One of the most common things I hear in my practice when asking patients about exercising with injury is “Well, I just won’t do (insert exercise that injured them/causes pain) anymore. Sadly, these are often exercises or movements that they enjoy doing, but are worried that they will be causing themselves more damage by continuing.
Exercising while injured/in pain can be difficult, but it’s not only a necessary part of the process, it can be vital for improving both physical and mental health. Whether you were consistently training, or just getting started again after a lot of time off, it’s extremely frustrating to feel that you’re losing progress and potentially going backwards.
I’m here to show you some simple tweaks that can be fundamental in getting you back moving safely and effectively. These 4 things can be applied to virtually ANY exercise/movement to slowly re-expose your body to those movements which scare you the most.
The important things to note are that we are trying to modify as LITTLE as possible, thereby keeping the exercise as close to it’s original intensity as we can tolerate. If you modify all 4 things at once, you may not be challenging yourself enough, so it’s up to you to determine the right modification for you. You may start to experience some of your original discomfort/pain as you are testing the exercises out, so make sure to progress accordingly at the beginning while you self-assess.
Modification #1: Load
This seems like a simple one. If you are performing resistance training, reduce the amount of weight you are trying to move. But here is the trick, you want to find the HEAVIEST weight that you can move with good technique and does not significantly trigger your pain (often times, a little bit of discomfort is ok).
Modification #2: Volume
Maybe the weight isn’t the problem. Often times, after a certain amount of repetitions, we feel the fatigue set in and that’s when the pain starts. This is often due to our form and technique breaking down under fatigue and our body compensating with less-than-optimal form. At this point, I recommend not to change the load, but just decrease your volume slightly and come back later that week for more.
Modification #3: ROM
This one can be a bit more tricky and is dependent on the exercise, but I often see this as the most effective modification to make a difference. If we look at a squat for example, most people have pain towards the bottom of the squat. I recommend only squatting 3/4 of the way down, or utilizing a box squat to limit the range of motion. We can train these positions and get stronger while slowly increasing the range of motion.
Modification #4: Tempo
This one is common as the final modification I make in a recovery phase, especially with tendon/ligament injuries. Often times the movement can be performed pain-free if we slow the speed of the movement, but the tissue needs time to adapt to more explosive movement. Slowing the movement down also allows us to focus more on our form and technique, thereby improving muscle memory and mechanics at the faster speeds.
In closing, just remember that these modifications are always meant to be short-term while you’re both healing and getting stronger with the modifications. If you are struggling to implement these on your own, I recommend contacting us to get an evaluation where we can help guide you through this process. Our goal is always to get you back to doing what you love as efficiently and effectively as possible!