FIGHTING THROUGH INJURY

Injury to any sportsman or woman whether being athlete level or recreational can be devastating and there is nothing worse than being told not to train for the next so many weeks/months. This recently happened to me in May 2009 (now Aug 2009). Previous to this I was training solid for my upcoming ultra marathon race in September 2009. On a particular session (trail) i was running at a nice half marathon tempo pace when i felt a 'twinge' in the lower part of my left abdominal/hip region. Me being me, decided it would wear off and i could run through it (note - being an ex soldier we are all invincible and injury is a weakness!). The pain became more apparant and eventually brought me to a walk/limp and i struggled to weightbear my left leg.

After about 10 minutes of walking and light stretching i felt fine again so i jogged back to my car (about 2 miles away from where i was) back on metalled roads and obviously wearing trail trainers which my body didn't like! Having felt like i hadn't worked hard enough i decided to head to the gym and do some other work - working on med ball rotational work and trying to activate deep core musculature i felt the original pain coming back. Again, telling myself i am weak and i can fight through this weakness pushed me on to another set of medicine ball core work - this was the icing on the cake for me and a sharp pain set deep through my lower abs and into the very top of my left groin.

The following week i couldn't walk and couldn't work, even sleeping was painful - the irony of it is, being a full time sports injury therapist i should have headed straight off to see a colleague at the clinic i work at. Eventually I did. It is now 10 weeks later and i have tried to undertake 2 runs and got no further than 2 miles without pain - the ultra marathon i entered is now a distant dream and the treatment is only now starting to slowly work!

The morale of the story... Even if it is a small niggle, your body is letting you know something is wrong, its' the bodies way of communicating with your brain - telling you to stop what you're doing!

If you are injured or know anyone who might be trying to fight through an injury, my advice would be to stop immediately and come see us at Citytherapy.org.uk and get yourself checked over. I am speaking from experience and from one keen sportsman to another, don't make the mistake i did! 'Pain isn't always a weakness!'