Today, I am kicking off a six-part series about “Returning from Injury” with an overview.
Disclaimer (this is for you)
Before we get started, I want you to know that I will talk about “returning from injury” which may lead you to believe I’m only talking about high school athletes and/or physical injury, promise you that this is transferable to returning to daily activity, active hobbies, and play, and it applies to mental or emotional injuries, stemming from or completely separate from physical injury
The 5 C’s
There are five components that are integral for successful return from injury, and they are Control, Consistency, Creativity, Commitment and Confidence
Control
We all rationally “know” in life there are things that we can control and there are things we can't control
When we get injured, we discover just how fragile we as human beings are, and that can be unnerving.
I have been there, and I have felt those feelings. I have at times I let myself go down that deep rabbit hole of:
“What if I never feel better again?”
“Is this going to be the way I feel for the rest of my life?”
“What freedoms have I taken for granted that I may never regain?”
And it sucks…
What I've found is that IDENTIFYING SMALL THINGS I CAN CONTROL gives me some sense of agency inside of what is generally uncontrollable.
Finding small things I can control:
Do I need to seek immediate medical attention, or can I wait?
Do I need to call someone, or do I just need time to catch my breath an assess the situation?
…is oftentimes is the first thing to allow for clear thinking in order to get out of that immediate panic.
Consistency
We are talking about:
repeated exposure
showing up
small investments of time and energy into a training session
This one is relatively cut and dry, this is one that you do or you don’t do, over time. As my colleague, Justin McClintock Feel Strong Fitness
“Recovering from injury isn’t done in a day, it’s done daily.”
Creativity
The next is creativity. Coaches know there are a million ways to reach a desired outcome, and not every way works for every body. So it's our job to determine the best course of action.
We have to exercise some sort of creativity in order to accomplish the same things because they're just there inherently limitations with injury, and that’s okay, we chose a profession to work with unique human beings and with that comes a need to bring unique solutions, thus an inherent need for outside the box thinking
Commitment
Commitment to the plan and commitment to the process.
And you might be asking yourself, “How is commitment different from consistency?”
I’m glad you asked, it’s subtle, and incredibly important
Commitment is that emotional buy-in. It's that trust, and it is showing up 100% because you BELIEVE that your plan, or the process is going to work.
I can consistently show up and not be committed (and I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out)
If we just show up, if everything's a checklist, and we just do the movements, but we don't believe in the process, we engage fully, and we results on the table.
Lack of commitment is an energy or friction that can be felt by both the coach and the client and really good coaches address it, name it, and do everything they can to resolve it.
Confidence
Confidence can be hard to measure; you know you have it when you DON’T think about it (and I know that might sound ethereal and weird)
So we're talking about confidence in yourself, we're talking about confidence in the repaired pieces and parts of your mind, body and spirit.
For example, let’s talk about knee replacement, so my mom had a knee replacement a few years ago, and the one big fear was “if I go ‘to far’ is my new knee going to buckle? will it be unable to bear the weight? Will it be painful, and if so how much?”
Confidence is removing the need to dedicate the extra brainpower to protecting that that ligament, that joint, that tendon, that muscle or bone…
Having the confidence to feel like a sound, solid human being is incredibly important, and it’s generally a side effect of planning the work and working the plan.
Be Intentional
Intentionally considering these “5 C’s of Returning from Injury” is integral because we are human beings and work with human beings.If we were all robots, we wouldn't have to worry about any of this, we would just prescribe the appropriate sets and reps and stimulus and dose and everybody would just magically return to their sport or return to life with no problems.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
If you are thinking to yourself “wow, Sarah, this information is incredible! Where did you come up with this?” The answer is, I didn’t; not on my own.” I spend hours per week, and I've spent hours per week since April 2021 with a group called Active Life in their professional development program (AL-P) with my colleagues from across the world. It is a privilege to be able to bring some of their content out to people who know, like and trust me, because these are the kinds of conversations that coaches and clients need to be having in order to move the conversations forward that will get people out of pain and return to do doing whatever it is they want #turnpro
Resources
Nine Four Coaching on YouTube - Exiting the Injury Cycle: 5 C’s
Nine-Four Radio - 03.05 - Returning from Injury - Overview