-up before exercise can also contribute, Weiss says. (Also, sitting all day can lead to hamstring tightness.)
Do not overstress your hamstring by running too much too soon, as this will only make the injury last longer. Instead, focus on other exercises to help keep yourself in shape while your hamstring heals. Once the pain goes away, you can start to slowly run again and then gradually increase your mileage.
6. Lower Back Pain
Often, though, the source is not immediately clear. low back pain is something that a lot of athletes and lazy people have in common. It can be in one specific spot or it can go down the leg. Usually the source is not clear.
One possible reason for low back pain is weak core muscles. Another reason may be improper movement patterns. Additionally, overworking the muscles that support and stabilize the pelvis and spine may lead to low back pain.
RELATED: 6 Exercises to Help Lower Back Pain
It is important to pump the breaks if you are experiencing back pain because it might turn into chronic back pain. Talk to a physical therapist or spinal health expert to learn exercises that can help depending on the cause of the back pain.
