Deciding when you should get these injuries taken care of, how you should get these injuries taken care of and why you should get these injuries taken care of are all a matter of, well THE INJURY.
I myself have been "blessed" with two injuries now in my CrossFit Career. I say blessed because in hind site the injuries have taught me some things about my body that I would not have known had they never happened.
I started CrossFitting in July of 2008 and in January of 2010 I tore my rotator cuff in my left shoulder. Now, the injury occurred after a brutal snatch/pushup workout combo. But, I will not say that the workout caused my injury. My shoulder had been "acting up" - in other words giving me signals that it wasn't happy. The last workout I did that "sealed the deal!" just happened to be the snatch/pushup combo. But the problem started when my shoulder was sending me signals and I refused to listen.
My second and most recent incident happened in January of 2012. This one was an injury due to an error in my lifting. There was no indication here that I was in pain and as I was training for a competition in Indianapolis later that month I twisted my left hip doing a 1 legged dead lift.
So, here I have two different incidents of injury and in both cases I sought out the same type of care. Chiropractic.
Many people ask me why I sought Chiropractic care for my injuries and my answer is this. There is no medical or technical reason that I sought out Chiropractic care for my injuries the main reason I chose Chiropractic care over surgery is quite honestly I am afraid of hospitals. That's it people. Now, in looking back..I have many "medical" reason that I can provide you....but in all honesty it was just a no brainer for me. I don't like hospitals and I will go at all cost to never be in one.
This could coincide with my first injury happening 2 days before I lost my brother to cancer and my last recollection of him was being in a hospital bed and hooked to machines. The beeping of the machines continued to haunt my dreams for many many months. I like to think everything happens for a reason, my brother saved me from "going under the knife" even in my most desperate moments.
Shoulder injury: January of 2010
I had already been seeing a Chiropractor for spinal adjustments since August of 2009. So I mentioned to my chiropractor that I may have done something to my shoulder. For the next year and a half I would see my doctor for ultrasound on my shoulder, shoulder adjustments and therapy. I hired a medical massage therapist that worked on my shoulder every week.
At many points in this journey I was desperate to get back to my "real" training at the gym. I wanted so bad to do a pushup or a snatch without any pain. There were many workouts that ended in tears not because it hurt to do the workout but because I was mentally defeated. But, I knew my limits and I knew that in time and given the proper tools my body would heal.
By July of 2011 I was back to my regular training regimen. My strength started increasing and I could tell my body had healed from the injury. I learned that I should not work through the injury. I never took time off at the gym, I simply changed my workouts to take time off for the injury. I also learned what caused my injury in the first place and fixed my errors in the gym along the way.
Fast forward a few months:
Hip injury: January 2012
I was training hard for the Indy Competition. My shoulder was finally letting me WOD like normal and I was feeling awesome. My PR's were coming back. My lifts were getting bigger. I was moving and grooving. One week before the Indy comp on a Saturday I was doing a 1 legged dead lift and twisted my left hip.
The very first thing I did was RUN to the Chiropractor....ok maybe I just drove really fast!
We worked on massage and adjustments. I felt "good enough" to compete. I would continue to struggle with the hip - every time my hip would feel "funky" I would just pass it as not being totally healed but never giving it the time or ability to heal. I did another competition in April and was adjusted there by a different chiropractor with different techniques. He took care of me for that day and I was able to excel in the competition. Finally in May of 2012 after ignoring many of the signals that my body was sending me that I might need to "GET SOMETHING DONE!" my body said that's it you're out. At that point my body made the pain in my hip, which now traveled down my leg and into my foot so severe that I had to take a step back and reevaluate the situation.
I sought out Chiropractic care from a different avenue and have been under this care for my hip, leg and foot since that dreadful day in May. I have had adjustments, massages, ultrasounds and anything you can imagine done to my hip, leg and foot.
In doing so, I have had to take time off of any lower body exercises at the gym. Once again, I didn't have to quit working out, I just had to adjust my workouts to accommodate my injury.
So, my VERY long winded point here is this.....how do you you know when you need to do something about an injury.
First of all you need to make sure that you know the difference between muscle soreness and muscle pain. Are you just sore from a workout? Or are there other factors involved here. One of the most common ways I determine this is if I feel the same on "both sides" of the body. For instance, are both my shoulders "sore" or is my left shoulder sore and my right is just fine. Usually if you are sore from a workout, you are equally sore on both sides.
Do you have a nagging pain that just won't go away? Is the pain strong enough that it interferes with everyday functions of life?
If it is, you probably need to get it checked out.
We also need to get down to the gut of the problem. Are you having the same issue every time you do cleans for instance? If so, let's take a look at your clean and see what could be causing this pain. Sometimes the pain can be fixed if your form were perfected on certain moves or lifts.
I truly believe in Chiropractic care. I didn't originally seek out Chiropractic care because of my injury - I was already seeing a Chiropractor when I got hurt. I believe that the body is an amazing healer on it's own. If given all the right tools - diet, exercise and regular chiropractic care it will take care of itself.
Don't fear that if you are injured you won't ever be able to WOD again. You can WOD it just might be a little different than what everyone else is doing...but in reality why are you here? You're here to be healthy right? And is being healthy walking around wounded? CrossFitters are a little crazy like that....
Trust me. I know exactly what I'm talking about here!
I stumbled across this post as I Googled pretty much what you are talking about. I'm fairly new to CrossFit but have been going pretty hard since I joined. All of a sudden last week, my shoulder started hurting, but unlike before, this wasn't a good soreness, it was a constant pain that lingered long after the WOD was done. I've taken 5 days off now which seems like FOREVER, but I know this is the right thing to do. The good thing is that the other shoulder is a little sore too, so hopefully it was just the KBS and Thrusters on back to back days that pushed me too hard and irritated them.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, reading your post made me feel a little better because I currently feel like I'm adrift on a deserted island because I'm not WODDing right now. I'll give it a few more days, give it treatment, and then head back to the box again for modded WODs. I've quickly learned that you need to listen to your body if you are doing CrossFit as injuries can crop up pretty quickly if you push it too hard.