Are injuries always bad?
There are many reasons to feel anxiety when experiencing a sports injury.
“Is this really severe?”
“Is this going to last for a long time?”
“How is this going to impact my performance in the future?”
“What am I going to do if I can’t participate in my sport?”
“Is this sport just something that my body can’t handle anymore?”
“Will I need surgery?”
These are all legitimate concerns that cycle through the mind of any serious athlete or motivated individual who finds enjoyment in physical activity.
These concerns permeated my own thoughts during a period in my life where I had 4 shoulder surgeries in 4 years. Will my shoulder ever be the same again? Will I be able to return to the things I love like lifting weights and mountain biking? Will I have to get a shoulder replacement down the line because too much damage has been done?
During those 4 years there was a lot of uncertainty and self-doubt. But it wasn’t all negative. During that time, I started PT school. I put in a ton of 1-on-1 work with my own performance PT. I started working with athletic patients. I began meditating and reading stoic philosophy to help reduce my negative self-talk and, more importantly, learned to reframe my thought process to find positive value in any hardship.
6 years later, and I am not only still consistent with all of these habits, but I am doing better physically than I ever have. I have started Olympic Weightlifting, something I thought my shoulder would never be able to tolerate. I meditate and read stoic philosophy on a daily basis, habits that I likely never would have formed had I not gone through those multiple recovery periods after surgery.
The point is, pain and injury are not always negative things. While they are never fun to experience in the moment, there can almost always be some good to come out of them if approached with the right mindset. If you are dealing with pain or injury and are looking to come out even BETTER than you were before the injury, read on below for some perspectives on how to make the most of these seemingly bad situations.
One of the huge hidden benefits of injury is forced rest. Many of the athletes we treat at The PATH are firing on all cylinders 24/7; they push themselves to their physical max for several hours per day and fail to give equal attention to proper nutrition, hydration, sleep, and introspection. These athletes often begin to experience overuse injuries or even traumatic injuries during training and competition because they are working OUT much more than they are working IN. In a way, the injuries that result from this type of imbalance are our bodies’ natural way of telling us to deload, take the intensity down, rebuild, and heal. For many athletes, this forced rest period is like torture; they don’t know what to do with all of their newfound time. Those who look closely enough, however, will see a unique opportunity to re-prioritize their sleep schedules, adjust their nutrition habits, rekindle their mindfulness practices like meditation and/or prayer, and maybe even take the time to explore some new hobbies. My past injuries allowed me to dedicate some much needed time to these categories and I honestly believe that I would not have founded The PATH had I not had this time for self-reflection and exploration.
From a physical perspective, what better time is there to learn more about the nuances and needs of your body than during an injury? Pain and injury afford us the opportunity to learn where we can improve in our mobility, strength, symmetry, movement quality, and movement habits. Here is where seeking out a Performance Physical Therapist can be extremely beneficial. This is where we work with athletes to identify these particular areas for improvement and address them with an individualized rehab program to make sure the pain doesn’t just go away, but stays away for good. I would not be able to do any kind of overhead work, let alone snatches and jerks, had I not sought out a Performance PT to help me address the root causes of my injuries and provide me with the tools that I have used even to this day.
The most important thing to take away from this, therefore, is that pain and injury, which are almost always short-term, can lead to LIFELONG benefits when approached with the right mindset. During the period of forced rest, it is possible to develop positive habits and rehab maintenance tools that can last a lifetime and even result in improved performance on the other side of healing. I am constantly amazed by the amount of times that our rehab and continuity clients have told us their performance has IMPROVED during their time with us because they have reprioritized their physical and mental self-care, improved their movement quality, and allowed themselves the adequate time to rest and reset.
So the next time you experience an injury in your sport or daily life, say “GOOD” and write down the ways that it will benefit you in the long run.
Dr. Brooks Kenderdine
PT, DPT, CSCS, USAW-1
Co-owner | The PATH Rehab & Performance
