Here is a good article I found about workput injuries…
We’ve all sucked it up and pushed ourselves through pain to finish a workout.
Every year 42 percent of exercisers hurt themselves, a recent study by
the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) found. Knee pain and
sprains as well as strains of the shoulders and upper arms
are especially common; they help fuel more than $2 billion in annual
sales of over-the-counter pain relievers. “When people begin exercising
or try something new, they tend to overdo it, leading to poor
technique,” says Windee Weiss, PhD, associate professor in the school of
health, physical education, and leisure services at the University of
Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. “As a result, they get muscle strains or
soreness so severe that it hurts to move.”
How you react to that pain can affect how intensely you feel it,
how long it lasts, and even how well you recover from the injury, new
research shows. Typically, whenever you sprain a muscle, fracture a
bone, or tear a ligament, pain impulses travel through a network of
nerves to the spinal cord, which funnels them to the brain. But because
pain signals share some pathways with thinking and emotions, those wires
can become crossed, experts say. “Stress and anxiety in particular
lower your threshold, so minor pain feels more intense than it normally
would,” says Robert Gatchel, PhD, distinguished professor of psychology
at the University of Texas at Arlington. People who are overwhelmed are
also more likely to put a worst-case spin on pain, playing a mental loop
of negative thoughts like “I’ll never overcome this” or “I can’t stand
having to deal with it.”
Such thinking can trigger a nasty downward spiral. Studies find
that “catastrophizing” pain — imagining the worst and dwelling on it —
boosts activity in areas of the brain that relate to pain, creating
more distress and worse hurt. In fact, some doctors believe that
dreading pain can be more disabling than pain itself. “There’s a
self-fulfilling prophesy with pain,” Weiss says, and that’s especially
true for exercisers. “You tend to focus on how pain will hinder your
workout,” explains Maria Urso, PhD, a research physiologist at the U.S.
Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick,
Massachusetts. “You’ll make a bigger deal out of pain than someone who
doesn’t work out regularly, because you’ve got more to lose.”
That’s what happened to Dawn Nida, a 36-year-old bioengineer and
lifelong runner in Natick. When Achilles tendinitis recently kept her
off roads and trails for a month, Dawn says, it was “the worst four
weeks of my life. I’m known as a runner, and if I can’t do that, who am
I?”
Mind Over Muscle
The good news is that you can learn to quash gloomy
thoughts about pain and use your brainpower to feel better. To start,
adopt the attitude that most physical aches are nonthreatening. You hurt
less when you perceive pain as the body healing itself and getting
stronger, research finds. When volunteers in a study at Stanford
University thought about pain in a way that made it seem more benign,
they were able to reduce it by up to 64 percent. “They came up with
unique strategies to change the meaning of pain,” says study leader Sean
Mackey, MD, PhD, chief of the pain management division at Stanford.
“For example, to produce a cooling effect, one woman imagined little
snowflakes landing on her aching shoulder.” Get the same result by
picturing your cells making repairs, swelling going down, tissues
building up, and pain going away. “For five minutes twice a day, close
your eyes and visualize that process occurring,” Weiss says. “Along with
rest and physical therapy, this can help increase the rate of
healing.”
When pain strikes, think about your fitness regimen for the past
week: Did you increase reps? Up your speed? Start a new workout? “If
your activity changed, some pain or soreness will be normal,” Weiss
says. Apply ice to the area and take ibuprofen: Over four to five days
it produces an anti-inflammatory effect that can reduce swelling and
allow tendons to move more freely. Have you been skimping on shut-eye?
“When you’re tired, there’s a good chance you’re changing your gait or
technique during exercise,” Weiss says. “Get more sleep and you should feel better in two to five days.”
If pain wakes you up at night, feels worse in the morning,
prevents you from moving a joint through its full range of motion, or is
present when you’re standing still, see your doctor. You may have
tendinitis or a stress fracture. “Rest is the only thing that will cure
overuse,” Weiss says. Go to the doc right away if you experience any
sharp, piercing, shooting, radiating, burning, or searing pain, which
may be a sign of nerve damage.
As you’re healing from an injury, don’t stop exercising (as long
as your physician gives you the okay), but do rethink your workout. “If
running hurts, you can get the same cardio
benefits without all the pounding by swimming or doing the stairclimber
instead,” Weiss says. Activity delivers oxygen and nutrients that aid
your body in repairing itself. Plus, it improves your mood and helps you
stay upbeat. And who knows? You just may discover a new exercise to add
to your repertoire.
After being sidelined by a second foot injury, Dawn Nida finally
began to focus on what she could do rather than on what she couldn’t. “I
kept telling myself that not running for a month or two is worth it if
it means I can keep running for the rest of my life,” she says. Dawn
took up Spinning, yoga,
swimming, and elliptical workouts instead. “I realized that these other
activities made me more well-rounded,” she says. “Now that I’m healed, I
still do them all, and it’s made me a much better runner. The injury
really changed my way of thinking. I listen to my body more, and I’m
stronger than ever.”
What do you think?
We’ve all sucked it up and pushed ourselves through pain to finish a workout.
Every year 42 percent of exercisers hurt themselves, a recent study by
the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) found. Knee pain and
sprains as well as strains of the shoulders and upper arms
are especially common; they help fuel more than $2 billion in annual
sales of over-the-counter pain relievers. “When people begin exercising
or try something new, they tend to overdo it, leading to poor
technique,” says Windee Weiss, PhD, associate professor in the school of
health, physical education, and leisure services at the University of
Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. “As a result, they get muscle strains or
soreness so severe that it hurts to move.”
How you react to that pain can affect how intensely you feel it,
how long it lasts, and even how well you recover from the injury, new
research shows. Typically, whenever you sprain a muscle, fracture a
bone, or tear a ligament, pain impulses travel through a network of
nerves to the spinal cord, which funnels them to the brain. But because
pain signals share some pathways with thinking and emotions, those wires
can become crossed, experts say. “Stress and anxiety in particular
lower your threshold, so minor pain feels more intense than it normally
would,” says Robert Gatchel, PhD, distinguished professor of psychology
at the University of Texas at Arlington. People who are overwhelmed are
also more likely to put a worst-case spin on pain, playing a mental loop
of negative thoughts like “I’ll never overcome this” or “I can’t stand
having to deal with it.”
Such thinking can trigger a nasty downward spiral. Studies find
that “catastrophizing” pain — imagining the worst and dwelling on it —
boosts activity in areas of the brain that relate to pain, creating
more distress and worse hurt. In fact, some doctors believe that
dreading pain can be more disabling than pain itself. “There’s a
self-fulfilling prophesy with pain,” Weiss says, and that’s especially
true for exercisers. “You tend to focus on how pain will hinder your
workout,” explains Maria Urso, PhD, a research physiologist at the U.S.
Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick,
Massachusetts. “You’ll make a bigger deal out of pain than someone who
doesn’t work out regularly, because you’ve got more to lose.”
That’s what happened to Dawn Nida, a 36-year-old bioengineer and
lifelong runner in Natick. When Achilles tendinitis recently kept her
off roads and trails for a month, Dawn says, it was “the worst four
weeks of my life. I’m known as a runner, and if I can’t do that, who am
I?”
Mind Over Muscle
The good news is that you can learn to quash gloomy
thoughts about pain and use your brainpower to feel better. To start,
adopt the attitude that most physical aches are nonthreatening. You hurt
less when you perceive pain as the body healing itself and getting
stronger, research finds. When volunteers in a study at Stanford
University thought about pain in a way that made it seem more benign,
they were able to reduce it by up to 64 percent. “They came up with
unique strategies to change the meaning of pain,” says study leader Sean
Mackey, MD, PhD, chief of the pain management division at Stanford.
“For example, to produce a cooling effect, one woman imagined little
snowflakes landing on her aching shoulder.” Get the same result by
picturing your cells making repairs, swelling going down, tissues
building up, and pain going away. “For five minutes twice a day, close
your eyes and visualize that process occurring,” Weiss says. “Along with
rest and physical therapy, this can help increase the rate of
healing.”
When pain strikes, think about your fitness regimen for the past
week: Did you increase reps? Up your speed? Start a new workout? “If
your activity changed, some pain or soreness will be normal,” Weiss
says. Apply ice to the area and take ibuprofen: Over four to five days
it produces an anti-inflammatory effect that can reduce swelling and
allow tendons to move more freely. Have you been skimping on shut-eye?
“When you’re tired, there’s a good chance you’re changing your gait or
technique during exercise,” Weiss says. “Get more sleep and you should feel better in two to five days.”
If pain wakes you up at night, feels worse in the morning,
prevents you from moving a joint through its full range of motion, or is
present when you’re standing still, see your doctor. You may have
tendinitis or a stress fracture. “Rest is the only thing that will cure
overuse,” Weiss says. Go to the doc right away if you experience any
sharp, piercing, shooting, radiating, burning, or searing pain, which
may be a sign of nerve damage.
As you’re healing from an injury, don’t stop exercising (as long
as your physician gives you the okay), but do rethink your workout. “If
running hurts, you can get the same cardio
benefits without all the pounding by swimming or doing the stairclimber
instead,” Weiss says. Activity delivers oxygen and nutrients that aid
your body in repairing itself. Plus, it improves your mood and helps you
stay upbeat. And who knows? You just may discover a new exercise to add
to your repertoire.
After being sidelined by a second foot injury, Dawn Nida finally
began to focus on what she could do rather than on what she couldn’t. “I
kept telling myself that not running for a month or two is worth it if
it means I can keep running for the rest of my life,” she says. Dawn
took up Spinning, yoga,
swimming, and elliptical workouts instead. “I realized that these other
activities made me more well-rounded,” she says. “Now that I’m healed, I
still do them all, and it’s made me a much better runner. The injury
really changed my way of thinking. I listen to my body more, and I’m
stronger than ever.”
What do you think?
