Injuries/setbacks

An injury can set you back a good amount and it's frustrating and disappointing. I have had my share of setbacks due to acute injuries, overuse injuries, and health related setbacks. From my own personal experience through all of the times I was impacted by something that limited my ability to train I can tell you one thing that I did in each instance: I did what I could. I have seen many people in my years of training and coaching that stop almost altogether once there's a nagging pain. Sometimes it is necessary to stop to let something heal or you're physically incapable of something due to an injury, but what I am suggesting is to work around the pain as best as you can. There is usually a good amount that the lifter can still do to maintain strength and stay active and involved in what they enjoy doing. Another thing I have experienced is pain when lifting. When is it too much to bare and you need to stop? I can't answer this fully, but I can tell you I have worked through pain from tendinitis in various joints that lasted 6-9 months. I can't imagine what my life would have been like had I stopped until these pains went away completely. I can think of many times where I tried the week off completely and there was no change and sometimes the pain was worse after days of inactivity. Figuring out how to strengthen the areas around the pain site typically helps the recovery. Ok. So, I am not a physical therapist so much of what I am writing here is just me voicing my own experience and thoughts on training through injuries. Now let's talk more about how you as an athlete and how I as a coach would handle something like training through an injury or coming back after time off from an injury. First, I recommend avoiding movements that immediately cause pain. Discomfort is usually to be expected when there is still some healing going on and I do not believe all discomfort is to be avoided. However, if discomfort progresses to pain then that means the injury is not ready for the load or volume or the movement is a 'no go'. Partial movements are usually a great place to start. Things like Block Snatch, or Box Squats, or Power variations, limiting range of motion can be useful to avoid certain joint angles that effect the injury. I also like to use tempo work to focus on tension and balance; slowing things down can help the athlete feel more secure about moving through a range of motion they might be worried about. The intensity should be low at first. There is no need to try and get back to working weights fast. I would recommend that after an athlete warms up thoroughly and feels comfortable moving an empty barbell around then the most weight I would load them with is 40-60% on the first week back after an extended time away. As a coach I believe 70% is the start of working weight; it's on the low end of working weight, but this is the start. It's around 70% that an athlete will begin to feel that he/she can no longer perform the movement mindlessly without some aggression and intention. Depending on the degree of injury the athlete is coming back from or how long the time away was getting right to 70-75% might be a bit too much those first few days. Now my goal for the athlete would be to get them to 75-80% as soon as reasonably possible, but it will usually take a few weeks to build back confidence and stamina for working sets around 80%. Start light and only progress to weights you feel 100% confident about. The goal should be to get to ~80% over 1-2 training blocks. Training through discomfort. I would consult with a physical therapist if the pain persists for a few weeks. Usually a good PT will advise you regarding what you need to avoid. Once you know your limitations then you work around them. But, I'm here to tell you that you can train through discomfort and I don't believe stopping something altogether is worth the amount of time you'll get set back if you don't work around the issue. Figure out how you can keep going and do that. Modify things with partial range of motion. Lighten your loads and try tempo work. One thing I like to do is try to at least touch my minimums. 70%. If I can get some work in at 70% then I have done something that will help maintain my strength. Only being able to work at 70% isn't exciting and it's not ideal, but it's heavy enough to keep things going. It's much easier to get back up to 80% if you're starting from working at 70% for a period of time, but it's much harder to get to even 70% if you've been doing nothing for the same period of time.