6 tips for marathoners and crossfitters to recover from any injury
Sooner or later you will face some kind of injury if you are doing crossfit or long distance running. Be an adult about it and address them in time to come back quicker and stay in the race for longer. Here are some tips which apply to any kind of injury.
Get the professionals on the case: Seek medical advice
Once you have uncovered symptoms go and get medical advice. They are your coaches when it comes to injuries and have the experience needed to see quickly what is wrong with you and recommend the ideal recovery path. A local physiotherapist might be the better choice than your GP to get an opinion as they most likely will see more sport injuries and have more focused skills in the area you are interested in. A trip to both can not harm.
"Step by Step gonna get to your workout"
Come back gradually from injury. You are gradually increasing the maximum load on your squat or the miles run in a build up to a marathon when training so apply the same to your comeback from injury. If you go back too heavy too quickly you will be a victim of the "boom and bust" circle in which athletes go too far too soon to do even more harm to the injured area.
Do a root cause analysis
Especially when you have an overuse injury take the time off to reflect what might have caused it. Is your stride too wide ? Do you run upright ? Do your knees give in to the inside or outside when squatting ? Are your elbows in an unnatural position for a bench press ? If you can identify any weaknesses in form take the opportunity in rehab to focus on those and get rid of them.
Make use of your band of brothers
Tap into your social networks (the digital ones and the ones at the gym / pub) and get advice from your fellow sportsmen and women. They will have experienced injuries before and have some tips and tricks around how to recover. This will cheer you up and make you see that there is always some kind of comeback from anything.
Go Arnold and get strong
This is especially true for marathon runners who do not focus on strength training yet. Get your physio to put together a program which you can incorporate in your running schedule. I can assure you, you will see your risk of injury and actual amount of injuries decrease.
Be wise and stay in the game for long
It always makes me shiver when I hear that athletes get cortisone shots to save their season. I get where they are coming from, but that is just postponing the inevitable. Think long term health and design a plan around it. Especially in crossfit and marathon running age is not that much of an issue as compared to other sports so try to stay in the game for long and smirk at the fools who have to end their career, because of foolishness.
