Training is tough on the body. It’s challenging. You’re pushing yourself to new limits. Whether you’re just starting out with training or trying something new/harder as a seasoned veteran, sometimes that means you’re going to be really sore. But that’s perfectly normal.
Pain, on the other hand, is not normal. It may be difficult to tell the difference between general muscle soreness and an injury. It’s important not to ignore pain of any kind — and you should always let your trainer know if anything feels strange. They can give you peace of mind that it’s just normal soreness or suggest you get it checked out.
Prevention is Key
Before you start a new training program at Spindle, we screen your body for tightness, imbalances, asymmetries, areas of weakness, and compensations. Do you favor your left leg? Are your ankles super stiff? Do you have a lot of shoulder strain from hunching over a computer? Any issue you may have from just living your day-to-day life, we can put together a great foundation of movement patterns that will help correct any of your potential issues before they cause problems.
We provide a set of movements we call “correctives” at the beginning of every training session. These special moves are tailored for your body and get you warmed up and prepared for your training. Don’t be afraid to use them as your cool down at the end of a high-impact session too.
Besides correctives, one of the easiest ways to prevent an injury is rest. No matter how consistently you train or how great you feel, it’s important to take time to rest before your body sends you the rest signal. Maybe this doesn’t mean taking a day off; maybe it just means doing fewer reps or ditching the heaviest weights for a few days. Don’t let resting discourage you or how you feel about your training progress. You’re just giving your body what it needs so you can come back even stronger.
Injuries Happen
You can do all the right things for your body before, during, and after training and still sustain an injury. That’s okay. Injuries happen. So, what do you do when it does?
We already talked about rest, right? Well, keep doing that! You might want to push through your injury, especially if it doesn’t feel all that bad. When you do that, you could it way worse and be down for the count even longer.
You’re may feel better taking a few days off until the pain or injury subsides (depending on its severity, of course). Another option is to spend some extra time working on your mobility, using the foam roller, or doing some more low-key exercises that won’t aggravate your injury or cause others while you’re still healing.
It can be really hard to slow down when you’re so gung-ho with your training, but rest is just as vital and valuable as training regularly. It’s your body’s way of telling you just how hard you’ve been working. Often, a little break or some extra planning with your trainer will be worth it in the end.