Labor Day weekend 2014! I still remember it like it was last week! My family and I drove to Vermont to hang out with friends for a weekend of relaxation. I had just decided a month earlier to begin training for my first body building competition in May 2015. I had a coach to help with nutrition and a workout regime to adhere to, but this weekend would be a time to relax with friends and maybe have a few beers before getting serious with training. On our first night in Vermont, I was persuaded by friends while sitting around the fire to give mountain biking a try. How bad could it really be I thought? Not knowing what downhill mountain biking actually entailed, I agreed and the next morning, we headed to the mountain, rented our bikes and gear and were on the lift in nothing flat!
Upon reaching the lift’s end, we exited with our bikes and we were off! It was the fastest 2 minutes of biking anyone could have ever experienced! I encountered a sharp, loosely graveled curve, lost my balance, hit the brakes and over the handlebars I flew! The next thing I remember is getting off the bike and feeling an intense burning pain in my right shoulder with a “crunchy” sound as I tried to lift my arm…..yes, I severely broke my collar bone but was lucky that no head or spinal injury occurred! It was a tough lesson to learn with a long road of recovery ahead. Fortunately, I was able to continue practicing Periodontics and Implant Dentistry despite the severity of the break and was extremely lucky to avoid surgery! I did not miss a single day of work! After a few weeks of sitting around being inactive and feeling sorry for myself, I became very restless and impatient that I could not workout.
I learned a great deal about myself during the next 12 weeks post-injury and realized that there are ways to work around an injury, even if it means completely avoiding a body part, or in my case, my entire upper right body altogether!
Here are the key factors that I learned to work around an injury which kept me active and to still compete in the May bodybuilding competition goal!
- Nutrition
You have to keep a solid nutrition plan in place when an injury occurs. Giving your body adequate proteins, fats and micronutrients is critical for recovery and repair of injured tissue. Carbohydrates should be consumed to a level to give sufficient energy. Examples: I included more foods with anti-inflammatory properties such as healthy fats from avocados, salmon and fish and olive oils. I also eliminated pro-inflammatory items such as processed, high saturated foods and anything with trans fats. I added turmeric and vitamin C supplements to aid in anti-inflammation.
- Be Smart
Do not attempt to train an injured body part. Follow your doctors instructions to a tee! Give the injury ample time for healing and use this time to work on weaknesses with other body parts that you may have. Use the RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) principle for the injured area after workouts. Example: Prior to my clavicle break, I trained lower body once a week but due to the injury, I was forced to avoid upper body resistance training for 6 weeks. I used this time to add second and third lower body training sessions to increase the amount of exercise volume. I basically split up the lower body sessions by training quads one day, hamstrings and glutes one day and the third was an overall leg day with lighter weight and higher reps. I found by the end of my healing period, my lower body was significantly stronger!
- Use lighter weights and higher reps
Despite having the clavicle break, I was still able to train my left arm, shoulder and chest. In the beginning, I used little to no weight with very high reps. An example would be a shoulder press with a 5lb dumbbell for 25 reps for 4 sets. I normally use 60lb dumbbells! You may say that going from 60 to 5 pounds of resistance will be sure to equal muscle loss. I say no! The key is to “do something” and time under tension is the key to maintaining muscle mass during injury recovery. Additionally, I was told by some that unilateral training will only cause a muscle imbalance. Well, there is a plethora of studies that actually show training a unilateral body part sends a neurological stimulus to the injured body counterpart. Recently, scientifically sound studies and a few extensive meta-analyses seem to confirm that contralateral strength gains are real, not just an experimental relic. Check this article out. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17190532
- Do Cardio
An injured lower body part or back may make doing cardio more challenging but no excuses for those with upper body injuries such as shoulder or arm injuries. Even a simple 10-15 minute walk with keep the blood circulating and promote more wound healing.
In summary, avoidance through proper warm up and stretching is the best advice that I can give but for most of us, injuries are inevitable and seem to increase as we age….or make dumb decisions like attempting to downhill mountain biking with no previous experience!
The key is to not let injuries keep you inactive and ultimately lead you down a state of depression. Learn to persevere and know that most of the time, you can indeed work around most injuries!
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Until next time, be fit!
Brian