You may have heard this wise advice before – find someone who’s succeeding in what you’re interested in and find out how they did it. The concept is, “Don’t reinvent the wheel.”
So when it comes to recovering from sports injuries or other issues we should follow the example of other people who got their troubles figured out and handled as quickly as possible. And remember, faster recovery is also a less expensive and less time-consuming one! That means less time away from the things in life you really love.
Your first step has to be avoiding some really common beliefs that can totally derail your sensible decision-making and action-taking. People who recover well do it in short order. They definitely aren’t getting stuck in the quicksand of these sorts of myths that lead people down the wrong road.
These self-limiting beliefs below can sabotage your recovery. Some of you recall the old metaphor of an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Lies and misconceptions and negative self-talk can be like putting water in your gas tank. Don’t let these little “demons” take control of your common sense.
There are tons of beliefs that can put your process of getting back to normal on a serious case of PAUSE. How about the old “pain vs discomfort” debates in your head? What about getting sucked into some predetermined battery of expensive visits and tests? Know anybody who is avoiding care because they fear someone recommending surgery?
- Nobody wants to stay injured.
- Nobody expects or wants their body to heal slowly.
- Nobody intends to absolutely prevent their own recovery.
BUT.
There are plenty of beliefs you can fall victim to that STOP you from making the decisions and taking the actions that those “successful” people did.
What’s Holding You Back From Injury Recovery?
1. WAITING to feel better tomorrow.
Stop telling yourself it’s okay to be hurting today and hoping that maybe by luck you’re going to suddenly have a complete 1800 turnaround when you wake up tomorrow! How many days has that thinking been going on and not coming true? Be proactive. Do something to find answers and get moving in the right direction!
2. REPEATING THE SAME MOVEMENTS or stresses that got you hurt in the first place.
If you got hurt bending over to pick something up, you’ve got to stop repeating that bending motion over and over. The same goes for motions that look like it… like sitting slouched in that chair all day long. Injured tissues can’t heal if you’re constantly yanking and mashing on them over and over again. Let that poor little sucker get at least a bit of relief from being messed with.
Think about it. When you get a “brush burn” abrasion), how does it feel when you rub up against that skin two days later? Figuring out how you injured yourself, to begin with, and trying to avoid those movements is often a starting point.
3. CHASING SYMPTOMS around like trying to catch a mouse.
Unfortunately, oftentimes “health care” can become just that, can’t it? “What hurts?” is soon followed by some medication to make the hurt stop or take the swelling down or the fever away. We’re so quick to treat the symptoms that we bounce around looking for things to make us “feel better” as soon as possible.
This is often what happens when we rely on treating ourselves. Symptoms might lessen for hours or a day or two, only to disappoint us and come back, causing you to try the next quick fix: heating pads to NSAIDs to pain patches to foam rolling or “rubbing it out.” If your symptoms keep returning, then what you’re doing isn’t working well enough.
4. MISSING the real underlying causes.
These last three are really tightly related to each other. So the big, big point here is that any symptom you have does have an underlying CAUSE. . If there’s a pain in your foot and you take a Tylenol and you ice it and you rest it and forget to check your shoe to remove the pebble inside then your foot will keep on hurting.
Treating symptoms is necessary and feeling better is a totally appropriate goal! But you CAN’T stop there.
Casting a fractured arm with the bones still not aligned will NOT fix the pain. You MUST reset the bones first, right? Well, do you know the CAUSE of YOUR Symptoms? Trauma is one thing. Fell down the stairs, get run into by someone, get hit by a ball…those are traumas. They happen to you.
But so often the symptoms we see are non-contact or they developed over time. Something inside YOU wasn’t working properly. For some reason, your tissue, whether it’s a tendon or a nerve or a muscle or whatever, got overloaded.
There’s usually a reason these things happen. Whoever is helping you should be going beyond doing things to merely get you to “feel better,” and figuring out what led to the overload… SO IT DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN! Literally “being better” is what we’re ultimately all after!
5. GOING BACK TOO EARLY because you feel better.
This is a huge one and one that I’ve mentioned before. It’s natural to get stuck on the excitement and hopefulness and accomplishment of the fact we’re finally feeling better. And we should be happy the symptoms are less or even nearly gone.
BUT you’ve got to ask yourself, “What makes me think my very same problem won’t recur again?” Has time merely passed? Have medications and heat or ice or massage made things feel better but without enough time (or even so often any attention to change) for the underlying causes to be fixed?
Has enough time passed that you’re literally stronger than before? That you’re literally looser? Or do you just feel better?
If you’re going back to your risky activity and you’re a new person with better flexibility, better movement patterns, better strength, and better sharing and teaming among your body parts… then your risk sounds less than before. But if that hasn’t happened, then you’re likely right back where you started before. Get ready to experience those same symptoms all over again! So remember, if you’re walking around with any of these self-limiting beliefs in your head, STOP right now and get a new perspective. Seek out some help getting through this.
How to Heal Injuries Faster
Peak Performance‘s expert physical therapists are ready to work through this with you. Once a thorough evaluation is done, we can educate you more about how or why this may have happened and share with you a plan to not only help you to feel better but the changes we’d like to help you make so you can actually BE better.
Through physical therapy and education, Peak Performance can help you become…
- More UNDERSTANDING of how to succeed and how to avoid failure (i.e. re-injury)
- More CONFIDENT and encouraged that you have some control finally and that you can positively impact your own outcome. Relieved and excited and hopeful once again!
- More PHYSICALLY CAPABLE of living the life you want to because you know you’ve increased your movement abilities and capacity to tackle the things you need and love to do!
If you’re still hurting or not able to comfortably and confidently do the things you love, don’t wait. Schedule an appointment at Peak Performance today!
