Injuries suck!

Injuries suck.

So often they come when you’ve just got into a new exercise routine or movement practice. You’re feeling great, noticing positive changes in your body and its keeping you inspired to keep moving with the practice.

And then you get an injury. Maybe if it’s a small one you are in denial at first, you think you can “push through”, but it persists or gets worse.

For me it was the achilles.

I’ve just started running this summer - while I love resistance training, cardio has never been my strong point and I’ve always been pretty adverse to running. However after some family heart-related health scares and inspired by my partner who has got back into running in a pretty epic way this year, I was determined to make it stick this time.

I thought I’d prepped myself really well! Although I’ve not had any previous issue with ankles, my studies with Luke Davies had inspired me to incorporate specific ankle strengthening into my regular routine, for quite a while prior to actually getting running.

But you just never know…

It started off on the left ankle, I can remember the specific run but it didn’t seem to happen from a twist or sprain that I noticed. It was just suddenly sore each time I landed on it.

And for a while it wasn’t too bad… I think I carried on for a couple of weeks 3 times a week, probably noticing it but ignoring it, until one day I walked to the shops after the run and was limping really badly. It hurt a lot. Rest was clearly what it needed!

When I say “rest” however - I wasn’t putting my feet up! What’s important is “relative rest” - finding ways to keep moving in other ways while the affected body part is healing, and then getting it moving as soon as possible.

Luckily my ankle had calmed down enough to be able to walk without limping the next day. The fact that it had calmed down so quickly suggested to me that there wasn’t any tissue damage, but that I hadn’t increased my running as gradually as I thought I had and had caused my nervous system to react and send out alarms for me to slow down!

All that impact on the joints after 44 years of not doing it is no joke!

So walking it was, lots of it! And jumping! I started that super-small - just a couple on both legs, waiting 24 hours to see if anything flared up and if not, gradually progressing eventually managing single leg jumps for a period of time, before I went back to running.

What’s important to note was that with the jumping, sometimes I would still feel some pain in the achilles. At this point I would check in with myself and decide if it was “mild, moderate or unacceptable” pain.

In order to progress it is necessary to be able to work with a little pain - and this is going to be totally different for everyone. Provided there is no worsening or flare-up within 24 hours, you should be ok to proceed. And if there is - no need to worry - you have just “pushed the envelope” a little too far beyond your current capabilities - take it back a little and then continue to increase, even more gradually. It sometimes takes a little trial and error to find the pace that works for your body - but it will always adapt!

I have been gradually progressing my run distance sooo slowly. Often I feel I could do more but I’m sticking to the slow progression I’ve set myself so I can really allow my body to make the adaptations it needs to for longevity. Often when I start the run, my achilles is very grumbly but as I progress it eases off, so I know I am on the right path!

I’m very grateful to have this understanding about how pain works so I can keep moving my body confidently, and that even though there is pain, I am giving it the nourishment it needs!

If you need some help understanding how YOUR pain works and what you can do to move confidently beyond pain, shoot me a message here!