What are the benefits of continuing to train when you're injured?
Not sure that I'd need to say much more as most of my clients are absolutely desperate to continue to train when they're injured! But keep reading so that you can do it in the right way.
You might find that some tricks aggravate your injury, it is important to give these particular tricks a rest to allow yourself the space to heal. But you may also find that there is quite a bit you can still do... So why can't you keep doing those things? Well, you absolutely can!
For example, you might be suffering with a shoulder injury that is aggravated by spins and arms only. Though you might find that short arm positions, such as inverting and shoulder mounting, don't seem to upset your injury. Brilliant, you have some tricks that you can train! That's not to mention the copious amount of leg dominant tricks that you can do whilst letting your shoulder rest.
2. You'll keep your strength up
Bonus of point number one... You are much less likely to lose your strength which is one of the biggest ways to help you heal from most soft tissue injuries and reduce your risk of further injury.
Have you ever been injured and then told to 'rest and stop all activity' by a therapist, then as soon as you feel better and get back to activities the injury comes right back to taunt you? Well, unfortunately you have been given bad advice. You have become weaker and not actually healed the injury, just stopped aggravating it.
Rehab should be a chance to strengthen weaknesses. Not become inactive.
3. You'll reduce pain related fear
We all know that it's ok to feel pain sometimes, in fact its usually pretty helpful. We don't panic after we've stubbed our toe or accidentally pulled our own hair out when trapping it between the pole and our own sweaty thigh. So why is there such panic over the pain we get when we are injured? OK, not a really question, I do understand why this is a fearful situation. BUT when we know we've not done something serious, we want to try and reduce our fear by carrying on using the area in a smart way.
Pain does not mean damage, so some pain whilst training is OK! The pain I would suggest to my clients to try and avoid is pain that continues after you have stopped the activity. Some things just hurt in the moment and then go away, this is what I think we should try to become less fearful of.
Confidence and a positive outlook does wonders for pain and injury.
Practical Guidance
Cool, so what can we do?
Chances are, you have been pole dancing for a little while with your injury or painful bit (disclaimer: I am talking about chronic soft tissue injuries NOT traumatic injuries) so you have an idea of things that hurt and don't hurt. Be honest with yourself about the things that you should give a rest for a while then build some ideas of how you can continue to train using the areas you can still do relatively pain free - remember pain does not mean damage. It might be that classes are a bit much, so book some group training instead so you can plan your own session.
Ideally, see an injury therapist who can guide you through rehabilitation of your restricted and/or painful movements. The idea is that when you get back to pain free training, you won't feel like you have gone back a level or 2!
- You get to keep doing what you enjoy
Not sure that I'd need to say much more as most of my clients are absolutely desperate to continue to train when they're injured! But keep reading so that you can do it in the right way.
You might find that some tricks aggravate your injury, it is important to give these particular tricks a rest to allow yourself the space to heal. But you may also find that there is quite a bit you can still do... So why can't you keep doing those things? Well, you absolutely can!
For example, you might be suffering with a shoulder injury that is aggravated by spins and arms only. Though you might find that short arm positions, such as inverting and shoulder mounting, don't seem to upset your injury. Brilliant, you have some tricks that you can train! That's not to mention the copious amount of leg dominant tricks that you can do whilst letting your shoulder rest.
2. You'll keep your strength up
Bonus of point number one... You are much less likely to lose your strength which is one of the biggest ways to help you heal from most soft tissue injuries and reduce your risk of further injury.
Have you ever been injured and then told to 'rest and stop all activity' by a therapist, then as soon as you feel better and get back to activities the injury comes right back to taunt you? Well, unfortunately you have been given bad advice. You have become weaker and not actually healed the injury, just stopped aggravating it.
Rehab should be a chance to strengthen weaknesses. Not become inactive.
3. You'll reduce pain related fear
We all know that it's ok to feel pain sometimes, in fact its usually pretty helpful. We don't panic after we've stubbed our toe or accidentally pulled our own hair out when trapping it between the pole and our own sweaty thigh. So why is there such panic over the pain we get when we are injured? OK, not a really question, I do understand why this is a fearful situation. BUT when we know we've not done something serious, we want to try and reduce our fear by carrying on using the area in a smart way.
Pain does not mean damage, so some pain whilst training is OK! The pain I would suggest to my clients to try and avoid is pain that continues after you have stopped the activity. Some things just hurt in the moment and then go away, this is what I think we should try to become less fearful of.
Confidence and a positive outlook does wonders for pain and injury.
Practical Guidance
Cool, so what can we do?
Chances are, you have been pole dancing for a little while with your injury or painful bit (disclaimer: I am talking about chronic soft tissue injuries NOT traumatic injuries) so you have an idea of things that hurt and don't hurt. Be honest with yourself about the things that you should give a rest for a while then build some ideas of how you can continue to train using the areas you can still do relatively pain free - remember pain does not mean damage. It might be that classes are a bit much, so book some group training instead so you can plan your own session.
Ideally, see an injury therapist who can guide you through rehabilitation of your restricted and/or painful movements. The idea is that when you get back to pain free training, you won't feel like you have gone back a level or 2!
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