One of the most common scenarios that present to us at the Sports & Spinal Group is a patient attending with an injury that has occurred shortly after they have started some sort of sport or training after a prolonged break. For example, a patient may say “I’ve just got back into netball the last couple of weeks, and man my calf is sore”, or “I’ve started back at the gym and my back is now so stiff”, or the classic “I am training for the marathon — after not running for the last 5 years”.
It is so great to engage with people who are proactive about their health, who are willing to put the time and effort to improve their overall fitness and wellbeing. It is then upsetting when I have to tell someone they will need to back off their chosen activity to a degree until their injury is managed appropriatley. In fact, it is part of the Sports & Spinal Groups mission to ensure everyone lives a “healthy, physical lifestyle” — so managing an injury by decreasing activity is hard for all concerned.
It is important that when starting a physical activity after a period of not being active, that we respect the process. What I mean by this is, we need to condition ourselves appropriately before we train for the end goal. This may look like walking before running, controlled body weight exercises before lunging for 100 metres or doing 20 minutes of stair runs, getting some strength in our calfs before we play 4 games of netball over the weekend.
Our practitioners are happy to help you when you are in pain, however it is much better for both you and us if we were to GUIDE YOU in living a “healthy, physical lifestyle”, rather than telling you to stop or alter the physical lifestyle.
Baby steps first — it won’t take long until those steps become a part of a jog, then a run — earn the right to train.
