This week on @lunge.lift @robstubbspt and @ashgrossmann.coach come at us with 5 stepping stones to take on the road to recovery.
Bouncing back from an injury can be just as much of a mental challenge as it is physically demanding.
Find out what the lads have to say on making that bench time beneficial as opposed to being a roadblock in your training journey.
We journey through ⬇️
🎥 Why filming lifts could be your saving grace
🏇 When is the right time to get back in the saddle?
📈 Guiding principles to break up the process and stay positive
🤓 Ligaments, tendons, muscles, bones; which has the capacity to heal, recover and adapt the fastest and why?
🚫 Pain-free does not mean you’re out of the woods
And a whole load more!
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hey guys welcome to the lunge and lift
00:03
podcast today we’ve got a great episode
00:06
in store for you we’re going to be going
00:08
through five steps to get back from an
00:10
injury
00:11
into your full training we’re gonna give
00:13
you some guiding principles on how to
00:15
break up the process and stay positive
00:18
as it’s a common thing that happens to
00:20
most people who train hard at some point
00:22
there’s a bump in the road and it’s just
00:24
important to
00:26
have some guidance to know where you are
00:29
in the process and also know what you’re
00:31
working towards so we’re excited to run
00:34
through that
00:35
but before we get into it as always a
00:37
big thank you to our show sponsor with
00:39
fitness check them out at when you
00:41
change in some pools or the website
00:44
with hyphenfitness.com
00:46
and use discount code ll15 to get 15
00:50
off your purchase
00:52
last week there’s a exciting fashion
00:55
show launching the new sarah sigma’s
00:56
daughter range so if you’re interested
00:59
in that please take a look and yeah
01:01
there’s some vlog some bargains to be
01:03
had
01:04
we also want to let you know that we are
01:06
updating our website there’s plenty of
01:08
new exciting content coming out
01:11
now on the regular so please check it
01:13
out at
01:14
londonlift.com and
01:16
you won’t be disappointed i see that
01:20
thank you
01:22
right i think a little bit of a legal
01:23
disclaimer right
01:24
yes i’m definitely not a doctor
01:28
i’m definitely not a doctor and uh
01:30
before we get into the nitty-gritty of
01:31
this episode we do need to make it very
01:34
clear that this is not medical advice
01:37
everyone’s different and we we’re going
01:40
to give you some guiding principles from
01:43
our experience but
01:45
every situation
01:47
can be very very different so it’s
01:49
important that if you’ve got a current
01:51
injury make sure you check with your
01:53
doctor or health care professional or
01:55
coach as to what the best
01:57
uh thing for you to do is in your
01:59
personal situation
02:01
however hopefully
02:03
some of the information we’ll go through
02:04
today will be helpful as a point of
02:08
reference especially for the coaches who
02:10
might have clients or athletes that are
02:12
currently going through an injury and
02:15
can help you help them
02:17
as effectively as possible through what
02:20
can be a challenging
02:23
time in your training career
02:25
um
02:26
yeah definitely i think we’ve both had
02:27
our fair amount of injuries and i was
02:30
actually talking to a client about this
02:32
i think it was a week or two ago
02:34
and
02:35
they were just they were a bit down and
02:38
it was just they’re like i just i can’t
02:40
imagine when i’m going to get back to
02:42
normal i can’t go back to where i was
02:43
back to my saying my fighting weight my
02:45
fighting strength like you know back to
02:47
feeling good
02:48
and we were talking about it’s just like
02:51
but that’s part of the fun is is the
02:54
rebuild and the thing is it just meant
02:55
that okay you probably push yourself
02:57
maybe a little bit too far on something
02:59
but it just means you’re overreaching
03:01
and it means that you was you know
03:03
trying to take the next step and it does
03:05
sometimes take a little bit of you know
03:07
knock here not there to you know
03:09
strengthen the ship and
03:11
get you to the next level so
03:13
definitely it’s like a goldilocks yeah
03:15
uh phenomenon where you’ve got to do a
03:17
little bit too much sometimes to know
03:19
what the right amount is and getting
03:21
that feedback from your body that
03:23
yeah you’ve done a bit too much and
03:25
that’s more than you can handle right
03:27
now it’s just a little bit of feedback
03:29
and a totally normal part of the process
03:31
which yeah
03:33
we’re going to get into yeah i think i
03:34
think as well it’s really
03:37
all injuries that i’ve had over the time
03:38
is i’ve always then tried to understand
03:41
how that they’ve happened so that it’s
03:43
either have i lifted with my ego and
03:46
just gone too heavy for what i was ready
03:48
for have i you know just gone out of
03:50
position thankfully i do record a lot of
03:52
my lifts and stuff like that just had a
03:54
habit now and sometimes you just see
03:55
that oh yeah and then you watch the one
03:57
before you was like yeah i probably
03:59
shouldn’t have gone up that one and it’s
04:00
just it is it is so important to
04:03
check back understand where you’ve just
04:05
been to then understand kind of like
04:08
where you are today and i think that
04:10
leads nicely into point number one
04:13
sure thing so step number one is to
04:16
establish your starting point and that’s
04:18
where you are today it’s not
04:21
what you were doing a few months ago and
04:23
the the one rm that you used to have
04:25
three years ago when
04:27
conditions were perfect
04:30
understanding what you’re capable of
04:32
today considering your injury
04:35
and
04:36
i think the first thing to get really
04:38
clear on is what sort of injury is it
04:41
because depending on what’s actually
04:43
happened will massively impact how you
04:46
should
04:47
work around it or work with it
04:50
for
04:51
like collisions or impact injuries where
04:53
there might have been an accident
04:56
usually there’ll be some sort of
04:58
tissue damage and that will require time
05:01
to heal
05:02
so
05:04
obviously obvious ones are sort of bone
05:05
breaks or tears where there is real
05:08
structural damage which the body just
05:11
needs time to heal and and repair
05:15
and
05:16
sometimes this means taking some time
05:19
off certain movements or deloading
05:21
certain structures like the classic one
05:23
here is bone bruising if you’ve bruised
05:25
the bone
05:26
continuing to load that bone and put
05:28
impact through it it’s just going to
05:29
slow down the healing process
05:32
i think the easiest way to think about
05:33
that one is
05:35
if you’ve got a bruise on your body and
05:37
you kept pressing it or aggravating it
05:40
it would just take a lot longer to heal
05:42
there’s
05:43
certain physiological processes that
05:45
need some
05:47
um
05:49
yeah some time and space to just
05:51
actually
05:53
knit back together
05:55
and if that’s the case then having
05:57
patience and doing whatever you can
05:59
around that i think it’s important to
06:00
move as much as possible without
06:02
aggravating the injury
06:04
faster
06:06
if however it’s not
06:08
a huge amount of tissue damage so quite
06:11
often somebody will have pain or
06:12
discomfort they’ll go and get scans and
06:15
actually the scans will come back
06:16
showing no structural damage so if
06:18
you’ve got a shoulder injury you go all
06:20
your ligaments and tendons are in good
06:22
neck there’s no bone damage then
06:25
actually that suggests the injury is
06:26
neuromuscular so it’s actually more
06:28
about
06:29
just conditioning the nervous system to
06:33
use its muscles more appropriately maybe
06:35
easing off some tension redistributing
06:37
some workload to other areas
06:39
and those are the cases where actually
06:41
it’s important to keep training but
06:44
probably just revisit the way that
06:47
you’re training so that the workload is
06:49
uh distributed more evenly to other
06:52
areas of the body and potentially the
06:54
overused areas are not getting so
06:57
overused that’s right and i think this
07:00
is a really good um
07:03
opportunity for maybe to work on other
07:05
parts of the body so say for instance if
07:07
you’ve got a shoulder injury it’s an
07:09
opportunity to maybe build up some leg
07:10
strength and stuff where you don’t have
07:12
to hold anything so with the shoulder
07:14
cause you in discomfort um also sac vice
07:17
versa you’ve got a knee injury or
07:18
anything like that maybe your upper body
07:19
can now get a little bit more time and
07:21
not only is that going to be nice and
07:23
maybe put a little bit of extra working
07:25
in the other area of the body say that
07:27
isn’t injured
07:28
it also is then going to help still
07:30
promote a good set of like growth
07:31
hormone release and stuff like which is
07:32
then going to help with recovery and
07:34
like last week when we touched on it in
07:36
the blood flow restriction episode um in
07:39
that one world mentioned about you know
07:40
how you know you do your blood pressure
07:42
and then those hormones are going to
07:44
circulate around the body and stuff now
07:46
it’s an interesting um
07:49
it’s an interesting time because i think
07:50
when we get injured
07:52
it’s very easy to just kind of like give
07:54
up
07:55
and i think just and just to sit back
07:57
and just say do you know what i just
07:58
need complete time off and i think as
08:00
you kind of alluded to there
08:03
sometimes you do need that time off
08:04
sometimes you do need to just take a
08:06
step back from a moment and actually
08:07
have some complete rest
08:09
but
08:10
then it’s not being too worried about
08:12
coming back into the gym and then also
08:15
taking your time i guess and unders as
08:17
you used to mention at the end there you
08:18
know
08:20
it might just be about just scaling back
08:21
on certain movements and stuff and then
08:24
taking your time easing your way back in
08:25
and getting the blood flowing around the
08:27
areas that are injured exactly like what
08:29
we don’t want is you to just lie in bed
08:31
and sit on the couch getting
08:33
[Music]
08:35
like less and less
08:37
able to move and the body
08:39
is always adapting so whatever you’re
08:41
asking your body to do it’s always
08:42
adapting to it so if you’re telling it
08:44
that it’s new function is just to sit on
08:46
the sofa and do nothing
08:48
then it will start to shut down muscles
08:50
will start to atrophy you’ll start to
08:53
lose the appropriate strength tension
08:56
relationships in your muscles
08:58
so
08:59
we want to
09:00
be telling the body that no no it still
09:02
needs to be active and we still want it
09:04
to do work we still want the muscles to
09:06
be functioning in certain ways as far as
09:08
we can without obviously making things
09:10
worse
09:11
and in most situations this is a massive
09:14
generalization but people can do more
09:16
than they think than when when they’re
09:17
injured if you’ve got a little niggle in
09:19
the knee it doesn’t mean you have to
09:21
stay off your feet
09:22
you know for weeks so you can’t do any
09:25
sort of exercise i think the more active
09:27
you are and the more you can maintain a
09:29
training mindset
09:31
the faster you’ll heal for those uh sort
09:34
of
09:35
secondary benefits of
09:37
being active and getting your hormones
09:39
stimulated i think uh it’s not to be
09:42
underestimated how
09:44
that feeds into the healing and recovery
09:46
process so we should we should uh make
09:49
that a priority
09:51
the other thing i wanted to say on
09:53
the establishing your starting point is
09:56
doubling down to say that don’t obsess
09:58
about where you used to be i think a lot
10:00
of people when they’re injured
10:02
spend a lot of time living in the past
10:03
thinking i used to be able to do this i
10:05
used to be able to do that
10:07
it’s not a very productive use of time
10:09
or energy to be comparing yourself to a
10:12
former version where yeah things were
10:15
different
10:16
times have changed and
10:18
accepting the current state of affairs
10:21
will actually be the most productive way
10:23
to get you
10:25
back to whatever that state was in the
10:28
long term so focusing on the here and
10:30
now
10:31
like a meditation coach just
10:34
always the way yeah and now you’re right
10:37
as well because in our episode with john
10:39
houghton uh i think it’s about 58 and he
10:41
mentioned i really liked the the analogy
10:44
was like you’ve got a knee problem
10:46
then and you and you lie in bed your
10:48
knee will feel better because you’re not
10:50
using it so but as soon as you get back
10:52
up it’s going to start hurting again and
10:53
it’s just like you’re avoiding like you
10:55
mentioned there you you need to you
10:57
still need to be on your feet you still
10:58
need to be moving as much as you can
11:00
because you do want to promote the body
11:02
to stop repairing utilize it so can’t
11:05
get better and
11:06
i think that that where you said that
11:08
about not uh obsessing about where you
11:11
used to be i think was one of the
11:13
hardest things for me whenever i’ve had
11:14
like say back injuries and so forth is
11:16
that when i think about to say one of my
11:18
biggest deadlifts and then not long
11:20
after i say a couple months later i then
11:22
done my backing
11:24
i
11:25
have never thought i’d be able to get
11:26
anywhere close to that again
11:28
and i was just like but i can do that
11:30
and but then also i then reframed it is
11:33
i know what my body i know my body is
11:35
capable of
11:37
so i know i can get back to that just in
11:39
time so rather than rushing to get back
11:41
to that i’m going to try and get back to
11:43
it and then go beyond
11:44
because i know my body can do that so i
11:47
guess that leads into our step number
11:49
two
11:51
yep so
11:52
we’ve got where we are currently and
11:54
step two is to establish where you want
11:56
to get to so what’s the destination
11:58
what’s the north star that we’re
12:00
navigating towards
12:02
something a message that we bang on and
12:05
on about but being clear on
12:07
the goal and the outcome that you’re
12:08
working towards makes so many decisions
12:11
for you
12:12
and
12:13
the clearer we are about this
12:15
the clearer we can
12:18
be with our training approach and our
12:19
training plan
12:21
and notice i’m saying training and not
12:23
rehab that’s another really important
12:25
mindset to have is that we’re always in
12:27
training whether you’re
12:29
like one hour post-op and
12:34
post-surgery should i say
12:35
and
12:36
you know still in hospital there’s still
12:39
things you can do to be conditioning
12:41
your body to be fitter stronger even if
12:44
it’s just
12:45
um
12:46
going to the toilet x times per day to
12:49
just get a little bit of movement in
12:51
consider that training not rehab
12:53
and
12:55
on the other end of the spectrum
12:57
we
12:58
if we know that we are getting over this
13:00
injury or recovering from surgery
13:03
and we want to
13:05
go to the olympics and win a gold medal
13:08
in weightlifting we will be going about
13:11
our training in a slightly different way
13:13
to running a marathon for example
13:16
and i think for me one of the biggest
13:19
missed opportunities in any
13:21
injury recovery journey is
13:24
staying as specific as possible to the
13:26
desired outcome like
13:28
even the most basic of i’m going to use
13:32
the dirty word now of rehab exercises
13:34
can be tweaked to be more relevant to
13:37
your training outcome
13:39
so
13:40
two people could have the same knee
13:42
injury let’s say but if one of them’s a
13:45
weightlifter and one of them’s a
13:46
marathon runner the rehab journey should
13:49
look different
13:50
the demands on the body are distinct so
13:53
we should be bearing that in mind with
13:56
the exercises that we plot along the way
14:00
it’s nice would you be able to maybe
14:02
dive into a little bit more mate give us
14:04
some examples of how different would it
14:06
be for weight lifter and runner so
14:09
obviously
14:10
they’re very clear differences in
14:11
general i think we’d all easily agree on
14:13
that but if say someone’s got a knee
14:15
injury and say it’s the exact same knee
14:17
injury what would be maybe your
14:20
difference in diagnosis between the
14:21
weight lifter and the runner
14:23
sure so the weight lifter is obviously
14:25
going to have to deal with greater loads
14:27
like they’re going to be lifting huge
14:29
weights overhead whereas a marathon
14:31
runner is going to be running so the
14:33
force demands on that knee are going to
14:36
be distinct the range of motion demands
14:38
are going to be distinct uh weight lift
14:40
is probably going to be squatting arse
14:41
to grass in most scenarios here with the
14:44
like near maximal degree of knee flexion
14:47
whereas a marathon runner is only ever
14:49
going to be
14:50
jogging so they’re never going to reach
14:52
that depth of knee flexion so there’s
14:55
actually not the same requirement to
14:57
have maximal
14:59
yeah range of motion in that knee
15:02
other demands that would be distinct
15:03
would be the
15:06
duration so you think about the number
15:07
of reps going through a knee in
15:10
a marathon compared to the number of
15:12
reps there’s six reps in a weightlifting
15:14
con
15:16
nine if you count cleaning jokers
15:18
distinct whereas a marathon runner
15:20
depending on their stride length they’re
15:22
they’re putting a huge number of
15:24
repetitions through that knee
15:26
and every one of them is accompanied
15:27
with a
15:28
ground impact whereas obviously in
15:30
weightlifting it’s just yeah one each
15:33
for each of the movements
15:35
so immediately we’ve got quite distinct
15:38
requirements from that knee and where we
15:40
want to get it to so
15:42
the rehab journey should reflect that
15:44
like
15:45
at its very simplest we’re going to need
15:47
more range of motion for the weight
15:49
lifter i’m going to need more reps and
15:51
more tissue tolerance endurance for a
15:55
marathon runner and bearing that in mind
15:58
is really important because
16:01
the point at which they get
16:03
discharged from their physio will be
16:06
x or y
16:07
and we need to go from there
16:09
to
16:10
the end of the
16:11
uh the spectrum of specificity to get
16:14
them back to their sport
16:15
yeah that’s right and i guess as well
16:17
even if you are
16:18
say
16:19
the runner you’d still want to be trying
16:21
to
16:23
increase a range of motion say from a
16:25
knee injury so not as a necessity for
16:28
running per se but to
16:32
not expose yourself to say a squat as an
16:35
example obviously they don’t need the
16:37
astor grass squat but
16:39
they will want to at least have a good
16:41
amount of flexion in their knee for just
16:43
knee health and day to day activity so i
16:46
guess as you what you you said there
16:48
that it is a spec specificity
16:51
yeah so that is that specificity of the
16:54
weightlifter does need more
16:56
of that as a direct path to get back to
16:59
where they need to be but the runner
17:01
doesn’t but they still are going to need
17:03
a full amount of knee flexion just to
17:05
get back to day to day life and things
17:07
like it does determine between
17:10
what’s normal
17:11
and what’s
17:13
necessary and i i wanted to kind of
17:16
maybe dive into this bit a little bit
17:18
here about what’s normal and what’s
17:19
necessary because you you touched on
17:21
about where the physio would just
17:24
discharge them
17:26
so
17:28
obviously this is very dependent on the
17:30
physio and depends how progressive they
17:32
are also the type of style and i guess
17:35
like nhs ones are going to be different
17:36
to maybe sports physios and like franco
17:39
who’s been on a previous episode where
17:41
he trains and he trains hard he
17:43
understands the need for people to be
17:46
able to
17:47
people that train to get back to that
17:49
so
17:50
what would be um
17:53
what is normal
17:55
it’s just a matter of opinion isn’t it
17:57
really
17:58
so
17:59
i think
18:00
it’s a good point on nhs versus private
18:03
versus sports physios
18:06
the nhs
18:08
obviously have a different method of
18:10
funding and their mandate
18:13
is to just get people
18:16
able to
18:17
live
18:19
um
18:20
as fuller lives as they can from a yeah
18:23
i’m trying to define this in a way
18:24
without using the word normal but it’s
18:26
very difficult just day functions i
18:28
remember when i had my shoulder injury
18:29
back in the day and
18:31
saw an nhs physio and the test is
18:32
basically can you button up your shirt
18:34
yourself and can you get ingredients out
18:37
of the kitchen cupboard so you can feed
18:38
yourself right you’re good to go and
18:41
then i was out but my shoulder still
18:43
hurt and there’s still loads of gym
18:44
training i couldn’t do or sports i
18:46
couldn’t play
18:47
whereas when you’ve got private health
18:50
insurance
18:51
the
18:52
payment and incentive structure for the
18:54
physios is slightly different so they’ll
18:55
probably spend a little bit more time
18:57
with you and
18:58
you can have treatment a little bit
19:00
further along the process back towards
19:03
fuller training
19:04
and if you’re lucky enough to have
19:05
access to a sports physio then it’s
19:07
basically however
19:09
much time and
19:11
money you’re willing to send their way
19:13
as to how far they’ll work with you and
19:15
obviously they work with
19:16
athletes during season even when there’s
19:18
nothing wrong with them so
19:22
normal is very much in
19:25
um
19:26
the eye of the holder if i can use that
19:29
and
19:30
i think
19:31
most of our listeners will probably have
19:34
a very high functioning normal for what
19:36
they want their body to be able to do
19:38
and i think
19:39
that’s one of the reasons we get on is
19:41
that we want to
19:43
like see what our bodies are capable of
19:45
we want to push the threshold and be
19:47
much
19:49
fitter and more active than the
19:51
traditional definition of normal so
19:55
keeping that in mind when you’re
19:57
dealing with healthcare professionals
19:59
and finding ones that
20:00
understand where you’re coming from can
20:02
make a huge difference in as to how
20:06
effectively you can recover from your
20:07
injury because like you say if they get
20:10
where you’re coming from and where you
20:11
want to get to
20:12
they can tailor their advice accordingly
20:16
because
20:17
if we come back to that knee injury it’s
20:20
again a different use case for a knee to
20:23
want to just walk up and down the stairs
20:25
five times a day
20:26
when you’re just living at home and not
20:29
going out compared to
20:31
winning a gold medal in weightlifting at
20:32
the olympics or running a marathon so
20:35
having that
20:36
end goal in mind for what that knee
20:38
needs to be able to do
20:39
will
20:41
make a lot of decisions for us yeah it’s
20:43
nicely put and
20:44
i think when
20:46
so from all previous injuries that i’ve
20:48
had and i’ve been to nhs physios i’ve
20:51
been to like
20:52
sports videos i’ve you know i’ve seen
20:54
different types and it’s been really
20:56
interesting because it wasn’t until i
20:58
met
20:59
franco really did i ever see a physio
21:02
that kind of actually took that
21:04
different approach into bringing back to
21:06
normal what we’re saying about normal
21:08
and
21:09
i think we’re
21:11
going going to that state of normal as
21:13
we said it is as you said the eye of the
21:15
beholder says the individual where you
21:16
see is normal and i think
21:19
as a nation we do need to
21:21
up our sense of normal we do need to aim
21:23
higher compared to we don’t want to be
21:25
just being able to just get by in your
21:27
day-to-day
21:28
and yeah it’s so important and i think
21:32
understanding as you mentioned there
21:34
about like what the goal is at the end
21:36
and where you’re kind of working towards
21:38
and i guess
21:39
invest in if you’ve got an injury
21:41
investing in the physio if you’ve got
21:43
the funds to do it investing in like a a
21:46
well-known like a ref um recommended one
21:49
is so worth the money because
21:52
i’ve spent i think it was like eight to
21:53
ten weeks with an nhs video nothing
21:55
against any just physios but again it
21:57
was back pain after my motorcycle
21:59
accident and i didn’t feel any different
22:00
at the end of it
22:02
and so i could have spent those 10 weeks
22:03
potentially working so directly with
22:05
someone that was that might be able to
22:07
maybe guide me back to training because
22:09
i understand i wanted to get back to
22:10
lifting not just to have say less back
22:13
pain so it’s definitely worth um
22:16
that investment i’ve i felt
22:18
so
22:19
guess moving on to step three
22:23
step three so once you know where you
22:24
want to get back to or just to
22:28
chunk up that journey into
22:31
many steps like any
22:33
big goal that you’re working towards any
22:35
training journey it’s about how can you
22:38
rather than focusing on like a huge
22:40
amount of progress that you need to make
22:42
having small mini wins along the way and
22:46
identifying what the gaps are between
22:48
where you are now and where you want to
22:50
go so
22:51
let’s stick with that in the example
22:52
it’s quite a nice one
22:54
if we’re lacking range of motion then
22:57
that’s one of the areas of knee function
22:59
that we need to restore
23:01
if we’re
23:02
lacking the ability to tolerate
23:05
large numbers of ground impacts when
23:07
we’re running like what’s the volume
23:10
that we can currently tolerate and how
23:12
far short of a marathon is that
23:14
so we’ve now got
23:16
a current state and a 2b state that we
23:19
want to
23:20
bridge the gap between
23:22
so
23:24
other things that you might want to
23:25
consider here are
23:27
which muscles are doing the majority of
23:29
the works it’s basically your motor
23:30
patterns so if you’ve got back pain dead
23:33
lifting and it’s like you’re getting a
23:35
massive lower back pump and you never
23:37
feel other muscles work and somebody’s
23:41
watched your form and you can see that
23:42
they’re not contributing very much
23:44
then having a part of your
23:47
journey and a mini win to be feeling
23:50
your other muscles
23:53
contribute more during a hinge pattern
23:56
could be a mini win along the way and
23:58
having that at lighter weights and
24:00
having at heavier weights until
24:02
eventually you get towards the level of
24:04
strength that you desire
24:06
and uh
24:08
it could be as simple as just raw
24:09
strength so
24:11
once you’ve spent some time
24:13
in a cast or
24:15
you know in a wheelchair potentially
24:17
you’ll have lost strength compared to
24:19
where you used to be
24:20
so just pure strength through that limb
24:23
that hasn’t been loaded having little
24:26
um goals for
24:30
let’s say
24:31
ups or lunges or split squats working
24:33
that weak leg and just continuing to
24:36
bring it back up to where you want it to
24:37
be i think the
24:40
smaller these chunks can be the more you
24:42
keep your mindset in success that you
24:45
are making steps forwards whereas if
24:47
you’re just focused on
24:48
i want to one rep max my snatch and
24:51
today i can’t even bend my knee you’re
24:53
constantly thinking you’re in failure
24:56
because you’re so far away and unable to
24:58
do the thing that you want but if you’re
25:00
framing it as i’ve taken a step forwards
25:02
today towards that overall goal because
25:06
my knee range of motion is better
25:08
the
25:09
positivity becomes a self
25:13
it’s like a positive flywheel the more
25:14
success you have the more positive you
25:16
feel about it the more success you want
25:18
to achieve whereas if you’re constantly
25:20
reminding yourself that oh i used to be
25:21
able to run a 10 500 meters and today i
25:24
can’t even run a kilometer like slowly
25:27
you feel like things are going badly and
25:30
that just has a cascade of
25:32
negativity which makes it feel worse
25:36
than the reality of the situation
25:37
actually is yeah
25:39
that hits home for me right now because
25:41
of where i had covid a little while back
25:44
and so i went for my first so i’ve
25:46
already done one run which i nearly died
25:48
doing but i went for another one
25:49
yesterday with them with hannah and um
25:53
we did 5k
25:54
first 4k steady and then the last one
25:56
was up a hill at a slow pace but just
25:58
kept moving and it slows the furnace
26:01
i’ve run post covered and
26:03
if i looked back i’d be like oh i was
26:06
running all this thing and it’s it’s
26:08
quite depressing when you look at it
26:09
like that but i didn’t look at that i
26:10
was like oh cool this is the furthest
26:12
i’ve run post there and i’m it’s now the
26:14
next step and it’s it’s funny i really
26:16
want to get back to some aerobic work
26:18
but i’ve just gone the complete other
26:19
side of the spectrum back to strength
26:21
training and just i want to do a rabbit
26:23
work well i’m just like
26:25
because i know i’m going to be worse at
26:27
it so this this is exactly this i’m
26:30
i’m but i’m taking my time and
26:32
understanding it’s a journey back and
26:34
that’s the fun part and same as my
26:35
strength training that’s a journey back
26:37
now to from where i was to wherever i
26:39
want to go to so i just need to get back
26:41
on the bike as well in all both times
26:44
yeah yeah well yeah this is a great
26:46
illustration because you
26:49
have been so strong and have been so fit
26:51
but you’ve just i’m neither now i’m just
26:54
a mess
26:55
yeah yeah but you’re hopefully a little
26:57
bit fitter and a little bit stronger
26:59
than you were last week all right so
27:00
well that’s been yeah that’s been a step
27:02
forward
27:04
yeah it is and it’s it’s it’s hard and
27:07
it
27:09
we talked we’ve we’ve spoken about it
27:10
pretty much in these three points as
27:11
well it’s it’s so hard to
27:14
not think back
27:16
because that is your your anchor point
27:18
that’s where you think cool that’s
27:20
that’s what i was doing that was where i
27:21
was doing and that’s where i want to get
27:23
to and stuff and that’s it that is a
27:25
positive thing as i mentioned at the
27:27
start you know understanding that what
27:28
your body is capable of and then saying
27:31
cool okay then breaking these as you
27:32
said chunk it up into right i want to be
27:35
able to build up back on my my injured
27:37
leg to build that strong again and then
27:39
i cannot wait to maybe power snatch and
27:42
then but cool i can’t wait to maybe is
27:44
it a power or is it a squat snatch and
27:46
then it’ll be then cooled down into your
27:47
say squat snatches and you’re like and
27:49
then but the thing is you won’t realize
27:51
it and then suddenly you’ll be squat and
27:53
you’ll forget about your injury it’s the
27:54
same as like with with my daughter chloe
27:56
it’s like
27:58
these times that gay are quite hard and
27:59
stuff like that and you’re just like oh
28:01
god when are these going to end and then
28:02
suddenly it stops you like actually kind
28:04
of miss that because it’s just you’re so
28:06
involved in the moment with whether it’s
28:08
injury or whatever in life it’s really
28:10
hard to sometimes
28:11
realize that it will pass most of the
28:14
time so
28:15
i guess
28:17
once you have chunked up these ends
28:19
towards where you want to go to it’s
28:21
going to be now
28:22
getting stuck in right
28:24
yeah that’s it so
28:25
you’ve done your little gap analysis
28:27
you’ve identified the areas that you
28:28
need to
28:30
improve or work on to get where you want
28:33
to go so then you’ve just got to design
28:35
your training plan to
28:37
target those gaps so it’s about creating
28:40
the right stimulus and the key point
28:42
here is that it’s at an appropriate
28:44
intensity so we want to be
28:46
stimulating the adaptation that we want
28:49
to create
28:50
without overdoing it and it’s the most
28:52
obvious part of this but it’s probably
28:54
the most butchered part of this in
28:57
execution in that
28:58
people are always trying to
29:02
do too much too soon because that’s just
29:04
the nature of improvement once you see
29:07
things going well
29:08
you’re tempted to just push your luck
29:11
and see what you can get away with and
29:15
it’s human nature to just to do that but
29:20
as a coach especially it’s our jobs to
29:23
rein people in to get them to
29:26
look after like to prioritize their long
29:28
term over their short term which is
29:29
essentially what this boils down to is
29:31
going slower today will actually mean
29:33
going faster
29:35
this month or this quarter or this year
29:38
and
29:40
having the
29:42
short-term patience to dial it in
29:45
will usually result in more favorable
29:47
outcomes if you’re
29:49
right on the edge of what you can
29:51
actually recover from you’re much more
29:53
likely to overdo it so
29:56
if you’re getting the stimulus
29:58
and then you get out of the gym and you
30:00
get on with recovering you’re much more
30:02
likely to just stay in the improvement
30:04
zone
30:05
rather than the overreaching zone so
30:09
yeah sort of the depending on what your
30:12
condition is
30:13
if you’re missing range of motion doing
30:15
stretches to improve that range of
30:17
motion if you’re liking oh yeah i
30:19
recommend the stretches
30:21
yeah i always recommend stretch it’s
30:22
just uh
30:24
right yeah
30:26
never static
30:27
um
30:28
and if you’re lacking recruitment of a
30:30
certain muscle finding ways to get it to
30:32
contribute more in the given movement
30:34
pattern
30:35
and always be
30:37
checking your input versus your output
30:40
so moderating your approach based off of
30:44
results
30:45
so that can mean scaling up or down if
30:47
you are
30:49
nailing your training and everything’s
30:51
going well then having some sensible
30:54
progressive overload to continue moving
30:56
you forwards when you’re ready but also
30:58
listening to your body if you’re getting
31:00
some feedback to say this is too much
31:02
right now and actually symptoms are
31:04
slightly
31:06
getting worse then having a look as to
31:09
why that’s happening is your technique
31:11
off in a certain movement
31:13
or is it literally just too much have
31:14
you had a big jump in your volume or
31:16
intensity recently and that might be
31:19
what it is but if you’re comparing your
31:20
inputs and your outputs you’ll have a
31:22
good idea of what the change has been
31:24
that’s brought about that
31:26
result
31:28
one thing i wanted to say on this one is
31:30
about pain so pain
31:32
it’s feedback but it’s not the absolute
31:35
truth and we do a deep dive on this with
31:38
franco in one of our earlier episodes
31:40
i’m not sure the numbers but scroll back
31:42
for
31:43
for episodes of franco because pain
31:45
science is fascinating and
31:48
it’s something we want to bear in mind
31:50
but sometimes there is a case for
31:55
working through
31:56
an appropriate amount of pain let’s put
31:58
it that way i’m not saying
31:59
by any stretch to just hammer your body
32:01
and ignore the signals it’s sending you
32:04
but
32:05
um
32:05
listen to those two episodes and get a
32:08
good understanding of why that might be
32:09
the case they were season 1 episode 11
32:13
and 14. so there’s a part one and part
32:15
two great episodes real good deep dives
32:17
early days as well in our podcast so if
32:19
you if you pop over to youtube you can
32:22
see uh some well
32:24
you head over to youtube and have a
32:26
little look um really interesting here
32:29
so
32:29
the design in the training to create the
32:31
right stimulus
32:33
so i’m gonna utilize use myself as an
32:35
example because i think as i’m going
32:37
through these things it’s been it’s been
32:38
really nice to actually think actually
32:39
that’s why i’ve been kind of doing these
32:42
things without overthinking it and an
32:45
example so i followed my strength method
32:47
thing which over a three week cycle
32:50
is built to a heavy five built a heavy
32:52
three and then build a heavy one
32:54
now for the past um
32:56
three
32:57
three or four weeks basically i’ve just
32:59
built a heavy five built to heavy three
33:00
then went back to build to a heavy five
33:02
and then i’m going back to build a heavy
33:03
three so i’m actually going anywhere
33:05
near a heavy one for a while so i’m just
33:07
cycling between the first two weeks to
33:10
give myself because i don’t want to push
33:12
myself too far so because i know that’s
33:14
when my ego is going to come in and i’ll
33:16
probably go reach a little bit too far
33:18
and potentially say do more damage and
33:20
it’s like
33:22
building strength isn’t testing strength
33:23
and i think going back to one of our old
33:25
episodes about testing competing and
33:27
training like one of those things i’m
33:29
i’m really trying to train at the moment
33:31
and build my strength back and
33:33
understand it’s going to take time so
33:35
testing it
33:36
isn’t going to tell me anything really
33:38
at the moment now that might not be
33:40
injury based that’s just kind of easing
33:42
myself back into training but it’s it’s
33:44
this exact same principle it’s in
33:46
understanding when you’re going through
33:49
anything whether it’s recovery from an
33:51
injury or a
33:53
time out of training it’s
33:56
you can scale up and you can do nice big
33:58
jumps if it feels good and don’t be
33:59
afraid to
34:01
but i think it is a thing of just
34:04
checking the ego is the biggest thing
34:05
and for me it’s been a hard thing but
34:07
it’s been nice because i’ve been able to
34:09
last week i think it was i was dead
34:11
lifting and i i stopped at a certain
34:13
weight and i was like i could go heavier
34:15
but i know that is just pure ego and i
34:18
and i was like cool i’ll step back and i
34:19
was happy with that but it it does take
34:22
an extra moment so if you think i’m
34:24
going to put more weight on just say do
34:26
i need to put more weight on
34:27
and if you’re going to put one kilo on
34:29
us like that don’t do that is an
34:31
absolute waste of time if you especially
34:33
if you’re
34:34
you’re not competing just
34:36
don’t get me wrong i’ve done it i’m
34:38
saying from experience don’t do it
34:40
there’s a couple of things i really like
34:42
about that is that one
34:44
you’ve said again the
34:46
process is the same whether you’re
34:48
training or you’re recovering you’re
34:50
just trying to improve your body in some
34:52
way shape or form and
34:55
the second thing was
34:57
you got your stimulus so you’re you knew
34:59
what your outcome is you’re trying to
35:00
get stronger in the deadlift and you had
35:04
achieved that you created a stimulus so
35:06
your body would come back stronger next
35:07
time you deadlift so you didn’t need to
35:10
do any more because that box has been
35:12
ticked and anything beyond that is just
35:16
the risk reward becomes a lot less
35:17
favorable because you’ve already got the
35:19
stimulus so your body is going to adapt
35:21
to be stronger next week so
35:24
what do you stand to gain you stand to
35:25
gain a bit of ego and like a better
35:27
number to
35:29
um feel good about
35:31
whereas actually the long-term goal of
35:33
getting stronger is already underway and
35:36
so there’s no need to
35:38
add that extra risk without much more
35:40
reward
35:42
it’s not it’s not as if you get a huge
35:44
amount more stronger
35:46
because you’ve done
35:47
one heavier set
35:49
and don’t get me wrong like in certain
35:50
situations like if you’re peaking for a
35:51
competition
35:53
things like that then things can be
35:55
different
35:56
but especially in this context of injury
35:58
recovery
36:00
we’ll always er on the side of caution
36:03
because
36:04
um yeah we want to get back to
36:08
100 as soon as possible like we said
36:10
going slower means going faster later
36:12
it’s better to get one step forward than
36:14
trying to take two steps and then
36:15
actually having to take some back right
36:17
so it’s just it’s just moderating
36:20
and it is hard to do but it is so
36:22
important and i think that leads us on
36:24
to step five
36:26
yes uh step five
36:29
can be basically summarizes don’t push
36:30
your luck so
36:32
uh it’s very related to the appropriate
36:35
intensity but i think the key points i
36:37
wanted to illustrate here are the tissue
36:39
tolerance takes time for especially for
36:42
your passive structures so
36:44
what i mean by this is things like bones
36:47
ligaments and tendons
36:50
don’t adapt as fast as muscles so
36:53
muscles can because they’ve got a very
36:56
good blood supply compared to the
36:58
passive structures
36:59
they can actually heal recover and adapt
37:02
at a faster rate than these passive
37:04
structures
37:06
and
37:08
you will your body will be able to do
37:10
more
37:11
sooner sort of
37:13
muscularly
37:14
then it will do
37:16
with those passive structures and
37:19
good examples of this uh
37:21
a lot of rock climbers
37:23
they rely on those passive structures a
37:26
lot more than their muscular structures
37:29
compared to other athletes
37:31
so
37:32
we
37:33
uh um
37:35
they’ll peak in their athletic careers
37:37
later in life
37:38
so that they
37:39
because it just takes that extra time
37:42
for the finger tendons and ligaments to
37:44
build up in thickness
37:46
compared to a younger athlete who just
37:48
hasn’t had the time to condition those
37:50
tissues to be as resilient
37:53
so if your injury has been on one of
37:55
those passive structures you’re going to
37:57
feel good and feel strong
37:59
and able to do
38:01
more than your passive structures are
38:03
actually ready for
38:05
so having patience here
38:08
is
38:09
always going to be a better idea if you
38:11
have time obviously if you’re for a
38:12
professional athlete and you’ve got to
38:14
get match fit as soon as possible you’re
38:17
probably going to be willing to take on
38:18
a little bit more risk than the average
38:21
joe
38:22
but um
38:23
yeah tissue tolerance
38:25
is a key part of injury resilience like
38:28
something i often say is you can adapt
38:30
to almost anything if you go slow enough
38:32
as long as you’re getting the stimulus
38:34
for those say your tendons to thicken up
38:37
which is protective
38:38
you’re essentially putting a small
38:40
amount of damage through that tendon so
38:42
that it grows recovers and repairs to be
38:44
thicker and stronger if you go slow
38:47
enough and maintain that stimulus over
38:48
the long term your tendons can withstand
38:52
unbelievable
38:53
amounts of force and stress
38:56
but as soon as you go
38:57
faster or too fast where that rate of
39:00
damage exceeds the rate of repair
39:04
then you’re now degrading that tendon
39:05
and things are eventually going to catch
39:07
up with you
39:08
so as long as you are stimulating and
39:12
getting the improvement benefits and uh
39:15
dr
39:16
john howton talked about this really
39:17
nicely in our podcast as well that
39:19
tendons do need stimulation even to
39:22
recover
39:23
because of these uh some of these
39:25
factors like
39:26
less blood flow compared to muscles um
39:29
if you are doing that you’re going to be
39:31
looking after yourself for the long term
39:33
rather than just getting some short term
39:35
quick gains which uh eventually will
39:38
come to a stop
39:39
yeah i think that’s
39:41
the don’t push your luck one i think is
39:42
a really nice way to finish because it’s
39:45
it is it really means you need to have
39:47
identified your journey to understand
39:50
where you you’re trying to get to and
39:52
to not try and jump ahead too many steps
39:55
because i think that’s where
39:58
that’s where we slip up because we we
40:00
know especially when we say come when we
40:02
have an idea of what it’s felt like
40:04
before as you kind of mentioned a couple
40:06
points back is in like
40:07
it’s that risk reward and that thing off
40:10
i know i can do more i know i can do
40:12
this because i’ve done that before but
40:14
then you have to remember core okay
40:16
that’s not planned safe potentially for
40:17
another two weeks so to hold in on where
40:20
you are and
40:22
patience this with a we’re
40:25
we’re a generation of like you know
40:27
instant
40:28
gratification and everything we need it
40:29
now now now and it’s like
40:31
it’s it’s cool to have that and but at
40:33
the same time it’s like your body hasn’t
40:36
adapted to that so and that this is why
40:38
i think
40:39
training like uh like getting improving
40:42
your physique and building strength and
40:44
these sort of things is
40:46
you have to do the work
40:48
and there’s not there are enhancements
40:50
but generally is you have to do the work
40:52
and even if you do anything that might
40:54
assist you you still have to put in a
40:55
lot of work to and have the sacrifices
40:58
along the way to kind of get to your end
41:00
goal
41:01
so it’s
41:03
it’s
41:04
like one of the things that there is no
41:05
shortcut and and i think when you have
41:08
had
41:09
a period out from recovery or you know
41:12
or you you are back to full strength and
41:14
you’re now trying to build beyond it is
41:16
that thing of always asking yourself is
41:18
it worth it if i go that little bit more
41:21
and sometimes it is if you’re on the
41:23
stage as you mentioned you’re competing
41:24
sometimes might take in that extra one
41:26
kilo might get you the gold medal
41:28
compared to say silver and you’re
41:30
willing to take that that risk then cool
41:32
that do you but most of the time when
41:36
you’re training
41:37
it’s just not worth it and
41:40
i’ve from previous experience from
41:42
coaching in classes and you know
41:44
someone just about gets a one rep max
41:46
and they go i’ve got more i’ve got one
41:48
i’ve got one more kilo it’s like
41:50
really like okay yes cool okay if that’s
41:53
what you want to do and i i can’t
41:56
i i’m not talking down to that because i
41:58
have been there but it’s now talking
42:00
from experiences and saying
42:02
it’s probably not worth it especially if
42:05
you’ve grinded out a one rep max you’ve
42:07
not got one more kilo because you’ve put
42:09
everything into that rep where your
42:11
nervous system is fried everything is
42:13
done you
42:14
i mean if you get another one you’re
42:15
fluking it but yeah yeah
42:18
that’s awesome it’s almost like a really
42:21
[ __ ] game of the weakest link where
42:23
you should
42:25
the money’s rising and then you can bang
42:27
it
42:28
but you can continue to take more risk
42:31
but the difference between this and the
42:32
weakest link is that the prize doesn’t
42:34
get much greater like you’ve made
42:36
progress in that you’ve got a stimulus
42:38
your body is now going to come back
42:40
better next time round but because
42:42
you’re greedy you want to take on extra
42:44
risk
42:45
without much extra reward and the
42:48
classic case of this is you know
42:50
somebody
42:51
just gets pain-free and they think
42:53
that’s the day to
42:55
push the limit and find out what their
42:58
their max is on the given movement and
43:01
it’s just that you’ve just got yourself
43:03
pain-free
43:05
you haven’t got the right to
43:08
go to absolute failure in
43:10
in this movement because you’ve you know
43:12
your tissues have literally just got
43:13
pain-free doesn’t mean out of the woods
43:16
and doesn’t mean you’ve got no
43:18
improvement left before you’re 100
43:20
uh able to do whatever you want
43:23
and uh
43:25
it’s yeah this sort of boring parent
43:28
type advice but being sensible and just
43:30
yeah taking some progress taking those
43:33
wins to the bank and uh living to fight
43:36
another day
43:37
is the sensible route
43:39
and doing that as much as you can
43:41
will
43:42
long term work out for you beautiful so
43:45
just to recap step one establish your
43:48
starting point where are you today
43:50
number one number two you want to
43:52
establish where you want to get back to
43:55
so what is it you want to try and what’s
43:57
your north star what are you trying to
43:59
get towards what is your
44:01
end point then you’re gonna chunk up
44:03
that journey towards the end goal so
44:05
you’re gonna break it down and and then
44:07
create a plan that’s going to help you
44:10
get to where you want to go then step
44:13
four is design the training to create
44:15
the stimulus that at the appropriate
44:17
intensity
44:18
for you to get back and then lastly is
44:22
don’t push your luck
44:24
so a couple of key points to take away
44:26
ash what would you what would you want
44:28
the listeners to really
44:29
like make sure they’re fully understood
44:31
and taken away
44:32
i think the first one
44:34
is get clear on whether you actually
44:37
need time to heal like what sort of
44:39
injury do you have seek some
44:40
professional advice if you do need time
44:43
to heal
44:44
what’s the
44:45
most active you can be while still
44:47
giving your tissues that
44:50
time and rest so that they you don’t
44:53
make things worse but as we said earlier
44:55
there’s probably more that you can do
44:58
than you think so just yeah work with
45:00
your professionals there to
45:02
figure out what the best thing to do is
45:04
in
45:05
the short term
45:07
i think
45:08
another key point would be that if it’s
45:10
a overuse related injury
45:13
getting to the root of why that overuse
45:15
is happening
45:17
you might not need to stop training at
45:18
all just modify the way you do things
45:20
stuff like tightness if you if you get
45:23
chronic tightness in a certain area
45:25
then you might be able to adjust the way
45:28
you do things or get your movement
45:30
mechanics sorted out and
45:32
this is especially the case that if
45:34
you’ve had a scan and everything looks
45:36
good
45:37
and
45:38
yeah it’s probably something
45:39
neuromuscular so working on your your
45:41
motor patterns and
45:44
technique and the third one i’d say is
45:50
bridging the gap between where you
45:52
currently are and where you want to be
45:54
gradually not
45:56
trying to take huge chunks off that
45:58
journey in one go and rushing the
46:01
process
46:02
as long as you’re taking steps forwards
46:04
you’re taking steps forwards so it
46:06
everyone always wants to go faster but
46:08
the slower you go
46:10
the less likely you are to have a
46:12
backwards step and you’re still moving
46:14
forwards and like we say all the time
46:16
that compound interest phenomenon
46:19
by consistently moving forwards day
46:21
after day
46:23
that’s where the magic happens that’s
46:24
where the huge like and no one got super
46:26
strong in a short period of time like it
46:29
always is a gradual process and the
46:31
people that go
46:33
too fast are the ones that have the
46:34
biggest setbacks so
46:36
having patience and just being grateful
46:40
that you’re making progress
46:41
is uh it’s a good
46:43
frame of mind to stay in yeah i think
46:45
that thing off you know the best
46:47
athletes of the non-injured athletes
46:48
right the ones that can make the best
46:50
progress as you said that compound
46:51
interest really makes a huge
46:54
huge benefit so
46:56
really hope you got a lot to take away
46:58
from guys today it’s probably one you
47:00
might have to listen back to get those
47:02
points out we’ll get i’ll write those
47:03
points down in the comment box down
47:05
below in the description box just so you
47:06
can really take them in and absorb them
47:09
and uh hopefully if you are
47:12
injured
47:13
that you’ve now this has given you some
47:14
light and uh give you an understanding
47:16
that there is like the end of the tunnel
47:18
don’t worry about it we’ve all been
47:20
there crack on
47:21
and uh don’t push your luck so as always
47:24
guys thank you very much for giving us
47:27
your time we really appreciate it uh we
47:30
checked out itunes uh the apple podcast
47:32
we’ve got 25 i think five star reviews
47:35
so really appreciate those 25 anyone
47:38
else um
47:39
yeah we really love those they’re
47:41
definitely going to help us grow and uh
47:43
if you did enjoy this episode or you
47:44
know anyone that’s injured and is in a
47:46
bit of a dark place please share this
47:48
with someone and if they’re not in a
47:49
dark place share with them anyway and
47:51
say look i’ve listened to these guys
47:53
they kind of know what they’re talking
47:54
about and it will hopefully help you get
47:55
out the other side so thank you very
47:57
much for your time as always you can
47:58
find us on all the usual social
48:00
platforms at lunch.lyft check out our
48:03
website lungeandlift.com
48:06
and as always thank you very much and
48:08
we’ll see you next week
48:09
cheers guys
