What is the boundary between helpful and harmful?
In our practice, we often see people who are having trouble keeping up with their exercise programs because they have suffered an injury and it is not going away. These niggles can be serious issues for people. They can lead to individuals falling out of exercise routines, sometimes permanently.
The most common types of injuries we see that stop people from exercising are shoulder or knee injuries or chronic tendon issues.
So, when is it not a good idea to keep going to the gym?
The rule here is common sense. As a rule of thumb if your pain is worse after the gym – either immediately or over the next 48 hours – then it’s not doing you good.
We will often see people who are in the middle of a program of high-intensity exercise, often a time-limited weight loss program like the Michelle Bridges 12 week program and they won’t consider stopping because they’ve put too much work into the effort this far and feel like stopping would constitute giving up. Sometimes they are paying a premium for training with a personal trainer or high-intensity class and stopping will lead to them getting less value out of their investment. They know the gym is hurting them but just haven’t been willing to admit it. It’s really important to explain to these people that it might not mean stopping all together, just fine-tuning some exercise or swapping some things in favour of others.
The trouble with a lot of these injuries is that they can become chronic if you continually mess with the healing process. It really is in your best interests to stop and reassess after a few days rest whether the injury has gone. If you are still getting pain then it’s best to make an appointment to see a professional. It really can be a simple matter, especially if you can get in early with your problem.
As an Osteopath, we really put a lot of time into diagnosing people’s issues accurately and gaining a really good appreciation of all of the factors which might be influencing them. Once we have identified the issue it’s often a case of a few minor modifications to the exercise routine and you can return to exercising without aggravation. It’s a high priority for us to get you back exercising or training fast, as soon as it’s safe to do so. If your injury has been niggling for some time then get a professional to look at it – you won’t regret it.
Make an appointment today to see one of our Osteopaths and discuss how we can create an individualised plan to get you back to optimum health.