Should This Injury Stop Me From Working Out?

For the last three weeks we have been putting our clients through the our most intense program yet, nicknamed the Hell phase these have been some of the most intense and grueling workouts seen at Raw Strength, the aim? to promote maximal fat loss and stimulate some serious muscle gain.

These kinds of workouts are not without their drawbacks however, due to the impact on the body and relentless nature of the exercise, we have noticed a number of clients complaining from aches and pains in their lower back and knees.

It's understandable and to be expected, when we push our bodies to the limit it is natural to pick up strains and minor injuries, it happens to the best of us, however it is not an excuse to miss workouts and stall your progress.

I’ve been there myself, in the run up to the lacrosse world championships i was pushing myself every day to be better, hitting the gym 3 times a week at Raw Strength, doing sprint conditioning twice weekly and playing lacrosse over 10 hours spread over the evenings and the weekend. It was inevitable that at some point my body would give in on me.

This has been the case now over the course of the last eight years. I have always been  leading up to the next championships, i have very rarely had a traditional “off season” and have never had a prolonged break from the gym.

Over those eight years i have suffered and recovered from a host of injuries which most people would take as major set backs to training: torn hamstrings, a locked spine, a broken wrist, a broken ankle, and multiple muscle pulls and strains. I have however not used any of these injuries as an excuse to miss a gym session.

Serious injuries of course meant that I have had to miss games and lacrosse training sessions, but my gym work has stayed consistent and because of this I recovered from my injuries and went to those tournaments stronger than ever.

I can hear you asking the question now, how i could continue to train consistently while suffering from serious injuries?                                                                                                                                                          The first key was expert programming and coaching.  Raw Strength is a private gym with top notch coaching talent. We are lucky that we have the knowledge and freedom to prescribe exercises to best benefit our clients individually. As a member of Raw Strength i was able to turn up three times a week rehab and work around my injuries while still achieving real progress towards my goals.

Bad back preventing me from dead lifting? i switched to glute bridges, iron cross and a selection of stretching and strengthening drills. Torn Hamstring? I limited myself to upper body and 1 leg box squats until my hamstring was strong enough to rehab correctly.

The second key was mindset, I didn’t WANT to let those injuries set me back, i didn’t accept that any little injury i picked up was enough to stop me. I did everything i could to get to the gym, i begged lifts off people when i couldn't drive myself and worked around every injury i had.

When i say worked, i worked HARD, ten times harder than i normally would because i had to make up for those injuries, if i couldn't work my legs then i could be found doing intense upper body circuits in the gym, i bought a hand bike as a cardio alternative and used it at home in intense intervals until i couldn’t move my arms any more. I had to make sure i was as strong as possible when i was fit again.

There is no excuse that an injury, long or short term should delay you reaching your goals, as a Raw Strength client you should be safe in the knowledge that we can help you achieve your goals despite any current injury, we can and will provide you with alternative rehabilitation exercises to get you back on track as soon as possible.

Stay Strong

Jay