Injury rehab is tough, tough, tough. As my wife wrote here, it’s not a linear process and it can take much longer than you think. Something that is particularly difficult is navigating the line between being cautious and attentive while also being consistent.
Injury Rehab Requires Attention
The first thing to say when you are dealing with an injury is that you must be attentive and patient with the problem. In today’s fitness landscape it can be tempting to go too quickly and to push too hard. Defnitely err on the side of caution and listen to what your body is telling you.
That being said…
Caution Should Not Interrupt Consistency
I have seen many people – including myself – get stuck in a never endings cycle that looks like this:
Try a new plan -> feel better -> have a setback -> try a second new plan -> feel better -> have a setback -> try a third new plan -> feel better -> have a setback -> try a fourth new plan…you get the picture.
The problem with this approach is that it may interrupt the body’s process of adaptation. The body changes in response to repeated stresses. Stresses that come and go only sporadically are not going to elicit much change, and that can prevent progress.
Walking The Line
Sometimes, recovery will be an up and down process. You might be doing all the right exercises and feeling like you are getting better, and then suddenly have another setback. This does not automatically mean you have done something ‘wrong’, it may just be a normal bump in the road. Of course, it is easy to push too hard too fast. Thus, the really tricky part is knowing how to straddle the line between pushing forward and pushing too far.
My advice would be to seek out professional help if you have an injury and look for these things:
- Your care provider should articulate a clear plan.
- Your care provider should be flexible and responsive to your body’s signals, without radically altering the plan every week.
- Your care provider should reassure you that not every setback is a signal that something has gone wrong.
Good luck!
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