I’m baaack! How y’all doin?

Today’s post is about a comeback—but not from vacation. It’s about how to bounce back from an injury or other physical setback.

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How to come back from injuries & setbacks

We all face them. If you’ve been exercising for a significant amount of time, it’s hard to avoid an injury at some point. Whether it’s from a misstep playing sports, chronic overuse or poor form, or a random life event, you’re likely to face multiple injuries in life. How you handle them can drastically impact your long-term fitness trajectory.

Option A (the bad one): You can do nothing. You can “rest” in the sense that most people consider the word, ceasing all activity and becoming immobile and sedentary. You pop some pills and overuse an ice pack to address the pain. You can ignore the source of the pain and neglect rehabilitation and building back. Enough time passes by, and you dread starting over, so you keep putting exercise off even longer.

This may be the easier route in the short-term, but it’s going to cost you in the long run. If you stop exercising entirely due to an injury, you’ll lose your cardiovascular fitness the fastest. Not long after, you’ll lose strength and muscle mass. Your ranges of motion will tighten up. And if you’re not properly rehabbing a musculoskeletal injury, there’s a good chance it won’t get much better and will just cause you nagging pain for years to come.

But there’s a better alternative.

Option B (the better one): You stay as active as possible without pushing too much into pain. You train what you can. Give your body what it needs to heal. Keep nutrition dialed in. Adopt an optimistic mindset. Think about the long game. 

This is the route I’d like to dive into in this week’s newsletter. 

• An obvious caveat is that if you require medical attention, please seek it; this is not a substitute for medical advice. If your injury needs addressed, see a physical therapist and/or other medical professional. Even a few appointments can set you on the right track.

But if it’s self-manageable, here’s how I would paint the ideal road to recovery.

Stay as active as possible

Bed rest is NOT the answer for the vast majority of ailments that you’ll ever encounter. It’s the quickest way to lose fitness and muscle mass and tank your metabolic health. 

We now know that staying as active as possible throughout an injury—without overdoing it and hurting what already hurts—is the best road to recovery. Movement promotes blood flow (and in turn, nutrient and oxygen delivery) to your tissues. Even walking, stretching, and other simple movements will not only keep all other parts of your body fresh, but they will expedite healing to the affected area. 

• If your ankle is hurt, keep training your upper body.

• If you can’t use your left hand, figure out how to do cardio and strength train your legs anyway.

• If high-impact activities like running and jumping hurt, engage in lower-impact activities like swimming, rowing, cycling, or yoga. 

There are always workarounds; sometimes you just have to get creative.

Don’t let your entire body’s health suffer because of an injury in one area.

Remember PEACE & LOVE over RICE

I wrote an article about this awhile back. The old acronym of “rest, ice, compression, and elevation” is out. Click the article for a deeper dive, but the tl;dr is that ice, complete rest, and anti-inflammatories can actually slow or hinder your body’s natural healing process. Compression and elevation can stay, but the PEACE & LOVE acronym stresses the importance of movement, natural healing, and a tiered, long-term approach.

• PEACE stands for Protect, Elevate, Avoid ice & anti-inflammatories, Compress, & Educate

• LOVE comes after that, and it stands for Load, Optimism, Vascularization, and Exercise

Obviously, in the acute phase of your injury (typically the first few days), take it easy. You’re not going to lose much of anything in a few days off.

But don’t let your rest go far beyond that. Our bodies are “plastic” in the sense that they adapt to the demands we place on them. That’s the plus side of being a living, breathing, ever-changing being that experiences cell turnover every day!

Protect your body when it needs to heal, but get back to activity as soon as possible. A rule of thumb PTs use is that exercising up to a 3 or 4 out of 10 pain level is typically safe. If you’re injured, a little pain is probably alright. Just probably don’t push past a 4. Listen to your body.

Build back slowly and wisely

After you’ve given yourself the first few days to get over the worst of your pain, it’s time to start building back. You might think of rehab professionals as experts in pain management (heat packs, massage, e-stim, etc.), but they’re even more so experts in the comeback. 

In the early days, you or another person in your life can self-administer some healing modalities, including but not limited to:

• Heat, cold, or alternating therapies (use wisely and probably sparingly)

• Light massage

• Gentle stretching

• Foam rolling/myofascial release

• Compression/elevation of the affected joint/limb

After that, it’s time for some good ol’ fashion rehab, baby. There are entire degrees for this, but here’s a quick rundown.

Isometrics (not an up-and-down weightlifting movement, but a static hold—think planks for wall sits) are a great way to resume training after an injury. It doesn’t require much range of motion, you can control the degree of muscle contraction, you can hold for however long you want, and it desensitizes your nerves to pain. Any time I’m having knee pain, I work some isometrics in and almost always feel better pretty quickly.

Work the small muscles and stabilizers. If your injury is shoulder-related, reincorporate training your rotator cuff muscles, particularly in external and internal rotation. If that confuses you, just look up a demonstration; it’s not too complicated. If you have hip or knee injuries, work those deep hip muscles and stabilizers like your glutes and abductors. You get the point.

Regardless of the injury location, you probably “lost” some mobility in that area. Don’t worry; you likely didn’t actually lose that range of motion. Our bodies just naturally get tense around an injury and subconsciously prevent us from larger ranges of motion when an injury is present; it’s an intuitive self-preservation mechanism.

Most of this is just nerve sensitivity. You can slowly build back range of motion around your injury: first passively, then actively without resistance, then by gradually adding resistance from gravity, bands, or weights. Every day, explore just a little bit more range of motion than the day before. BREATHE into it. This tells your body it is safe. And remember not to push past a 3–4/10 pain level.

Keep nutrition dialed in

You are what you eat. If you’re injured, you need nutrients and proteins now more than ever. Your body is deploying clean-up crews that require tons of enzymes and reactions that are supported by vitamins and minerals. Proteins aren’t just for muscle-building; they’re for everything-building! 

Continue to consume a high-quality, whole foods-based diet as much as possible. Prioritize produce and protein so you’re giving your body the best rebuilding materials possible as you build back.

Stay optimistic

Mindset is huge. You are not your injury. You are not subject to a “bad [blank]” forever. You can very likely rehabilitate, heal, and return to your usual activities. Stay optimistic and remember that you’re in it for the long-haul. 

Many people let an injury or setback totally derail them, and it’s a slippery slope from there. Not you. You’re a healer and a mover! You know that you can move to improve. 

Progress doesn’t always look like a straight line that goes “up and to the right” forever, as much as we may want it to. There will be setbacks, but you can get up, get back on track, and keep moving forward. Think about how much better you’ll feel about yourself six or 12 months from an injury if you choose the high road. 

You’ll be so grateful that you didn’t let this completely knock you off the wagon. Choosing resilience increases your capacity to handle future obstacles. Prove to yourself over and over again that you can stage a comeback, and you’ll be dang near unstoppable.

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: Don’t let an injury or setback get you down. In all likelihood, it is not forever. Get your mind right first.

Level 2: You know that movement is medicine. Listen to your body and move consistently in healing ways as much as you can. Keep the rest of you healthy and give your injury what it needs to heal.

Level 3: Memorize the PEACE & LOVE acronym and incorporate it. Then pass this wisdom along to others!

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by… me!

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Know someone else who might be? I’d love to get to know you and/or your business and see how we can partner together. Reply to this email!

✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Sweat or regret: I LOVE OLDER PEOPLE EXERCISING!!!

• Fuel to heal: This article gives you the best tips for what foods to eat when facing different kinds of sickness. Bookmark this one and stock up on the broth!

• Recomp: This free guide to body recomposition by Layne Norton is an awesome, comprehensive, yet digestible resource. (If the link doesn’t work for some reason, email me and I’ll send the downloaded version to you!)

That’s all for this week!

Please help this community grow by clicking the link below and copying and pasting it to your favorite group chat. 😎 

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).