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Isaac Callihan

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August 24, 2023

Injuries Happen. What to do NEXT!

The first thing you should do is take a breath.

Don’t panic. Stop what you are doing if the injury just occurred. Find your breath, let your heart rate slow, and do a slow body scan. Assess the situation over the next few days and test what movements hurt and what movements don’t.

Whether you've had musculoskeletal pain in the past or are currently dealing with acute pain or injury, understand this one crucial piece: pain is part of life. And with that pain comes the opportunity to grow and become stronger if you address your pain the right way.

Becoming reliant on quick fixes or ignoring it is not the way to go.

Try to avoid getting in the trap of constantly altering your exercises because something continues to hurt. If you are constantly subbing out exercises for months because specific ones hurt, you might be covering up a lingering issue. Are you losing out on your fitness progress? Is your ego getting in the way? Are you making it worse? Are you putting other body parts at risk from overuse? It might be time to rebuild your foundation.

Alter Range of Motion temporarily and build it back up

We do not want to avoid complete ranges of motion forever. The saying "if you don't use it, you lose it" applies here. Reducing ROM is meant to be a temporary substitution so that you can work over weeks or months to regain your range of motion. Then slowly start ramping it back up as your pain and other symptoms subside.

Focus on Specific Exercises

Any time a single spot is injured, it’s easy to just say “I’ll rest it” until it feels better. But rest doesn’t heal injuries. Relative rest is the more productive activity. Work the joints above and below, and work the joint that is injured in a way that doesn’t hurt with a light load and with lots of reps. For example, if you’re knee is injured, work your hips and ankles hardcore, and train your knee with isometrics or slow eccentrics.

Take a Holistic Approach to Rehab

Work on improving sleep, nutrition, and mental health. Your perception of pain plays a big role in its cure. It took me very long to learn this. You are not made of glass your body is resilient if you give it the right tools to help itself.

Isaac Callihan

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PS - if injuries are getting in the way of your performance or you're just tired of being in pain, CLICK HERE TO BOOK A FREE INTRO with of our amazing coaches and we'll help you develop a customized plan to get you out of pain FAST

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