SIGN UP FOR
YOUR FREE SESSION

Name:
Email:
Phone:
Comments:

FROM THE WOD BLOG

Click to View

Be realistic. Find the middle ground between giving an injury attention and not letting it dominate your life. If you ignore it (the ego in us wants to do this), things are going to get nasty. A few weeks of rehab will turn into 6 months or more. Or a surgery. On the other end of the spectrum: If you live it, you are going to let it affect your quality of life and possibly set back your recovery. Your brain fires more than 60,000 thoughts a day. If they are dominated by negative thoughts, how will that affect the cells in your body? Psycho-social effects are powerful. Don’t be a hero. We live in a hero culture. We glamorize those who push through WoDs despite pain and fatigue. Celebrate the games athletes who pushed through their injuries. But do me a favour – don’t tell the coach you are fine when you are not. They may have their Certs in Crossfit, but they are not certified in extra-sensory perception. You need to know that if you are going to play the “hero” game you are rolling the dice – is getting through that WoD worth months of rehabilitation? Don’t avoid the pain cave. Exercise works better than painkillers. Trust me. It also gives you that delicious rush of feel-good endorphins. When you are injured, this can be dangerous. You may come to rely on WoDs as pain (and mental) relief, only to return to the pain cave a few hours later. I relied so heavily this in late 2010 that I over trained and fatigued my adrenals. Not fun. Can you imagine giving up coffee? Losing your shit over really simple things? No? Then don’t trash your adrenals. You will have to experience some pain. It’s not going to kill you – unless you go to extremes trying to avoid it. Eat powerful and anti-inflammatory foods. Do not underestimate the power of fish oil, hydration, sleep, heat and ice. There are tons of advanced treatments out there. I am no stranger to decompression, Graston, Laser and ART. But you’ve gotta go low-tech. Ice, mobilize, correct and strengthen, stretch, and put some solid nutrition in that belly before a solid night’s sleep. Know pain. Hell is good. Inner 6th circle of hell is not good. Know the difference. If you feel like a vertebrae is going to shoot across the room and knock someone out, please stop. I was so shitty at this that my coaches had to resort to crouching in my face and asking me: “Carina: Good pain or bad pain?!” As soon as I’d grunt bad pain under my breath they’d take me out of the WoD. I’d be mad at them for 10 minutes, then relieved. I am not afraid to tell that you I couldn’t trust myself to tell the difference. I asked for help and got it. If it causes more pain, you need to stop doing it. The pages you wrote yesterday produced the story you have today. It didn’t work out. Knowledge is power. Understand the anatomy and physiology of your injury. This will help to remove the feeling of helplessness and deep frustration that happens early in an injury, or when things are not progressing as you expected. The body is a system. Don’t get obsessive about a specific problem area and ignore everything else. Treat the entire surrounding area. As I rebuilt my rotator cuff / scapular strength my thoracic spine pain (aka the epicentre of crappiness) improved considerably. Of course, it makes sense. They are connected. Western medicine likes specificity. You need a diagnosis and specific problem area to fix. Learn to also ask about the “theme” the connected parts that interact with your injury zone and how they might be affected. Recovery is not a linear progression. There are bumps in the road. You might slip on ice or take a spill and knock yourself back a few months. You might have to put a pause in your rehab program to take a few days to manage pain and rest. The body is an unpredictable, complex system. We don’t even fully understand it yet. Hey, that sounds familiar. It’s kind of like … Life. Get perspective. Talk to other people who had a similar injury. You need to see that you will come out on the other side ok. Forums or even people in your box can be a lifeline, especially when you are feeling isolated during rehab. Always have fun with your fitness, no matter the challenges you are facing If you are still Crossfitting, get over yourself. You will have to scale, or you will have to “MoDWoD” Really, nobody cares that you have your own WoD on a whiteboard. They are focused on getting through their last 20 box jumps. When you get caught up thinking about others, think about waking up inside your own body tomorrow morning. Was it worth it? Chill. Come down a notch, captain intensity. WoDs produce a high intensity mind set and high intensity life. Learn to appreciate a beautiful sunset during a walk (I am sure you’ve missed out on many beautiful sunsets due to the searing pain in your quads as you overhead lunge across the parking lot). Visualize. Where do you want to be? See yourself there. Everyone has different goals. For me, it changes every day. One day it might be doing a mini WoD, another day it might be getting into my car without being afraid of jabbing pain. Whatever the image, I have to set in my mind first thing in the morning. An idle mind is the devil’s workshop, my friends. Keep it full of powerful, positive imagery. Get thee to mobility WoD. Learn how to stay mobile and keep things loose. And get ready to dedicate more time to it. A few minute here and there will increase substantially. You just have to get over it. You will need to devote some serious time on this going forward. Don’t worry about whether you’ll be motivated enough to do this. If you hurt enough, motivation won’t be a question. You’ll do it. If you don’t do it, you’re not hurting enough. Cancel the reservations for your pity party. It’s ok to have a shitty few days here and there but get out, fast. And don’t drag people into it. Just ask them to slap some sense into you. Crossfitters love motivational shit. Throw out a request on your Facebook status and watch the feel-good quotes roll in! Put it into perspective. Mostly, I want to punch people in the face when they begin with “it could be worse” but it is quite effective. I am currently working through my program at the University gym, where every day at 1pm there is a community program. Clients relearn functional movement after a stroke, or do mobility exercises to manage chronic and degenerative conditions. And I’m pissed off because I can’t squat with a bar? I get over it quickly when I walk by the guy relearning how to use his legs on Tuesdays. Don’t let injury derail your diet. Your training load may have to be reduced significantly. Do not seek comfort in food. Double trouble. You may also experience some body composition changes. This is particularly important for the ladies: Do not let this get to you. Never let what is happening on the outside affect your motivation to fix the inside. There are many days where I resent what I see in the mirror, because I get caught up in the past (how fit I was last year) or the future (I need to get back in shape). It’s not about then, and it’s not about tomorrow. It’s about getting into the gym today and doing my exercises. Keep a journal. Log your progress: Setbacks and improvements, environments and circumstances. Moods and nutrition. You need to understand the factors that play a role in improvement and regression, and so do your treatment providers. Recording one improvement each day is incredibly helpful. With my injuries I’ve never been able to put a bar overhead. First time I did this a few months ago was AWESOME. I put little stars and smiley faces around this in my journal. That page is dog-eared now because I go back and read it. Other days are less awe-inspiring, like my entry of December 20th: “I did not drown my self-pity in chocolate today.” Yet it was a positive notch on the calendar during a crap week. Focus on what you can do. When I was sidelined from upper body exercises, I focused on building some damn strong legs. Now that I’m sidelined from everything except walking for a few weeks, I am focusing on meditation and relaxation techniques. I had no idea I walked around with my jaw and glutes clenched until I began this process! Do NOT ask how long it will take. This is one of the first questions that people ask on the Crossfit injuries thread. The body doesn’t work on a schedule. A short recovery estimate sets you up for disappointment when it does not happen. A long recovery estimate is just… well, it is depressing. Focus on what you have to get done today. Set very small and specific goals. Smash them. And celebrate them. Scratch PR tweets and adopt rehab progress tweets. Don’t be ashamed, your friends probably find your status update about overcoming a setback far more interesting and inspiring than your latest PR. Don’t be a hermit. It is doubtful that your box friends will allow you to become one, but it is still worth noting. Crossfit, hiking is enjoyable without the need to clean and jerk tree trunks overhead and race each other to the bottom. Hard to believe but there was a life before Crossfit! Trust me, it is still enjoyable if you cannot perform epic feats of fitness. Develop an interest in an activity that has nothing to do with working out. If your whole world is the box, it is going to be a very difficult experience stepping back for a bit. You need to maintain balance in life so that when one area is taken away temporarily, the world is not over. This is a crucial factor in keeping a positive mindset. It is ok to be pissed off and to have a shitty attitude some days (not too many). Why? Because dwelling in that pain cave for 24 hours makes you realize how much it sucks for yourself and others. You will have an epiphany and renewed motivation to get your shit together. It is also ok to be jealous. When my husband tells me he is off to smash a WoD or comes home from a WoD and talks about amazing life is. I want to respond with expletives. Sometimes I drop him at the box and go do an angry grocery shop. And then I go do my corrective work. Because I am motivated. Take ownership. The injury may be your own fault. Or it may not. But managing it is completely in your hands. Your first step to control is having understanding and a roadmap forward. The combination of confused and hopeless is disastrous. And if you are diagnosed with something that does not have a recovery attached to it, learn how to manage that condition and find some success stories. Loading...

CONNECT TO US

Crossfit Tulare
161 South Spruce Street
Tulare, CA 93724
(559) 901-6647

Copyright 2010 - Crossfit Tulare
This website does not provide medical advice and does not direct that you undertake any specific exercise or regimen. You must consent
to the Acceptable Use Policy and consult a physician before undertaking any activity described in this website/newsletter or any content related to it.