How to train around an injury
For many people, an injury can mean losing valuable motivation and progress toward their fitness goals. Whether it be a minor or major injury, a desire for a fast recovery is usually the priority, and this often comes at the sacrifice of the activities we love. Whilst rest is crucial, there are still ways to train safely and effectively, and that may even aid the recovery process.
Accelerate Healing
Ben Andrews (MSc S&C, BA ExSc, ASCA), one of Absolute’s personal trainers, says that a regimen designed for you around your injury can even accelerate the healing process.
“When we strain or tear a muscle; contraction, blood flow and movement can help aid the healing process by increasing nutrients to the muscle fibres and strengthen the surrounding tissues,” says Ben. “In a joint injury such as a ligament sprain, increasing the strength of the supporting muscle groups can decrease pain sensitivity, improve movement and allow for greater range of motion at the joint.”
Aerobic and resistance training to a targeted muscle not only helps to build health and supporting muscle mass, but also enhances vascular connections and formation of new capillaries, promoting blood and oxygen flow to those targeted areas (1). A study conducted by Ohio State University even found that regular exercise may speed up the healing process of wounds by as much as 25 percent (2).
Modify Your Routine
When it comes to optimising your workout to promote the healing of your injury, personal trainer Ben says the key is in modifying your routine, not missing out.
“The goal of training around an injury should be to change certain exercises to allow for your injury, rather than missing the exercise or movement completely,” he says.
“For example, you may have injured your knee, in many cases, you may be told to avoid squatting. However, instead of completely missing or the avoiding exercise, it could be modified to suit your injury. Try a shorter range of motion, use a step up instead, maybe a split squat? Changing the exercise means you can still work towards your goals, rather than moving further away.”
Making your movements smaller and staying within a pain-free range of motion will also keep you mentally in the best state to exercise. This is crucial, as research indicates that positive internal motivation and mindset whilst exercising significantly reduces rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and increases endurance performance (3).
Cross-Education
If you are managing an injury that may be immobile, whether through binding or general sensitivity, research suggests that exercising the opposite side of your body to the injury site will still provide benefit to the healing process. Absolute’s Ben offers this advice: “Sustained an injury on your left side, train your right. By exercising your opposing limb, your injured side can actually get stronger. This phenomenon is known as cross-education.”
Cross-education, where the strength training of a single limb in turn increases the strength of the untrained limb, has gained a great deal of scientific interest due to its potential to minimise strength loss and enhance recovery in patients with single limb injury or impairment (4).
“When you’re only training one side, the opposing side gets stronger by forming and strengthening neural pathways,” says Ben. “Shoulder in a sling? Try a single arm dumbbell bench press. Moonboot? Try a single leg step up. In both of these instances, the injured side will actually get stronger.”
A study by Deakin University found that eccentric contraction of the uninjured limb could be used for injury rehabilitation to the effect of a 47% strength increase in the untrained limb against the sample group who did not practice cross-education training (5).
In Conclusion
An injury does not have to take you away from exercise, and in many cases, regular modified workouts will help you maintain strength and accelerate your healing.
“At the end of the day, there is always something that can be done with modifications,” Ben Andrews notes, “Work around your injury and work towards your goal, rather than waiting and letting your goals get further away.”
Are you unsure how to get started after an injury?
Book a Free discovery call and you can speak with an accredited personal trainer who can give you the guidance to safely return back to what you love.
-
1. University of Rochester Medical Centre. (2020, April 01). Physical and Sports Therapy. Retrieved from University of Rochester Medical Centre: https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/MediaLibraries/URMCMedia/noyes/migrated-media/PT-Blog-April_1.pdf
2. Ohio State University. "Exercise Helps Speed Wound Healing In Older Adults." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 9 January 2006. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060106134716.htm>.
3. Blanchfield, Anthony William et al. “Talking yourself out of exhaustion: the effects of self-talk on endurance performance.” Medicine and science in sports and exercise vol. 46,5 (2014): 998-1007. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000000184
4. Farthing, J. P., Krentz, J. R. & Magnus, C. R. A. 2009. Strength training the free limb attenuates strength loss during unilateral immobilization. J Appl Physiol, 106, 830- 836.
5. D.J. Kidgell, A.K. Frazer, T. Rantalainen, I. Ruotsalainen, J. Ahtiainen, J. Avela, G. Howatson, “Increased cross-education of muscle strength and reduced corticospinal inhibition following eccentric strength training, Neuroscience, Volume 300, 2015”,Pages 566-575,ISSN 0306-4522, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.05.057.(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306452215004996)
