there is nothing better than a good tough workout
but there is nothing more frustrating than getting injured
let me talk you through what to do when that happens
hello fellow nerds coach Jim here and just like I said there is nothing more frustrating than
getting injured whether it's something that happened suddenly or a nagging injury that
crept up on you in this video I'll talk you through two different things you need to do
right now if you've been injured six different ways to adjust your training
plus a whole bunch of different ideas whether you've got pain in your shoulder your lower
back your hips your knees and toes knees and toes just kidding knees and ankles
wherever you're hurting let's figure out some adjustments so you can keep on moving
so the first thing to do after an injury is to seek out a professional
all the internet advice in the world is not going to take the place of a single session
with a doctor or a physical therapist now I know this is pretty obvious advice but I absolutely
have to start the video with it the second thing to do right after an injury is to realize that
you're going to be affected mentally just as much as you are physically there are tons of studies
showing the negative emotional reactions that we get after an injury and again from the school of
the obvious if you've ever been injured before you know how it can put you in a bad mood have
you ever felt this way type injury blues in the comments below we all know we're going to feel a
bit off so plan accordingly that can be a matter of recognizing and reframing negative thoughts or
maybe you do some meditation or journaling or maybe you even see a sports psychologist or
therapist whatever you do just make sure that you don't neglect the mental aspects of your recovery
alright on to how to adjust your training first thing keep on moving any way that you can now
this is often the opposite of what a lot of people do which is to completely stop using
the injured area we want to move pain free of course but any sort of light movement can often
times be beneficial as it gets blood moving through the area and helps speed recovery
this might mean lowering the weight in the exercise or doing an assisted variation
or even an unweighted variation if there's some way you can move around and not cause any pain or
setbacks it's often a good idea to do so alright next thing to do is to roll and stretch around
the problem area it's very common just to focus on the sight of the pain but the body is a system so
many times muscles in the surrounding area can be tight and throwing things out of whack for
instance maybe your lower back is hurting because your hips are tight from sitting at a desk all
day or maybe your shoulder pain is related to the posture that you have at your computer your
chest is a bit tight your head is forward all that can really contribute to how your shoulder moves
all right third way to adjust your training is to work different angles so if you're bench pressing
and that hurts your shoulder maybe try the decline press that might feel a lot better or if you're
doing an overhead press and that's not feeling good for the shoulders maybe try some land mine
pressing which has you pressing at more of a 45-degree angle if squatting hurts your knees
we can change the angle of the knees and maybe work some deadlifts and deadlift variations
and if deadlifts are hurting your back maybe we change the angle there and do more squats
and lunges and more things that are a little bit more upright that way you can still work
around the injured area without setting things off further and the fourth way to adjust your
training is to work different grips now by changing your grip in an exercise it actually
puts different stress in different areas of the body so this is a good thing to do even if you're
not injured now you can play around with grip with going from narrow to wide or vice versa
you can even change grip orientation so you can do pronated which is palms facing away from you
change to supinated which is palms facing towards you or even do neutral grip where palms are facing
each other all right and the fifth way to adjust your training is to work different areas of the
body now this might sound obvious but if you really can't find a pain-free variation
for the injured area of your body then just spend more time and energy on the rest of
your body so if your upper body is really hurt and can't do anything work your lower body more
if your lower body is hurt you can't do anything now is the time to spend on upper body exercises
this can also work with different movements too so it might hurt to press but you can still pull
with no pain flip side same thing it might hurt to pull but you can press with no pain
and lastly on that same note you can redirect some of that time and energy to nutrition and mindset
that time that you spend working out it didn't just disappear you can be using that time to get
better at cooking or meal prep or maybe work on your sleep or stress management i know it's not
going to be as fun as a workout but it's going to be just as valuable for your fitness and recovery
all right let's take some of these concepts and apply them to specific areas of the body
now this is definitely not an end-all be-all list and we always want you to move pain-free and of
course your doctor or physical therapist has the final word all right starting off with wrist pain
you're definitely going to want to stretch and roll out the forearms and you can also use a
pair of push-up handles or even dumbbells to keep your wrists straight in exercises all right next
let's talk about elbow pain you're definitely going to want to roll and stretch out the
triceps and the forearms in addition to that play around with grip variations sometimes changing
from pronated to supinated or changing from wide to narrow can really alleviate a lot of elbow pain
alright on to shoulder pain now just like I talked about before you're going to want to
look at the muscles in the surrounding area so you might want to roll and stretch out the chest
the back of the shoulders and even the lats in addition to that try pressing
in a different direction sometimes just that simple adjustment can really help alleviate pain
all right let's move down the body to lower back pain now as I mentioned before stretching the
hips out might be a great idea many times the hips are tight and they can pull everything around them
out of whack what you also want to do is change the angle of certain exercises
and maybe work things like lunges or split squats so that your back is in a more supported position
as it recovers alright moving on to hip pain you definitely want to roll out the quads and
the glutes and in addition to that maybe play around with foot placement you can change the
width of your feet and even the orientation or the way they're facing alright for knee pain you're
going to want to roll and stretch out the quads just like we did for the hips and just like i
mentioned before you might want to try exercises that put the knees at a different angle things
that are more hip dominant like the deadlifts and deadlift variations and finally ankle pain
you can try stretching and rolling out the feet in the calves and if your ankle can take some weight
maybe do exercises like assisted split squats until the area fully heals well there you have it
plenty of ideas on how to adjust and handle your injuries so that you can keep your training moving
forward hope this helps and all the best with your recovery if you like this video give it a big old
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