Injury Prevention and Recovery

Sure, none of us think it'll happen to us, but chances are, if you're reading this, it has. Either that or your one of few people who have learned to expect the worst. I recently incurred an injury myself, and did a lot of research to speed up the healing process. While I was at it, I thought I'd share what I have learned with you!

Injury Prevention

'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.' Words to live by. Saving a few minutes by cutting your warmup short can lead to an injury that may take months to recover from. It can happen so fast, it makes your head spin!

My recent injury was caused by just that, doing squats with insufficient warmup. I haven't been able to train my legs for 6 weeks now, and when I do finally, I'll have to go easy for the first month or two to rebuild what I've lost, and avoid re-injury. It could be months before I'm back to where I left off!

Here is a list of common causes of injury, and how to avoid them!

Insufficient warmup - A warmup prepare your muscle for heavier weights, not 3 light sets of 10, and then jump into a heavy set. Instead use ~4 warmup sets using progressively heavier weights, and reps of 8, 6, 4, 2. The last set should be very near what your heavy set will be weight-wise.
Insufficient rest - fatigue means less focus and muscular control, and if you can't control the weight, you could easily pop out your shoulder. Look for shakiness, use a spotter.
Poor form - this is another common one: people bouncing the bar off their chests, or bouncing up at the bottom of a squat. Avoid this by using a weight you can lift in good form, lift it slowly and under control.
Overtraining - leaves you unfocused, and your ligaments and tendons vulnerable. Microtrauma incurred in connective tissues take longer to heal than muscles. Don't overtrain!
Ego lifting - if you go to the gym to impress people, you have a higher risk of injury. Lift weights to be stronger, healthier, and look better, not impress people in the gym. Nobody cares how much you can lift.
Muscle imbalances - Exercising exclusively with machines, or with only one set of exercises can lead to muscle imbalance, as can neglecting muscles, i.e. your shoulder becomes strong, your rotator cuff atrophies and when you try to lift something in the real world, snap!!
Insufficient stretching and/or range of motion - leads to reduced flexibility, and weakness in range of motion not worked. This results in increased risk of injury including muscle tears.
Very heavy sets without gear- Personally, I think one should workout with as little protective gear as possible, as wraps and supports can take away from your own supportive tissues strengthening. But tendons don't have fast and slow-twitch fibers, and don't need to be worked with low reps. When doing heavy reps of ~6 or less, use protective gear!
Get a decent pair of shoes!- Worn or 'damaged' shoes give your foot no support, especially under a few extra hundred pounds. This can cause your feet to roll back and forth, putting stress on your ankles and knees, and increasing the risk of injury.

If you avoid overtraining, use strict form, and have a balanced and/or varied training regimen, you should have no problems avoiding injury. But, accidents do happen, so if it does, or has, what do you do about it?

Injury Recovery

There are several stages to the healing process of injuries. Some injuries may be light enough that you can just take a week or two off, then head back to the gym. Some may leave you immobilized and in need of a doctor!

My injury happened while doing a squat, I could feel a tendon or ligament jerk. I didn't collapse, but I knew that was it for a while. It doesn't take much, there wasn't any swelling, and I could pretty much walk without limping, but connective tissues take a very long time to recover.

For serious injuries, the initial treatment should be immediate R.I.C.E: rest, ice, compression, elevation.

Rest the injured area, don't put any weight on it.
Ice the area, or use a cold pack (don't place ice directly on skin) for the first 48 hours to keep the swelling down. After that, apply warmth with hot water bottle, heating pad, etc. to provide comfort and healing.
Compress the area by wrapping it in a bandage, but not too tight. This reduces swelling, and keeps the area warm. Wrap from furthest from heart first. Loosen if too tight.
Elevate the area, preferably higher than heart to reduce swelling.

After most any injury, you should go see a doctor to make sure it's nothing serious, and to identify exactly what the problem is. They'll also give you some advice on how to speed up recovery for that type of injury. I am not a doctor, and cannot give medical advice! I merely make suggestions.

The first few days are the most crucial, when you should see a doctor, get rest, keep weight off the injury, and let the healing process begin. But like I said before, connective tissue injuries can take a very long time to heal, and I'm just gonna give some suggestions to speed it up!

A light wrap or support keeps the injury from getting further aggravated, and can provide comfort, warmth, and gentle compression to accelerate healing. For my knee I got something like a sock made of cloth containing stretchy material to prevent stretching out, and wool for warmth.
Gelatin is a supplement made of animal collagen, and contains two amino acids necessary for connective tissue growth in abundance. Take on the order of 10 grams a day.
Chondroitin Sulfate is naturally produced in the cartilage to prevent cartilage breakdown, and promote nutrient delivery to damaged area. Free radicals caused by excessive wear and tear, poor nutrition, and general aging can inhibit cartilage recovery. Supplementing with chondroitin sulfate may tip the balance in favor of new cartilage growth and repair. Dosage ~600-1200 mg/day, divided into 3 doses.
Glucosamine Sulfate is an amino sugar that is actually incorporated into the structure of body tissues (mainly cartilage formation). Glucosamine is made naturally in the body using glucose and glutamine, and supplementation gives your body the extra material it needs for cartilage repair. Dosage ~900-1800 mg/day divided into 3 doses.
Turmeric is an East Indian spice containing a pigment called Curcumin, which serves as a natural anti-inflammatory as well as an anti-oxidant.
Flax Seed Oil/Hemp oil contain essential fatty acids crucial to many biological processes, including joint repair. Take about 2-3 tablespoons/day with meals.
Aspirin can also be used as an anti-inflammatory, just keep the inherent dangers of aspirin in mind.
Use Light exercise to restrengthen the joint, don't just wait for it to heal, and then hit the gym all out. Start with very, very light exercises just to get blood circulating through the joint, and strengthen surrounding tissues. After an injury, the joint may never reach the same level of stability it once had, due to stretching and wearing down of connective tissue. Definitely use supportive wraps for heavier exercises.

There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to work a muscle group, or several muscle groups due to an injury. Patience plays a crucial role in proper injury recovery, don't work through the pain, or mask it behind pain killers, it'll only make matters worse. The last thing you want is surgical intervention and scarred knees, or whatever.

Think of bodybuilding as a life long commitment. Then 3 months of downtime only translates into less than 1% of your total training time!! So take it easy, and let it heal properly the first time, and be more careful the next time you're in the gym.