*Warning, some cursing, and GAA talk ahead…
Tricky one…
You’ve got an injury..
How do you continue to train?
Should you be training at all?
What even caused the injury?
How do I get better faster?
So many questions..
1st and foremost, Injury happens.
It’s part of training, sport, life.
We do our best to program, mobilise and strengthen,
but despite the fact, injury seems to crop up.
Be it:
- An impact injury from a contact sport,
- Turning your ankle on an uneven training surface,
- Tearing a muscle in an explosive movement,
- Developing tendonitis from overuse of one joint or pattern,
- A ligament tear because your strength training has not allowed for connective tissue adaptation and you’ve now gotten strong enough to break yourself….
- Or simple waking up some morning with some ache or pain you can’t bloody explain!
Frustrating…
Most likely though, injury will hit us all at some point.
When and if it does, we must ask ourselves
“What am I training for?”
There are generally two answers.
- For health
- For competition
No. 1
Training for health, we need to take a big step back.
Being injured isn’t healthy…
So something went really wrong.
But if we get injured and we are training for health,
then we have just fucked the goal…
So let’s say we get a lower body injury, we can still work or upper body and mobility.
Likewise with an upper-body injury, we can generally still work our lower-body and mobility.
Should it be joint pain from running, impact injuries or over-use, we can focus more on strength training of another body part… and mobility…
Did I mention mobility!
Should the most of our training be strength based then we get a muscle or a joint injury then maybe we can start the work on the cardiovascular side of our training, so jump on a rowing machine, an exercise bike, or on the cross trainer, there are loads of options. Once again, mobility!
Remember, you are training to be healthy! Not to be injured.
Just a little note to people who run a lot “to be fit”.
There tends to be two type of runners.
1. An injured runner
2. An about to be injured runner.
Yes, runners get injured a lot. Ask anyone who has simply decided one day they are going to run a marathon…
Also,
should you be strength training and receiving injury to one limb, (wrist, elbow, shoulder)
Continue to train the non-injured side. A phenomena called Cross-Education will occur, where you can still maintain strength in the injured limb by working the un-injured one…
#mindblown
Number two
Training for a competition.
Where competition starts… health ends!
If you were training for a competition, then you are training for performance.
To perform, you need to be on the field…
If you rest an injury, you cannot get on the field..
Likewise, playing through the injury will not allow you to perform to your best…
This is where the dilemma is.
Do you
1. Train to maintain fitness levels, at the risk of making the injury worse hence inhibiting your ability to perform well on the day,
or
2. Sacrifice some training time and not be a sharp on the day, to allow the injury recover enough to allow you get through the entire game?
There are pros and cons to both scenario. One. If you rest the injury and reduce the amount of training you are doing you are not going to be in the sharpest condition come competition day.
Similarly if your coach has to pick you for the team and if they don’t see you training, they may not pick you anyway!
This is where honesty comes in. If your intentions are true, that you truly want to perform to your best, and that you want the team to perform to their best, you will choose the right option.
For example.
You have a joint injury (ankle, knee, wrist) You know in your heart and soul that you need to rest this injury in order for you to get through the game at the weekend. You’re feeling, sharp. Then have the discussion with your coach and let them know. Everything should be fine.
However, should there be somebody really close to replacing you on the team, a sub coming in, the fact the coach knows you’re carrying a knock and unable to perform at 100% your best, then maybe they’re going to go with the other option!
You need to weigh up whether you should train through this injury pretend everything is fine just so you can get on that field at the weekend. This is a selfie choice.
I’m not saying it’s wrong but it is the selfish one.
Remember what are your intentions are..
Do you want the team to do well? Or do you want YOU to do well?
Either way you have decided that you, performing in an injured capacity, are worth more to the team and the other person operating at 100%.
If you genuinely can’t say that, then maybe you’re better off taking the rest and allowing yourself to heal.
Is this a do or die game? Do you really need to play this one?
It’s funny(peculiar) talking about injuries, and I guess I’m writing this one with Gaelic football in mind as it is my own personal background…
But we can make a big deal out of injuries during the playing season. They are a huge deal and the only thing you hear the injured player talking about.
But in the off-season, those injuries are still there the same player never prioritises to fix them!
Christmas rolls over into January start back and all of a sudden this fucking injury that should’ve been solved in the winter period is now an issue again…
We all know that guy right..?
If this has happened to you, then you are “That guy”!
And that’s your fucking fault!
Who’s is the injury? Whose responsibility is it to look after your body? Yours. Get over yourself look after yourself, put on you big boy pants, prioritise yourself, look after yourself, be selfish and put yourself in a position to perform to your best.
Nobody wants to hear about your injury. The rest of the team (even though they may be your friends) want you to get the hell on with it and play!
Sorry, that’s a little rant over the same injured players time and time again, and almost brandish their injury as a fucking medal looking for sympathy… (I’m sure I was one of those at a stage)
So
Today is March 15th.
Two and a half months into the year.
Some clubs have two months training behind them.
When does the business end of the season start?
There are lots of games?
League games, small competitions, non-county player competitions etc.
What is the priority?
Championship of course. When will that happen?
Possibly August, possibly September depending on how the county team does.That leaves April, May, June, July all in which is time you should sort out an injury you may have now..
We spend so long “training”. Well training what? Running round the field doing fucking laps in January?
I get the idea of putting in a base level of fitness, but if you are injured then it’s not a priority.
Six weeks is more than off to get somebody physically fit.
Your injury, rehab and ball skills is the priority.
So if right now you are carrying an ankle injury that needs some rest. Stop running on it. Allow it to rest. Do not do impact exercise, use bike etc. instead.
When you are on your feet on the football field use it for skill-based work. Soloing the ball, Shooting, Passing. It is not important for you to be doing speed work and endurance running at this time of year. You need to sort your injury out.
The worst thing to happen here is for you to arrive at championship and still have this niggling of this injury.
That is the day you will regret not sorting it out sooner.
The reality is though, that you were training for performance. If you want to perform, more often than not, you will have to perform through injury. That is the reality.
This by the way, is not healthy. This is competition. You have made this decision whether you are aware of it or not. Accept it.
Do you think any Ballyboden/St.Enda’s or Castlebar Mitchells players carrying niggles are going to mention them at the risk of being left off the team on St.Patricks day?
Not fucking likely!
If it was a league game of less importance, the same niggle would be a much bigger deal!
So,
Consider,
Are you training for health or competition?
Choose your next step accordingly..
Accept there will repercussions some day.
#becomeyouranomaly
For help on your training or nutrition,
Get in contact
ronan@becomeyouranomaly.com
or
0863480038
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