That Question

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday, very slack of me I know, sometimes something has to give and sometimes that something is the blog. Not often, but sometimes.

I had an interesting discussion down at the track last night during the Stadium Tri Club session that I coach. I expect it is a conversation that is as old as time and will continue to be had for as long as humans take part in competitive sport. The question was:

I am injured, should I still be training?

Hmmm, heard that one before anyone? Asked it yourself anyone?

The answer I gave may not have been that satisfying, but I hope that it was helpful.

My view is that this is one of those questions that doesn't have a single answer, there are so many factors, what sort of injury, what medical advice have you been given, what are you training for, the list goes on. It can be hard to give somebody an answer that will make them happy.

So first up, if the medical advice is to stop, then my advice to athletes is always to stop. Simple as that. Perhaps get a second opinion if you aren't sure, but once you have been told to stop then you really need to do so. A sport isn't worth endangering your long term health. At the same time, if the advice is to do alternative exercise for a while, perhaps some rehab, then you should do that too. A person has no right to complain about being injured if they are given treatment advice and they don't follow it, which is exactly what a lot of people do. Besides the medical advice side of thing, my preference is to always rest up for an injury. I would much prefer to take the time, get it sorted and get on with things than deal with an ongoing niggle for a long period and then just end up with an injury anyway. Getting over the injury quickly will allow you to get back to training properly, improving the quality and quantity of training that you are able to do, rather than just limping along at half rate. It can be a frustrating process, but in my experience nearly always a better outcome.

However, sometimes it isn't necessary or possible to stop.

So first up, sometimes a niggle really is okay to train on with appropriate management. I have done it plenty of times. If I have been given the advice from a medical practitioner (that I trust) that I can train, then I will continue to do so. Having said that, if they give me a management plan to go along with that advice then that is exactly what I will do too (good rehab is critical). Finally, if they advise me that the management plan isn't working and I need to stop, then that is also what I will do. But sometimes training on an injury is okay if the pain in manageable and it isn't doing any long term harm.

Other times, not training may not be much of an option. The person I was talking too last night is getting ready for a race in three weeks time, they are kind of too close to stop unless the injury could be sorted very quickly (unlikely). When this is the case a bit of creativity might be necessary. Obviously, once again if the advice is to not train, then that is unfortunately what must be done. However, perhaps alternative forms of training might be possible, perhaps training can be modified such that it doesn't exacerbate the injury. Perhaps there are ways to maintain the fitness while resting the injured part. There are nearly always options.

In the case of the person I was talking to last night I think there are definitely options. Currently the advice she has been given is that she can train lightly, but she can't do high intensity work, particularly running. Given that. my suggestions to her were to maintain her low intensity training and look at pain free alternatives for the high intensity stuff. Perhaps she can do deep water running, maybe she can do intervals on a cross trainer, perhaps she can find a Alter-G treadmill. As I said above, there are solutions if you can be creative. She is already pretty fit, and the race is only three weeks away, so she isn't looking for bulk volume, she is just looking to maintain at this stage, I think that with a bit of intelligent training that should be possible.

Fingers crossed for her.