Here’s question I get asked a lot.
Most of my regular clients are activley involved in physical sports, many are martial artists from a variety of styles, others play Rugby, GAA and even Soccer. So injuries are quite common and the guys are well used to them and it takes something serious for them not to turn up here for training the next day.
But for our other members, those who are just here for a bit of fitness, should they be doing the same?
Is it safe to train with an injury or should you just stay at home and rest?
My answer is (nearly) always yes. You should come in and train.
The rider is that the first thing you do is let me know as much as possible about the injury so that we can have you doing exercises that won’t negativly affect it.
There’s no point twisting your ankle then coming in and doing 10 minutes of skipping followed by jump lunges, that’s just silly.
But we can work other exercises. If the injury is in te lower body, we work the upper body and vice versa.
Some exercises may still be viable, a twisted ankle may be fine for light squatting (bodyweight) andf maybe even some careful farmers carries. These exercises may even speed up the recovery assuming the injury is not too serious as it stimulates blood flow through the area.
The rider to this is always common sense.
It’s that you must at all times listen to your body and take informed decisions based on it’s feedback. If the pain is increasing, stop immediately and switch to something else.
So unless your injury is serious, go training. At the very least you’ll get a warm up and some mobility work done, which will help the rest of the body. Just use common sense and listen to your body, the last thing you want is a relapse.
Before I finish off, if the pain is serious or the injury is persisting and not going away, get it checked. At Wild Geese you can chat to Dan, he’s our resident witch doctor and is one reason why our team of instructors seem so invincible. His number is 086 827 5955. Or you can call any physio / osteo that is local to you.
