Are you constantly sore or injured?

Unfortunately, we mere mortals can at times feel the pain of injury and general day to day soreness.

For many, any kind of injury can be just the reason to cease all exercise and apply a more sedentary lifestyle. Unfortunately this tends to lead us nowhere and inevitably can exacerbate our problems. 

We have people come to us from all walks of life. Many have trained elsewhere; utilising different training ideologies, lifting form and nutrition. Some of these clients bring with them niggles and soreness, and it is our job to attempt to fix them and alleviate their pain whilst still helping them get the body that they so sorely crave. 

Unfortunately, with injury there is no hard and fast rule that you can apply to every person. However, stopping exercise completely can often make things much worse. 

Many injuries occur from existing conditions; some people are extremely tight or inflexible in certain areas of their bodies and this can often lead to injuries with muscle groups associated with said tightness or inflexibility. The most important thing to do when experiencing pain is to see a professional. A physiotherapist or someone with experience and qualifications in determining and fixing issues related to pain (such as our head coach, Chris Ismail) should be your first port of call. As specified earlier, a sore point or injury is often the source of tightness through a differing yet still connected part of the body. Fit example, many people with back pain can have trouble with their hips and glutes; if these muscle groups aren’t strengthened or alleviated, the pain will continue. Simply treating the back will not rectify the situation. 

Next, it’s time to work. Rehab. You’re going to need to do the work to get it to feel better. Yes, this means getting your butt into the gym, doing it at home or working with a rehabilitation specialist. Many people stop completely, sit on their bum and expect everything to just magically repair itself. Yes, the body will repair some things to a certain extent by itself.... the human body is a tremendously resilient entity. However, sitting around and resting only works to a point, and eventually you will put on weight, which creates more tension and load on your body, which will invariably lead to re-injury and an even greater and more tedious road back. If your specialist gives you stretches, foam rolling, massage, etc make sure you do it.

Finally you’ll need to strengthen the area, and those surrounding it, with strength training. Not only can doing weights help to strengthen your muscles and improve resilience of the body, but it can also help to correct postural issues that manage to derail so many people’s health (namely poor posture, weak glute muscles and poor hip strength). Many people steer away from doing weights, but when done correctly it increases strength in the entire body and is key in preventing further injuries. 

Once you have strengthened the intended areas you need to keep up a regime that continually promotes strength and health to the entire body. Being proactive is the best preventative strategy for injury. 

If you are getting injured too much, then it’s time to look at other factors such as bodyweight, diet and exercise habits. These all play a key role in determining whether you will re-injure yourself. If you are too heavy you will increase the load on your body joints, ligaments and tissue and if you are not eating correctly you will have increased swelling and soreness in your joints. If you are continually injuring yourself exercising (running, cross-training or lifting weights) you may need to temper or change the way you train. 

Regardless of your situation, the stronger your body is, the better it becomes at handling injuries. 

Make strength a priority and focus on the steps to recovery once you get injured. Injury can be a great teacher; learn from it. 

Have a happy and healthy day.

MPT Transformations