How to accelerate healing through the 5 stages of an injury
We’ve been injured at some point in our lives. We’ve all experienced the same thread of thoughts and emotions that rise from being injured. Interestingly, it tends to follow the same thought pattern as how we deal with any loss: the five stages of grief.
We've been injured at some point in our lives. We've all experienced the same thread of thoughts and emotions that rise from being injured. Interestingly, it tends to follow the same thought pattern as how we deal with any loss: the five stages of grief.
Let's start with understanding the five stages of an injury. Most of these will sound painfully familiar.
The five stages of an injury:
Stage 1: Denial
"I might have done something to my shoulder, but it's not that bad. I still have full range of motion, it just gets really sore afterwards, so I'm going to keep going."
With my shoulder injury, I went for a period of a several weeks in denial, continuing my normal training regimen and tried to just "push through" pain and weakness. I was not ready to face what my body innately knew: My shoulder was definitely injured. I continued the same exercises and heavier weight. Bad move. I should not have been doing that.
Instead, I should have been focused on not injuring it more, supporting healing and finding ways to rehab.
Stage 2: Anger
"Not my shoulder AGAIN!"
Anger is a simple human response to feeling pain and being inconvenienced. Anyone who has even stubbed a toe can relate. We feel this new piercing pain and our knee-jerk reaction is to throw it back at the world.
Anger is really just a confused, aggressive and rarely effective cry for help. We need to experience it, but how we express it and how long we stay with it is our choice.
By not treating the injury or modifying our training, we keep feeling the pain, which triggers anger and around we go.
Stage 3: Depression
"I can't really do anything because of my shoulder." "I just feel so weak."
This is when we start letting our injury get the best of us. I curtailed working out completely and let the fact that I couldn't do everything destroy my motivation to do anything.
It is like we are frozen in apathy. Stage 3 is a pity party. Pure and simple. And it can last for months if we let it.
This is where training with a support team and having a coach is so critical. We need well-trained professionals and positive, caring people around us to push us to do something about it.
Stage 4: Acceptance/Getting Help
"This is not getting better. Who should I go see?"
We need to experience acceptance in order to build up our energy for rehab.
Acceptance is saying you are hurt and getting professional help. The faster we do this, the faster we can heal and get back to full training. Ask your community for referrals and get to an experienced doctor or therapist.
Stage 5: Recovery/Rehab
"I'm doing my therapy and it's getting better each week."
Healing and rehabbing can be fast or slow, but there is peace in knowing that you are on the path to recovery. Often we need to pull back on some things and insert therapy exercises and techniques to help correct muscle imbalances that have developed because of the way our bodies compensated while injured.
3 strategies for accelerated healing:
1. Compress Denial, Anger and Depression in 2 to 3 weeks
If it doesn't get better, in two weeks, it's not going to. You are injured.
We compensate, develop hard scar tissue and mess up our body mechanics and alignment each day we wait. Us this as logical motivation to get out in front of those additional injuries and set your mind to deal with the original injury. This is mindfulness of the stages and, remembering the faster you deal, the faster you are healthy again. It's your long-term functionality that really matters, not a few months in rehab.
2. Get a professional diagnosis ASAP
You think you know what's going on with your injury, but most of the time you don't. In the mean time you are confused, treating it wrong and wasting time from starting the right healing process. Sometimes we think we're addressing the issue, but we still cut corners to save money and time. While it may seem expensive, a professional diagnosis can help you avoid further damage to your injury.
3. Create the conditions for healing
Our bodies are capable of astonishing healing. From simple cuts to brain trauma, our bodies are magical in their automatic, natural abilities to regenerate and find new pathways to continue to function.
We also know that our immune system gets suppressed when it's put under stress. That stress includes: physical exertion and mental stress. So it would make sense that putting the body and mind in state of health, relaxation and stimulation will accelerate the healing.
So how do we create this state of healing?
Eat density, low inflammation foods: This likely includes supplementation of known anti-inflammatories like curcumin, fish oil and antioxidant-rich vegetables. It also means avoiding foods that are known to cause inflammation like processed foods, breads and sugars.
Reduce physical and mental stress: This means skipping high-intensity training, curbing marathon training or cutting back on your life load in general. To help get you into the relaxation state, learn to meditate a few minutes a day, get a massage, play music or light candles.
Interested in learning more about how Unite Fitness can help support you while you're healing from an injury? Send us an email or swing by one of our studios.
Read more Sports Doc for Sports Medicine and Fitness.