Injury Anxiety: Tips To Overcome Your Fear

Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness , nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body . Hello , hope you're having a great day . So far . This is Betsy Foster here , your host , coming to you with your strongest body .

Today we're talking about injuries , but , more importantly , we're talking about the fear of injuries , the emotional and psychological aspects of injuries , and how they play a role in how you experience discomfort and pain in your training . So before recording this , this morning I went to the gym . I was feeling sore , so I worked out .

I was sick a couple of weeks ago or a week ago . Then I'm recovering , getting back into workouts . Friday I worked out but I didn't get a great warm up in and then I pushed myself . I was pretty sore on Saturday and it was my rest day . For the weekends , my husband and I figure out a way to work out our gym time in there .

And so yesterday was a rest day for me and I took a walk and I was just pretty sore . I go to the gym today . I'm so excited to have a good gym day . I like the first day of a gym week to me , and today was that in my mind and I'm all excited because I'm the freshest .

I always think that after a rest day you're the freshest that you're going to be . And so I'm walking up the stairs . I take two stairs at a time up the stairway because the stairs are too short and I really like the little glute stretch in there . And I took three steps and on my fourth step my hamstring ceased up .

I was like , oh my gosh , that hurts so much , really felt uncomfortable . I went into panic mode . I'm walking over to warm up and it's just like it's really hurting . My hamstring is hurting and kind of my whole hip is hurting . Now I have had previous injury to my right hip , my right glute , my right hamstring . I've done stuff to it .

Nothing I've ever received long-term treatment or physical therapy on . I would call it , like you know , a persistent nag , and there have been times in my training where it's caused a lot of interruption and then I'm able to get back to it . And there are times in my training where it briefly creates a hiccup .

First time it happened it was a long time before I was training bilaterally again . So like , if you're unfamiliar , bilateral is both legs at the same time , unilateral is one leg at the same time . I was when I hurt my hip the first time . I could never do anything on both legs without the right hip hurting .

But if I switched and always just did one leg at a time , it didn't bother me . So that's how a part of how I rehabbed that you know injury and eventually the discomfort went away . I did all of these you know like a lot of different work on , you know , mobility , strength , all these kinds of things . It went away .

I have moments now from then on where it'll get like sort of flared up and I have a series of activities or you know , exercises that I do , that I insert into my program and it and it and I give it a little rest and I play around with what I'm doing and it eventually goes away , sometimes shorter than others .

So when I felt that I was like , oh man , I don't want to do this , it's gonna get in the way of things and what , if I like ? Really messed it up this time , and this is such a common occurrence for folks who have ever dealt with long-term injury , injury , recovery or any sort of pain , discomfort , inconvenience that has kept them out of training .

I watch it happen , especially people who are Are really focused on and or like dedicated slash invested in their training . I'm not talking that you have to be an elite level athlete , but somebody who's like I'm making progress . I've been really consistent and the idea that something that I hurt is gonna throw things off is really frustrating .

Or Did I hurt myself this time so much worse and it's gonna be harder to come back from ? I've watched my clients experience something where something doesn't feel right on a rep and Immediately we , our brains go to the worst possible situation . So I want to talk about that today .

I want to talk about that kind of paralyzing fear , that Catastrophic thinking when it comes to quote-unquote injury and training interruptions , how we can Observe it , how we can use it , how it can inform what we do as well as how To chill a little bit , and that is so much easier said than done as I sit here sort of like fidgeting because my hip doesn't

feel great and like . I know that it is going to get better and I know that I have the tools . Me personally , I have the tools . If I were a client , I know that I had a trainer who had the tools , or or even now I have people that I can ask if I'm , if my own Personal knowledge has a stopping point , I Know that I can get out of this .

You know , I know that there will be light at the end of the tunnel . What I don't know right now is how long it's gonna take . How much of an interruption is it going to be in my training ? How is it going to slow my progress ? And those are the kinds of unknowns that feed into that Anxiety and into that fear .

So first let me start by saying that that initial , you know , absolutely paralyzing fear and and and you might be somewhere on the scale there Of like it's not bad paralyzing , but or or it's like , oh my gosh , my , my mind went to the worst place .

I'm never gonna lift again and I'm , you know , never going to be able to exercise again and I am gonna be unhappy for the rest of my life that Kind of initial thought is you are not alone . You are not alone . I've experienced it .

I know other trainers and athletes who have experienced it and I see it with my clients pretty Regularly because they care about what they're doing , because they've put in a lot of effort and work , because they know that when it , when something doesn't feel good Kind of consistently , and it gets in the way of things , it it brings a damper tool to everything and

it changes your mood and the idea that you're not gonna be able to sleep Well because something hurts , or you're not gonna be able to do the things you like to do outside at the gym because something hurts . People , many people experience that when they feel an initial tightness or pain or some things off or they feel that .

I think the people that don't feel that are very young maybe , but and they just sort of accumulate little muscle trauma until their you know , late 30s , early 40s and they're hiring a trainer because now they start to feel the discomfort . But You're not alone .

You're not alone when you feel that and it's okay to feel disappointed and in a lot of ways that's our brain saying stop what you're doing . Pain is a signal from the brain to our body . If we don't have it , we cause further damage . So we want to be grateful for it .

We also want to realize that all our previous feelings , all our previous experiences and all our propensity to make things worse and to be anxious about things is going to kind of fan that fire and make that neurological signal more complex and more of a More psychological warfare for us .

So when those feelings pop up , we want to acknowledge that like yeah , this sucks , absolutely , it's awful . Also , it's totally natural for me to be feeling like this could really get in the way of me getting my race or getting my pull-up or competing in my you know Whatever competition I'm about to do . It is going it . Those feelings are gonna pop up .

We're gonna recognize that this is helpful . We're gonna recognize that like okay , this is my body telling me something . Then what do we do with that information ? So there are lots of different camps and it's probably about your personality . Who you are and how you think and how you approach things is probably gonna Indicate sort of where you go next .

Some people are gonna be like I don't want to move at all , I don't want to make this worse . Some people are going to oh , it's not that big a deal . I'm gonna push through .

We're probably gonna want to find a Balance of those two things , knowing that there are going to be different pain signals , different discomfort signals , that that Communicate different things . So an acute , incredible pain is probably going to be a hard Stop , a big red stop sign . Completely For other pain discomfort , this doesn't feel good .

It might be a moment to say I'm not gonna do use this anymore . I'm not gonna do this movement pattern , I'm not going to approach this kind of movement or exercise or I'm gonna like , like put that load , put that weight down , but I might try something else because the rest of my body feels okay . So that's probably like the next step down .

Like , oh , this is clearly like a day where I can't do . Let's say , you have shoulder pain , oh , I cannot do pull-ups today . Maybe you're adjusting the grip for another rep and seeing if that helps . Maybe You're throwing in a few mobility you know isolated mobility , move options .

Maybe you are Feeling that full range of motion with without doing the pull-ups , seeing the pull-ups Without doing the pull-ups , seeing if you're , if you're hitting any little hiccups or whatever . But then you're maybe tossing that to the side and you're going . I just need to let that rest today and come back to it tomorrow .

If the pain was so great it wasn't that acute , I can't do anything . This is maybe like , okay , I'm just going to go over and do some lower body right now and really give us a rest , because that was a big signal . You might be in a place where you're like okay , I can do some .

Let me try some other upper body movements and see if I notice that discomfort while I'm doing it . No , it's good there , it's good there , it's good there . All right , I'm going to do these three different exercises and I'm going to insert a few rehab style or more targeted therapy style exercises in there .

You might realize that you just needed a little bit more warm up . There are lots of different ways , but there is probably an advantage in some cases to be able to test out a little bit like a laboratory and see what works , because sometimes that instant signal is just communicating to us that we need to slow down and figure out what the issue is .

But it's definitely a signal to slow down . So we probably don't want to be on that other far end where we're just pushing through , where you're like oh , today I was supposed to dead lift this amount and I was supposed to do it like this and it's what's written down and I just need to push through it .

That's maybe not the best option either , all of these cases , unless you are kind of a coach yourself , it might be useful to have somebody to help you go through this , but you on your own can think through some of these options .

If you are working out by yourself or working out with a friend and then bring it to a coach or bring it to somebody later Now , that catastrophic thinking might have you feeling like you're going to be in this pain for a long , long time and it's going to knock you out of training .

We almost immediately in that moment , have , like , added six months of a nightmare to our lives when we haven't even done 20 minutes of this workout today or you haven't taken two days off . Take two days off . Take a week off and see if it feels better .

Remember that in the grand scheme of your big fitness journey , a week off I mean six months in your grand fitness journey isn't that big . But right now you haven't even nobody's told you can't do anything for six months . Nobody's told you that you're going to need invasive surgery .

You are just in a little bit of discomfort or you're in pain right now and it feels really bad and you might be able to work through it . So it's not to diminish how you're feeling , it's just to say that you haven't been diagnosed in that moment .

You haven't heard terrible , terrible news and all you can do is be in this moment right now and give yourself permission to take the time you need . You could go get a good night's sleep tonight and it feel fine . Tomorrow you could do all the exercises that you the rehab exercises that you need to do .

You could not train it hard for three weeks and on the fourth week you could be back to a hundred percent and then you look back and you're like that was just three weeks . But in that moment when you're first experiencing that like twinge of pain , you're like , ah , this is awful .

I say all of this from experience , from my own personal experience and witnessing it with clients and working through it .

And the psychology of injury is insane in that it is so , it's so impactful and it leaves a Real mark on how you experience discomfort and pain later , because you've felt what it's like to feel really bad and if it's knocked you out of something You've felt Like your body has betrayed you , and so when you start to feel a pain again , you might feel that

exact same way and it might flood back With all the time you had to take off and all the pain you were in and all the lost Sleep and all the you know , different kinds of positions that you had to figure out what worked and and all the daily activities of life that felt Frustrating because your , your elbow always hurt or your knee always hurt .

You're the way your brain communicates with your body and and pain is protective , but it but it's also a part of who you are , and there there is Always a part of you that experienced that . You'll always have it with you , so it's always going to color the experiences that you have moving forward .

So remember that that you don't have to take on an Entire new injury just because something didn't feel good one day . You do have to be smart about it and you do have to take the next steps . So , like I said , what are you thinking about ? What to do ?

This is where having a coach is helpful , but again , if you're on your own thinking about , should I pull back from these kinds of exercises today ? Should I try some of these exercises with no weight and see how it feels ?

Should I do these three stretches and see if there was just something that I was kind of like Holding on to , or a position that hadn't been warm yet , or something like that . Continuing to get feedback from your body , continuing to make it a little more difficult , but stopping when it feels like , oh , this is too much .

Stopping when you get to the point of , oh yeah , that I have actually like flared it back up again , realizing if you take some things away , you do those stretches and nothing's getting better . This might be the time to rest it . This might be time to switch from lower body to upper body , or switch from upper body to lower body .

It might be the time to go home and take a nap . It might be the time to go get a massage and and then , knowing for yourself when is the time for you to go seek help .

I never want to encourage someone to not get the referral that they need , but realize sometimes , if you go that day or the next day to the PT , you may not have given them enough time or you may not if you need to go to the orthopedist , but you need to go after .

You're sure that this is a constant thing or that this is a , you know , like a More severe thing . Then , oh , I just needed a little bit of rest . So you have to balance that and there's no clear answer I can give you . Just know that if you need to ask somebody , go ask them .

The worst thing that happens is they're like oh , you can rest a little bit and then then see , or oh , we're going to do some imaging , and then they tell you that there's nothing wrong on the imaging , and then you're able to figure out some other things . So refer out if you need to .

But again , remember that sometimes one thing in a one single workout isn't an injury . It's a communication signal from your brain .

And then we use also this moment as a teaching opportunity , in that we go if I'm feeling this way , something I have been doing either in my day to day life , in my training , in how I'm setting up for this exercise , in how quickly I'm progressing , the weights , in how many days I'm training , is not serving me , because my body is telling me something's off .

So we start to go backwards , work backwards and go ? What are my shoes like ? Or have I been not warming up very well ? Or have I been sleeping really poorly ? Am I not taking videos of myself and seeing that my range of motion here is is not as deep as I want ? And so now I've set myself up to to struggle with limited range of motion .

That's like affecting another joint . I could go into all these like different options , but you can sense from me that what I'm saying is that signal from our brain is also a signal that something's not going right . Today my signal was probably you didn't warm up well Friday . You pushed some exercise on Friday in a way that was wonky .

You were extra sore after you haven't been sore like that in a long time and you didn't hear those things . So you tried to do some stuff today . That wasn't where your body was ready . So you know , think about , you know my brain's telling me like oh , something about this hip is . You know , not all of the muscles are working in harmony with each other .

And here are the things I have to do . I'm going to take that information and try to use it to inform my training as I go forward , because even once I'm feeling 100% better , I want to make sure that I'm not doing the exact same things to get myself in that position that I was in before .

So we use it as a helpful guide to understanding how we got into that position and to do a little movement audit , a life audit , to see where have we gone a bit astray , because our body's given us that signal .

And then , as always , how do we , how do we find the patience that we need to get back to what we were doing at an appropriate pace , not rush it , remind ourselves that this journey is a long time and to seek help when we need it , whether that be a specialist , whether that be a coach or trainer , whether that be just someone to listen to , like I know

that I need to be taking a little bit more rest right now because I irritated this , but I hate having to skip my workout just someone to vent to .

Patience is going to be key here , and it's going to be key to reminding ourselves that our previous injuries or our previous hiccups in our training do not mean that every time is going to be like that and that our entire lives we're going to face challenges and we're going to face times where things are running so smoothly , we're hitting all the lifts , we're

feeling really good and sometimes we run into road bumps , and this is just as much a . We need just as much as much of a mental , emotional , psychological approach to this experience as we do a physical intervention . If this resonates with you , I would love to hear it . I I think for many , many people it will .

If you've got questions about this , if you've got questions about sort of returning from injury or how injury plays a role in your training experience , rehab experience , future movement experience , I'd love to talk to you . You can DM me on Instagram . I'm like very good at getting back to you on Instagram at foster underscore strength .

You can email me , betsy , at be fosterstrongcom and I will at some point get back to you . I have a very full email inbox and that's my own fault . And yeah , thank you again for listening

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