Nagging Injuries

Any of you guys/gals have nagging injuries? Ever since I began training for/competing in highland games I’ve been dealing with nagging injuries. I’m up to seven last time I counted. For some reason, I could always deal with them when I had particular distance goals or training goals in mind. About 10 months ago I decided to take some time off from competition and training for competition. Unfortunately, my nagging injuries didn’t feel the same way. I’ve leaned up by about 20lbs which has helped, but they’re still wreaking havoc on my training.

What does t-nation do for nagging injuries? I’ve taken time off. I quit doing legs for almost six months. Once I start back, there they are again. I’m beginning to think that I’ll never be the same. Any thoughts enlightened ones?

First of all what kind of nagging injuries are you talking about? Low back, shoulders, etc. Nagging as in minor aches and pains but nothing major or former major injuries that make a return in a minor way? Think about what you are doing to fix the problem. When you take time off do you just go back to doing the same thing like the big money lifts (which are a must esp. for your sport)? Or do you come back with a plan that will help you get stronger with the money lifts but also include injury prevention for the small muscle groups? Never ever leave out injury prevention. For example, take somebody that does alot of shrugs which is elevating the scapula. Do you think working on depressing the scapula would help in injury prevention? A person that does alot of pressing. Rotator cuff injury prevention? Think about those things and you just might find your answer.

Nagging injuries include:

  1. chronically sprained right ankle
  2. patellar tendonitis (both knees)
  3. low-back pain (degenerative disc disease and slightly bulging disc)
  4. wrist injury limiting supination and pronation of wrist
  5. right elbow tendonitis
  6. left-shoulder strain

The first four have been diagnosed by doctors. Nothing is broken. The last two I’m guessing at. Doctor’s are fairly worthless unless something is catastrophically wrong. On EVERY injury mentioned above the advice was to rest it, ice it, and take ibuprofen. I’ve had some luck with ART on the knees and shoulder. The back is something I just live with as the pain changes daily. I know that if I stop lifting altogether the back pain typically gets worse.

I’ve watched so many of my friends and fellow athletes train through these injuries. Some survive (the genetic anomalies), but most end up saying they’re ok and that’s the way it works while they ice their knees and backs and elbows and shoulders. This seems insane to me. Sacrifice your body for a sport brings nothing more than personal satisfaction. Ultimately, this is why I left the competitive scene.

Aren’t there any athletes out there that have similar pains?

Here is my list.

  1. Patellar Malalignment in both knees.

  2. Right wrist pain in pressing movements.

  3. Pain in both elbows (inside and outside)

  4. The knee injury (I guess it is actually a birth defect) was diagnosed about 12 years ago. They have been getting worse lately though. It really limits my ability to squat somedays.

  5. For the wrist I have begun wearing a brace to bed at times. This helps but I still wrap it for heavy presses to prevent it from bending backwards.

  6. The elbows are probably the most annoying. I have been to the doctor and had ART for them as well as given them a couple months off, but they still plauge me at times. I can normally do bench & rows alright, but they can really cause problems on pullups/chins and skullcrushers and curls.

I think everyone gets some of these. I just try to really warm the area up and take some advil and if it hurts after a workout. I have also started doing CW’s TTT training so I am hoping the high rep sets (24rep) will help some too.

[quote]beef_stew25 wrote:
Nagging injuries include:

  1. chronically sprained right ankle
  2. patellar tendonitis (both knees)
  3. low-back pain (degenerative disc disease and slightly bulging disc)
  4. wrist injury limiting supination and pronation of wrist
  5. right elbow tendonitis
  6. left-shoulder strain

The first four have been diagnosed by doctors. Nothing is broken. The last two I’m guessing at. Doctor’s are fairly worthless unless something is catastrophically wrong. On EVERY injury mentioned above the advice was to rest it, ice it, and take ibuprofen. I’ve had some luck with ART on the knees and shoulder. The back is something I just live with as the pain changes daily. I know that if I stop lifting altogether the back pain typically gets worse.

I’ve watched so many of my friends and fellow athletes train through these injuries. Some survive (the genetic anomalies), but most end up saying they’re ok and that’s the way it works while they ice their knees and backs and elbows and shoulders. This seems insane to me. Sacrifice your body for a sport brings nothing more than personal satisfaction. Ultimately, this is why I left the competitive scene.

Aren’t there any athletes out there that have similar pains?[/quote]

If it makes you feel better, I’m only 20 and I have pains in my knees (I really beat them up in highschool wrestling.) my lower back (from tearing the ligament right from my spine by lifting stupid when I was 15) and a shot left shoulder which often limits my bench pressing potential, oh and I broke my wrist but never went to the doctor until after it healed itself and it hurts like a motherfuck when I do rows that aren’t prefectly in line with my shoulders. So I’m all sorts of messed up. I ice my knees if they are bad after squats, sometimes I use bengay just because it feels good, but besides that I pretty much just cope. Thats all the doctor is going to say, unless he says stop lifting which is just rediculous to me. You can’t take an athlete put him in a cubicle for 9 hours and then tell him he can’t go to the gym after he paid his dues by sitting around all day.

Injuries

  • dislocated both shoulders twice - both are a little loose
  • broken right collar bone
  • broke three ribs on right side
  • broken femur and tibia in right leg (indoor tobagan accident with my older brother) - lets just say that Testosterone got the best of me that day.
  • torn ligaments and things in my right ankle
  • torn rotator in left shoulder, am dealing with a strained pec tendon right now in this shoulder - I pulled it using a pec dec thing at a gym when I first started. DUMB
  • strained right knee
  • fractured vertebrae in neck and torn ligaments in there somewhere. I think it was the trap. It friggin hurt. No long term effects from this except for the occaisional flare up where I have to get a massage and take some Advil.
  • numerous broken toes fingers etc.

So you might say I have some problems. I am just coming back into the game so to speak, one of the main reasons was that exercise was the only way I could think of to alleviate all the chronic aches and pains. I am not 20 years old anymore so I have to be cautious of what I do in my gym. I have only been training for about 3-4 months now and most of those nagging aches and pains have gone away. If I push it too hard the next day I know about it.

Your body will give out eventually so you need to be prepared to adjust.

I just started deadlifting again and am only pulling 135 lbs because I know if I go too heavy too soon I run the risk of hurting myself and basically fucking myself again. I plan on slowly increasing in 5 lb increments over the next 6 months or so. I know this sounds lame but when you have had a 3000 lbs of pissed off bovine rolling over you it changes your physical performance somewhat. 20 years later I can still feel it.

-Dave

I’ve said this before, buy Bonnie Pruddens “PAin Erasure.” It’s poorman’s ART.

All of my cronic injuies have been a result of soft tissue problems. I just needed to find where the culprit trigger points were.

Recently I felt like I had torn/streached ligaments in my wrist. I had the problem for six months, then I got the Stick and rolled along the outside of my forearm, just on a whim, and found a bundle of trigger points. Tendon problem fixed.

I dont know shit about working out. But I know about trigger points. You got to find them and address them before you do anything else. If its a trigger point problem you will know it within a couple of days.

Cheers to the devil.

thanks for the book idea. laters pk