COACHES TIPS FOR OVERCOMING BACK INJURIES

COACHES TIPS

​So you've been struck by a back injury. You've been training hard for the past year making significant gains and progress, then all of a sudden injury strikes. Here are some great tips for dealing with a back injury.

What do you do when injury strikes? We've asked a few of our coaches for their best tips on how to manage and overcome back injuries without sacrificing progress. 

Tip 1 - Get back to basics

​An injury is an opportunity for growth. Work on whatever strict movements you can. Build up that strength. If your back is the issue, focus on core and clean up foundational movements and technique. You'll come back stronger as a result.
​- Coach Evelyn

Tip 2 - Keep moving and listen to your body

Take some time to evaluate your situation. Start by eliminating all movements that you know are painful or out-of-bounds as this will not promote healing. I believe that continuing to workout in whatever shape/form you can, will shorten recovery time as long as it is done in a safe and pain-free manner (a lot of this is trial and error). Once you've figured out what you can do, pick something that you'd like to improve on or view as a weakness and dedicate time (2x a week) to get better at it. With a back injury, this will leave pressing and some gymnastics strength movements on the table for you, two areas that CrossFitters can all spend more time on and see benefits across many areas.

 You should get very comfortable with changing the workout of the day in some part (if not entirely) on a day-to-day basis as there is nothing wrong with that. My recommendation would be to come to the coach with suggestions that you have identified as things you want to work on, this will help :) They will fill in the gaps and ensure you are getting as close to the desired stimulus as possible. Keep your head up, get excited about your new areas of focus and celebrate your progress and new PRs while you heal up.
- Coach Mark

Tip 3 - Focus on the progress

Focus all your attention on the other areas of training (including nutrition and sleep and mobility) as well as other movements that don't cause pain. Feeling good about progress in other areas can help distract from the negative focus on what feels lost at the time. Having a strong mental game in this situation can make a significant difference on the journey to recovery.
 - Coach Jayme

Tip 4 - Identify any imbalances

As well as this being an opportunity to put some time into those strict gymnastics movements, upper body strengthening, and unloaded spinal movements (such as lunges), it's also an excellent opportunity to assess imbalance and build a proper foundation for future training. More times than not, our back injuries are as a result of repeatedly training with non-ideal movement patterns and/or hip/knee/ankle mobility limitations or imbalances. Take this time to identify these potential imbalances (or just tightness), and/or motor pattern issues (e.g., knees caving in during squatting), then start working to correct/balance these issues. This will help avoid problems in the future and allow you to continue training with good forward progress for life!
- Coach Adam

We hope you find these tips helpful, and as always we are here to help in any way we can. Our Coaches are always open to working with you to ensure you have the safest, most efficient, and fun workout possible. If you have any questions or concerns regarding an injury or setback, please do not hesitate to speak with one of our coaches. 

Happy Training!