Keep up the fitness despite the small aches and pains
My chronic injury that lasted almost a year and a half is finally giving up. I am happy, I can run and bike faster and further. Yet, last week, my knee let me down, and I thought: "Why?Why are you not letting me enjoy a completely pain free period of training?"
Well ... guess what?
If you are an elite age group athlete, who puts in about 25 to 30 hours of training each week, you will always have small aches and pains...like, always or almost always! Some serious ones some not so serious ones. I have an IT band syndrome (hey, it's one of the most common running inflammations!) and once every so often it hits me on the outside part of my meniscus. This means pain every time i flex my knee, pain when I go up and down the stairs or when I sit at my desk for too long.
The well-known RICE (Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation) works miracles.
One of the things my chronic injury taught me is how to deal with other major or minor injuries and how to work around them:
1. I don't get depressed. I put a lot of hours during the week, I am asking a lot from my body. Injuries are expected and I have to deal with them.
2. I take care and respect my aches and pains. Every time there is a problem that I know it's not going to leave me within a day, I take an extra day of massage, I rest it, I stretch it, I ice it (i.e. RICE).
3. I use my massage toys twice a day: foam rollers, lacrosse or tennis balls, balance balls, and all sorts of trigger points devices.
4. I use my extra free time to read that medical or fitness article or that athlete's bio I have always started and not finished because I kept on falling asleep at 9pm every night. These can be so motivating!
5. I chose a type of training that does not interfere with my injury (in my current case, I swim and lift more).
6. I am patient: when the inflammation goes away, I get back to training slowly and steadily.
KEEP it up!
RICE your injury!
ASK for medical advice if the pain persists for more than a week!
BE patient and you will come back stronger!
If you are an elite age group athlete, who puts in about 25 to 30 hours of training each week, you will always have small aches and pains...like, always or almost always! Some serious ones some not so serious ones. I have an IT band syndrome (hey, it's one of the most common running inflammations!) and once every so often it hits me on the outside part of my meniscus. This means pain every time i flex my knee, pain when I go up and down the stairs or when I sit at my desk for too long.
The well-known RICE (Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation) works miracles.
One of the things my chronic injury taught me is how to deal with other major or minor injuries and how to work around them:
1. I don't get depressed. I put a lot of hours during the week, I am asking a lot from my body. Injuries are expected and I have to deal with them.
2. I take care and respect my aches and pains. Every time there is a problem that I know it's not going to leave me within a day, I take an extra day of massage, I rest it, I stretch it, I ice it (i.e. RICE).3. I use my massage toys twice a day: foam rollers, lacrosse or tennis balls, balance balls, and all sorts of trigger points devices.
4. I use my extra free time to read that medical or fitness article or that athlete's bio I have always started and not finished because I kept on falling asleep at 9pm every night. These can be so motivating!
5. I chose a type of training that does not interfere with my injury (in my current case, I swim and lift more).
6. I am patient: when the inflammation goes away, I get back to training slowly and steadily.
KEEP it up!RICE your injury!
ASK for medical advice if the pain persists for more than a week!
BE patient and you will come back stronger!
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