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Break the Injury Cycle

Balanced • Mar 28, 2017

You’ve recently recovered from an injury, so you started a new workout program, and now you’ve just suffered another injury. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. It’s a common problem that lots of people face. The trick to breaking the cycle is in understanding the cause.

Exercise and rehabilitation is predicated on the SAID principle. This refers to the S pecific A daptation to I mposed D emand. Let’s break it down. We all have our own unique stress line – that limit within each of us that, if breached, will result in injury. This holds true for each system in our body – cardiovascular (heart, blood vessels, lungs) and musculoskeletal (bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons). When we start a new exercise program, we start stressing these two systems. We push too hard and we suffer injury, don’t push hard enough and we don’t gain any results. So how do you overcome this conundrum? Strike a balance on exertion load over time.

When we safely exert ourselves up to the point of our unique stress line, our bodies adapt over time to tolerate increased levels of strain – elevating our individual limits. Think of it like this – you get winded while walking to get the mail, but you keep doing the activity for a week and in the end, you’re less winded over time. On the flip side, exerting yourself below your systems’ stress line, and your body has no reason to adapt and adjust. The key is to operate between the lines.

Here are a few injury risk signs that indicate need for increased recovery time:

Experiencing pain during your activity
Experiencing pain after your activity
Muscle stiffness the next day

It’s important to listen to your body and not overdo it. The concept of “no pain, no gain” is a fallacy. When starting a new program, it’s a good idea to meet with your chiropractor or physical therapist. They should evaluate your fitness, sleep patterns, and diet – and can help you learn the best movements for your fitness level to avoid risk and injury.

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