Our coaching team recently completed the Barbell Rehab Method certification program. The program focuses on using barbell movements for people with pain and injury. In any given year, about a third of people experience an injury. Fortunately, our bodies are built to recover and withstand quite a bit! While you’re recovering, whether the injury happened in the gym or outside, your best bet is to find ways to keep moving. Let’s talk about some strategies that might work to keep you active while you’re recovering!
Adjust How You’re Performing the Movement
Sometimes a little adjustment in how you’re doing a movement can make the difference between painful and pain-free exercise. Maybe it’s a wider or narrower grip, changing stance in a squat or deadlift, or changing your step length in a lunge. There are so many variables that we can play around with to reduce pain in a movement. I recently had a client having pain with cable rows, but we found dumbbell row variations that did not cause the pain. Occasionally, these adjustments aren’t enough to help you find a pain-free movement, and you’ll need to move on to the next strategy.
Substitute a Different Movement
If you can’t find a version of a movement that doesn’t cause pain, we can switch to something else. This ideally is done with the goal of targeting the same muscle groups without causing pain. Sometimes, this is done more easily with machine lifts rather than free weights, but the goal is to experiment to find what works and doesn’t cause pain.
Reduce Load, Volume, or Range of Motion
Once you find a movement variation that works and doesn’t cause pain, we can work to reduce load, volume or range of motion within that exercise. Again, the goal being to find the amount of work you can tolerate without worsening or causing pain. Using options like box squats, pin squats, bench with blocks, elevated deadlifts can help keep you within the pain-free range. We have a client who recently started out Strength for All program who has a history of back pain, so we started him with elevated deadlifts to keep him in a comfortable range while he builds up some strength. We will work on increasing his range of motion over time, but the main goal is pain-free lifting right now.
It’s common after an injury to feel discouraged, but with smart adjustments, you can keep building strength. We’ve worked with a number of people who have been injured at some point in time. Many of us will experience injury at some point in our lives, and it’s common to think you just need to fully rest when the injury happens. In most cases, you’re better off finding ways to keep moving. Our bodies are meant for movement, and figuring out a strategy to stay moving is likely to be best for your recovery!
Want some support on keeping active despite pain or injury? Book a free no-sweat intro with one of our coaches. We’ll chat about your history, your goals, and figure out an approach to lifting that makes sense for you!
