April 28, 2023 “What’s Got You Stuck?”
Congratulations you made it through your first week of bootcamp. For many of you this is the first time you have moved your body in a long time, you have aches and pains, fears, and concerns. This week I have heard that from a lot of you, you are living in fear of previous injuries or fear of failing to lose weight or to reach your goals, and this is almost hindering your ability to move forward with your new fitness plan. Our past shapes our present and helps us identify who we are and where we are headed. So, it’s natural to use our past experiences as a point of reference for our current situation. The choices we make for ourselves today are often influenced by our past. If we are using healthy judgment to guide our choices, then past regrets, mistakes, failures, and pain are used as markers for what we do not want in our lives. However, for some, the past is not seen as a place of reflection but as a destination. For those who struggle with letting go of past pain or regret, they can feel trapped by their situation and unable to move forward in their lives. Feeling unable to let go of past injuries can lead to lack of progress in your healthy improvement journey, causing you to become stuck. You won’t try the advance moves; you won’t push yourself harder and finally you fail to accomplish your fitness goals because you are living in the past injuries or failures.
As an athlete since the age of 7, I have personally experienced MANY failures and injuries from shin splints, countless pulled muscles, several major abdominal surgeries, unbelievable pain, and a dislocated shoulder that many people told me would NEVER completely heal. All I can say is “But for God and not for man”! Not only is my shoulder FULLY healed, but I am also doing things like one arm pull ups, inverted push-ups, things other people deem impossible at 52 years of age. My journey is no different than anyone else, I am most certain that I will have another injury prayerfully minor. I just choose and believe that my God is a healer, I learn from what got me in that situation and I take much more time to recover properly. I choose to not be stuck.
Now don’t get me wrong I truly do understand why it’s hard to move past your past because pain has a way of making us feel stuck. Injuries stay with you and if you grow concerned or afraid that you might reinjure yourself you get stalled. You limit your mobility for fear you will only hurt again. One of my clients said she wasn’t going to kickboxing this Friday because the last time she did kickboxing she felt she aggravated her knee and every time it’s offered, she is concerned that she will reaggravate it again. It doesn’t matter that she is running every run day or doing all the other workouts, her fear has stopped her from doing the kickboxing class. So instead of doing the workout and strengthening her knee with each kickboxing class, she avoids it.
Fear-avoidance beliefs can influence how we functional in activities of daily living and sports. You either must confront your fear which will enable recovery from an injury, or you are moving away from confrontation - towards avoidance. In moving towards avoidance, fear-avoidance increases your vulnerability to pain and re-injury, confirming your irrational beliefs and fears of movement. This cycle will lead you to feeling helpless and hopeless and thus getting stuck.
Our past experiences can affect our current mindset and our choices in how we live our healthy physical lives. If pain or trauma from injury has been experienced in our past, it can impact how we view our current circumstances and even prevent us from working out more efficiently and effectively.
So how do you get unstuck and move beyond your injury and get your head back into the game for successful exercising?
See a specialist
If you have a pain that, has you worried, go see your trusted practitioner, whether a physician, a PT, or a chiropractor. Have him or her give you a good going over. Tell them what you’ve been experiencing and what you are feeling/fearing. If he or she can tell you things are ok, listen to him/her. These folks are the trained pros and despite what your fear is telling you, you can trust them. And of course, Fit Nurse Tadda is always ready to help you.
Test your injury
If you have a genuine injury, you shouldn’t be working out. But if it’s still a big question mark in your head, try to push that fear aside and do the workouts. If pain is triggered then stop, if not then keep pushing. Sometimes that’s all it takes for your brain to recognize that things are probably ok.
Learn about your injury/illness
This doesn’t mean going to Dr. Google! Learning as much as you can about your past injury, it’s rehab/healing process, and what subsequent pains may or may not mean can go a long way. Understanding a problem and pain can equate to taking control of it. I do this myself and it has helped.
Make rehab into prehab
Injuries are not fun, we all know that, so remember this feeling, and prevent it from happening again. Many of the exercise you have been doing to rehab your injury can serve to keep you from re-injury or from developing a new injury. Plus, it can give you a sense of comfort in the fact that you are doing something preventative.
Be No Mess!
