First 48 hours after an injury

I am often asked how I handle injuries immediately after they occur. What I mean by injury here is any abnormal motion that results in lasting pain, bruising, muscle spasms and the like. If you are injured enough to warrant visiting the emergency room then follow your doctor's advice. First-aid people at your gym will be able to assist you while waiting for the ambulance in these cases.

The following is for the other times, whether you can continue the session after a 10 minute rest, or you are forced to the sidelines for a week or so.

Injury Prevention Overview

As we get older our bodies tend to degrade quicker and take longer to heal. We can strain muscles by simply getting out of bed, or pinch a nerve doing movements we've done for years without issue.

The best strategy for preventing these kinds of injuries and strains is to improve our flexibility and strength. However, I'm not suggesting that we need to put our ankles behind our heads and bench press twice our body weight. We need to ensure our range of motion is adequate for the movements we expect to perform, and get our muscles stable enough to keep our bodies in the correct position when under strain.

Living with Recurrent Corneal Erosion

This condition is something I don't advertise that much because it takes a while to explain. Other than a slightly bloodshot eye there are no external indicators of when it occurs. The effects however are quite potent and it can prevent me from training effectively.

Recurrent Corneal Erosion (RCE) in its simplest explanation is the result of dry eyes. Basically, while sleeping part of the eye sticks to the eyelid because the lubrication is ineffective or absent. So when the eyes move, such as opening in the morning or when dreaming ie REM sleep, a small part of the protective surface wrenches away. The result is instant sharp pain, the sensation of having a sharp object stuck in the eye and copious amounts of tears as the body tries to flush the problem away. Not everyone with dry eyes will experience this, there are a few indicators that factor into it, the majority is that your eye is lacking something. My cornea are oval instead of round (astigmatism) which may contribute. Its the reason I need glasses. So let's discuss a typical day when this occurs.

Dealing with Illness

Injury is one thing that keeps you on the sidelines, but you are still able to attend classes and maintain training focus. Check out here for advice on what to do during injured periods.

Illness however is another beast entirely. It doesn't matter what you are ill with for my purposes here. You may have a cold or flu, have stomach cramps or one of the multitude of conditions that are either contagious or keep you laid up in bed. Either way you can't attend the gym and that is where some issues can arise.

Clearly you should be taking care of yourself and doing as the doctor orders as the first priority, but once you are well enough to focus but not well enough to train you have a few options to keep your mind in the game.

Training After Surgery or Injury

While I am generally fit and healthy now (for my age at least) I spent a long time without exercise or diet of any kind other than soft drink and fast food. I spent decades with poor diet and it remains a struggle to eat right. (Click the Weight Loss Label for some strategies).

Through all this I created several issues for myself, two of which required surgery. The one that took me out of training the longest was when my stomach wall was rebuilt. Many of my muscular issues were the result of being extremely overweight. The fat got behind my muscles and pushed them out of the correct alignment. This caused them to not work correctly if at all. I had small stabilising muscles doing the work of large power muscles and vice versa. This caused countless injuries and trips to the physio even though the weight was dropped. Having the surgery saved a lot of trouble, but there were some issues I wish I could have planned for better and asked more questions about at the start.

Advice for chronic lower back pain

Chronic back pain (SIJ) was my biggest, most painful and longest lasting issue. It is still a problem but a manageable one. From being so overweight (190cm with an almost matching weight of 175kg), I damaged myself with the abuse of food and no exercise for over a decade. While the weight is mostly gone now, the damage is done. I had constant pain in my back of about 5 out of 10, with 10 being the most pain I had ever experienced. (Until that point, the greatest pain was getting my testicle squashed between my thigh and a speeding cricket ball. Said cricket ball was struck for what would have been a boundary had I not intercepted it at full sprint without groin protection. There is a lesson here somewhere I think.)