Tips to Recover from Injury

Tips for Recovery from and Injury

Injuries Suck…there are no 2 ways about it.  Even worse when the injury was not related to your sport…but it puts your sport on hold.   When you are a cyclist, whether it be competitive, or recreational, you want to be out there riding, not watching through a window or on a park bench as riders go back.  We all want to get back on the road or trail as soon as possible.  However, when athletes resume their activity too quickly, cycling included, before they are adequately healed and recovered, they risk re-injury and extended down time.

Successful recovery requires the right treatment game plan. Proper diagnosis, treatment, and appropriate rehabilitation can often safely accelerate your recovery.

Maintain Good Physical Condition

Research shows that maintaining excellent physical condition even post injury, not only speeds recovery, but prevents re-injury  during the process.  This includes diet.  Many tend to get lazy on their fuel intake with the thought that since they are no longer training hard, their food intake is not as important.  Actually, it is more  important.  Your body is healing, It needs the correct fuel to rebuild, and energy to do it with.  The more energy your body spends flushing  out toxins from crappy food, the less energy and assets it has to rebuild damaged tissue.

Seek out prompt treatment

When you seek medical help sooner rather than later, you lessen the acuteness of the physical damage.  Early treatment means less swelling, stiffness and loss of muscle tone.

Commit to a rehabilitation Program. 

Once your injury has been diagnosed, you will probably work with a physical therapist to strengthen injured tissues and correct gait patterns or other physical habits that may have contributed to your injury. Your therapist will work with you once or twice a week—but you will be responsible to maintain your exercise program every day, whether you are with your therapist or not. The more committed and dedicated you are to your therapy program, the better—and faster—your recovery will be.

Cultivate a positive attitude

It is really easy to focus on what you can not do after an injury rather than what you can do or what you want to do.  A Can-do Mindset will help you stick to your rehab exercises even when you feel less motivated.  Remember, the stronger you are when you return to the saddle, the less likely you have for re-injury.  An upbeat perspective will help you stick to the exercises, no matter how mundane they seem, that you need to do in order to rebuild strength in injured tissues.

Re-Assess and Set Goals

This is sometimes the toughest, but most important and rewarding thing you can do.  We all know how important goal setting is.  You may have set all of your season’s goals, race or ride objectives, and then suddenly, they blew up because of an injury, and you think “all is lost and everything I worked for is gone and this is how my season ends.”  You can either accept that, or get to work.  Do the math, set new objectives based on the time table of recovery and tackle each one of them, one at a time right up to your next ride you are able to do. Stay motivated, focused, and disciplined, and you get to ride again, probably stronger than you were, and also equipped with the knowledge and confidence of what your body and mind can do.