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I’m Injured. Now What?

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You’re in a groove, making moves and gains, and then suddenly out of no where. . .OUCH! Injury with a side of setback leaves you sidelined in your life, and throwing a massive wrench in your physical and mental game. I’ve heard and experienced this more times than I can count. If you’re like most (myself included) an injury brings everything to an immediate and painstaking halt. And I know you’re wondering, well what else can I do, other than stop? The answer: sooooo much more than we think! This is a long read, but stick with me, it will be worth it!

Too often we make our injuries and recovery way worse than it has to be. YES, you read that right. WE often worsen our own recovery process. You see, when we can’t do what we want to do and have been doing, we tend to just stop doing anything. And that’s the worst thing we can do. To make matters even worse, we often pair that with an increased dosage of bad food and beverage choices as a means to “sooth” our pain. BIG F’ing mistake!

My Injury Credentials

So what should you do?

I’m glad you asked! Before I tell you, let’s back this up for a second and review my injury credentials (insert sad laugh here). I’m no stranger to injury and setback. I’ve had more than I care to count. 4 broken feet, foot surgery, a broken rib, a displaced knee, sprains, strains, concussions, partial rotator cuff tear, and bursitis in my hip. . .just to name a few. But let’s talk about the one that taught me the most: The Car Accident. . .

2017 was my year – 1st place win at PSO! 2018 I was still on a roll, having just earned my Pro card at USPDF, I was feeling unstoppable. In addition to being at the top of my pole game, I was also in the best shape of my life. Then November 28, 2018, in a matter of seconds. . .I lost it all. While driving to work, a car slammed into us instantly robbing me of all I had worked for and achieved. My right knee slammed into the dash sending a jolt of pain up my right side. My body whipped forward, my seatbelt snapped me back. The result? The entire loss of strength and range of motion in my right arm. I went from someone that could deadlift on a spin pole to barely being able to lift my arm up to dress or wave hi. Who knew that an accident with no blood, no deployed airbags, and that I literally walked away from could still cause so much damage to the body. WTF?!?!?

Was it my worst injury?

That’s hard to say when I’ve had so many injuries and setbacks. What I will say is that this was the one that I feel took the most from me. It completely stopped my career as a competitor, it impacted my teaching, it interfered with my workouts, and almost robbed me of my future – well at least that’s how I felt at the time. But it’s also the one where I learned the most, not just about myself and my body, but about rehab and recovery in general. So I’m sharing with you what I’ve learned about injuries, the recovery process and what you can do to help yourself not fall too far off the trail.

This post is a two-for-one serving of me trying to make some sense out of dealing with injury and setback, and letting those of you currently in this phase know that you’re not alone. And when I say injury, I mean any sort of a planned or unplanned setback that forces you on the bench for an extended period of time: this could also include a planned surgery or procedure, extended cold/illness, chronic migraines, chronic pain, pregnancy, etc.

Two Parts To Recovery

Recovery is made up of two parts: the mental and the physical. Both are equally important and must be nurtured in order to make a full recovery.

Let’s Get Mental

Often the mental aspect is the hardest part. However, it is also the key to an easier and quicker recovery. Negative emotions slow and clog the body, and generate more negativity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s frustrating when you’re forced to stop. Unable to practice, train, perform, and progress. And dealing with these feelings of frustration can make or break your recovery. It’s easy to say: “don’t let it get to you”, but we’re human. We feel. We suffer. We mourn. So cry your tears and shout your shouts, but then take a deep breath and remember that in time we will heal. So the sooner we get focused and committed to that healing, the closer we’ll be to it. Mind-body connection is real y’all! Mental healing is vita because when we take time to heal mentally, it positively enhances and supports your physical recovery. The body is a resilient and incredible machine that often comes back better and stronger IF you give it the right TLC. So here’s a few things you can do to help your mental recovery game:

• Use what you *think* you lost as a motivation to help you get it back.

• Focus your mind on your goals and what you can (still) do.

• Practice positive self-talk.

• Talk your feelings out to a trustworthy friend/family member, therapist or vent in a journal.

• Participate in activities that make you happy to help fight depression – which is a common, natural and nasty side effect to injury.

Do these things regularly and allow them to be the light in your life lighting the path of recovery to get you back to where you want to be.

Let’s Get Physical

The second part of recovery is the Physical journey. This is where the body mends and heals. This is where you need to be active and involved. So many times we just sit back like passengers on a road trip when it comes to our recovery. PASSengers are PASSive. . .don’t be! You must take an active interest in your recovery. Most doctors and rehab teams are concerned with getting you back to a baseline of functionality. However, for many, this is short of what you need for decent daily movement. And if you’re an athlete, aerialist, or live any sort of active lifestyle, then this seriously well below the standard of what you need for daily living. So here’s what you can do to be active in your physical recovery:

• Learn about your injury. Was there a root cause or was it a freak accident? If it was a freak accident, do you understand what the injury is? If not, ask ALL of the questions. Look up names of affected body parts (muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs, etc). Find out how the injury impacts your body, including what additional ailments and side effects it can lead to. If there was a root cause: faulty movement patterns, patten overload, cumulative injury cycle, lack of proper recovery practice, then these are things that need to be addressed before you hop back into your regular routine. If not, you’ll end up reinjured.

• Seek out specialists and second opinions in situations of surgery. Often there may be more solutions than the ones initially presented. Surgery isn’t always the best option, and it is a body-trauma of its own. You may even have to look outside of Western medicine. Holistic health is a game changer in many cases!

• Learn about the recovery and rehab. Often giving it time to heal and surgery are as far as doctor-patient care goes. However, I think rehab is essential for just about every injury. Sadly, it is something that is often not suggested, prescribed or required. And when it is offered or recommend, too often comes in the form of an outdated handout with stick figures in random stretches 👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽.

• Research any medications (prescription and over-the-counter) and supplements you may be required or desire to take.

• Talk to other people that have had the same injury. Find out about their experience, recovery, doctors/specialists, tools and any other feedback they are willing to share.

Another reason to get involved in your recovery is because not all care is equal. Doctors, surgical team, physio/rehab team, post rehab coach come in different levels of experience, know-how and helpfulness. There are so many things that affect the quality and amount of care that we get and have access to: insurance or lack thereof, sex, race, class, where you live, etc. So with these things playing a part in your recovery and care, it’s even more important to be involved.

Where I Went Wrong In The Past

Learn From My Mistakes

It’s so easy to blame my accident or past injuries for things like my weight gain, loss of flexibility and lost of skills, but the truth is my habits during my sidelined time really created the perfect opportunity for those issues to arise. I could have done better, and being a trainer myself (and a repeat offender), I definitely should have known better. The truth is, I kept eating the same amount of food, even though my body wasn’t doing the same amount of activity to handle or burn those calories. Eating more + moving less = weight gain. I also indulged in some sweet, comforting treats. My drinking also increased (tons of empty calories), because hey, what else am I supposed to do when I’m in timeout 🤷🏽‍♀️. A little bit of self control would have gone a long way. Take it from me, don’t try to sooth the pain and frustration of injury with what you put in your mouth – it will backfire and you will pay for it on the backend.

While most times I did continue my gym workouts in a modified and safe format, I wasn’t always working as hard as I could. I fell short on my personal flexibility, mobility and pole practice. And when I say fell short, I mean I basically ceased all solo practice. I learned no new skills/moves, taught only what my body already knew and demoed as little as possible. Even worse, I wasn’t told to rehab, so I didn’t. No wonder I regressed so much and basically felt like I was starting over each time.

Fast forward to Covid. While it wasn’t an injury, it was definitely a setback that sidelined us all. And with my shoulder still not 100% recovered, I’m team 🚫 NO new setbacks.🚫 So instead of falling back to old habits, I made it a point to continue my workouts to the best of my ability. I started my Quaranteam home-workout squad and limited my junk intake. I was able to keep off new weight, aka that “Quarantine-15” and even make some impressive strength gains. Knowing how I could make things worse, I opted to make things better for myself considering the circumstances. Even with so much out of our control, we must focus on the things that we do have control over.

How to Not Lose All Your Gains

Here’s what I’ve learned:
• Heal fully. Don’t rush it. Broken bones, torn muscles, ligaments and tendons, anything with broken skin…these things take time to heal and there’s no way around that. Putting your body back in commission before its ready is like a baby being born to early. You’re not fully developed and strong, which can lead to further complications.

• Avoid emotional and excessive eating. Maintaining your gains is not just about working out. You want to avoid gaining pounds of unnecessary weight through poor eating habits simply because you can’t move like you want to. Our eating habits play a huge roll in how far setback can go. Injury recovery is a crucial time to keep (or start getting) your eating on track. What we aren’t able to do in exercise or our sport, we can partially make up for with better eating habits.This may require you to eat a bit cleaner than your used to, but it will be worth it in the end. It’s not about following a strict diet, it’s about making better choices during your recovery.

• Keep moving! Do the workouts and activities that you can do, even if it’s not what or as much as you normally do. For example, if you have a leg or foot injury, don’t just skip the gym entirely because you’re unable to do lower body workouts. Instead, focus on upper body workouts and when you can incorporate some no-to-low impact activities such as cycling, swimming or aerial yoga to get you back in the swing of things. Likewise, if you have a hand or arm injury, hit the treadmill or do some lower body and core work.

• Help your body heal by rehabbing on your own. Be sure to do all of the *helpful* rehab exercises you’ve been given or have thoroughly researched. Do them all and do them regularly. Ice, heat, therabands and SMR tools are priceless! (Check out my go-to tools.)

• Reintegrate slowly. Once you’re cleared to move and workout be sure to strengthen the injured area. A weak body part doesn’t pull its own weight and can lead to compensations, synergistic dominance, lack of balance and body synergy and more injury. It’s important to supplement your strength with stability & mobility in the injured area. Often stability and mobility work may need to come before strength work.

• Don’t start where you stopped. It’s important to recognize the effects of inactivity and how it will impacts strength, endurance and coordination. It’s unsafe to try and jump back into the level of training we were at pre-injury. So take the time to reconnect with your bodies and reconnect your bodies with skills. It would be even better to revisit the basics and reinforce your foundation. This will help awaken your muscle memory in a safe and supportive manner.

• Get a trainer. You’ll probably have to do some searching, but find a professional that specializes in or has some experience with your injury or injuries in general. You may also consider seeking out a post rehab specialist or a corrective exercise specialist (HINT: That’s what I do 🙋🏾‍♀️).Or at the very least, find a trainer that thinks out of the box and is willing to help you find creative and safe ways to work around your injury. I was lucky to find one early on that helped me safely work around my bodily disabilities. Trust me when I say it makes ALL the difference.

So there you have it. You might be injured, but all is not lost. You can limit losses, improve your recovery and make your body more resilient in the long run. If you’re injured or have just be benched for too long and are ready to jump back in but need help getting started give me a shout. I can help you figure out what you can do, what you should do and create a recovery and rehab plan to keep you in the game.

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Self Studies

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School is back in session and it’s time to major in YOU-Ology. If you really want to be good at something you have to learn it, study it, practice it, become invested in it. The same is true of yourself. If you want to master your life, you must first master you. When you study yourself, you can understand yourself and then reconnect with yourself. Why is this necessary? Well, if you aren’t clear about YOU then how can you really be clear about anyone else or anything else you encounter in life? How do you know that you are moving in a direction that’s best for you and actually what you want? If I had to guess, I’d say that the majority of us are walking around as fractures of ourselves and don’t even know it. We have an idea of what we want, we may even know who we want to be, but we’re afraid to reveal our truth… not just to the world, but to ourselves. This lack of selfawareness is NOT serving us. So let’s get back to the basics.

Studying YOU

It’s’ time to become a student of yourself and rediscover (or recreate) who you are and want to be. I want you to think about and then answer the following questions. Don’t just read them, actually think about them and write down the answers.

  • What do you like?
  • What don’t you like?
  • What do you want in life?
  • What don’t you want in life?
  • What will you tolerate?
  • What won’t you tolerate?
  • Do you find yourself tolerating things that you said you wouldn’t or that require you to compromise yourself or your beliefs?
  • How do you want to be seen? Do people see you that way?
  • How do you want to be treated? Do others treat you how you want to be treated?
  • What are your goals in life?
  • What motivates you?
  • What demotivates you?
  • What is standing in the way of where you are now and where you wish to be? How close are you to where you really want to be?
  • If you could wake up tomorrow living your dream life, what would that look like? How close does that resemble your current life?

There will be much more self-reflection and personal surveying in the near future, this is just our starting point!

Understanding YOU

Once you finish, go back to review your answers and then answer them again. Dig a little deeper this time. Look beyond the initial answer and explore the reasoning and the why behind it. For example: You might have said: “I like to be treated with respect and not talked crazy to.” (That’s reasonable!) However, you find that others don’t treat you the way you want to be treated.

Now, is that because they are mean, not understanding or disconnected from your needs? Possibly, but the most important answer (and the only one that matters) is that you allow them to treat you that way. Everything starts and ends with you. Once you realize this and set the course to change you’ll find that new doors in life open up. To help get you started, I want to share some of the most common root issues I’ve identified about what we need to understand about ourselves and what is keeping us from getting what we want out of life:

  • You don’t speak your truth.
  • You fail to establish rules or requirements.
  • You fail to enforce those rules and requirements.
  • You are scared to set boundaries.
  • You settle for what is offered/given instead of demanding what you want and are worth.
  • You may not even realize your worth.
  • You may be scared of being judged or not liked.
  • You may be worried about people and things that honestly don’t matter as much as we think they do.
  • You aren’t really sure or clear on what it is you want and the things we think we want are usually what society has convinced us we need (more on this topic later!).

The truth is, that we (especially women) most often just accept the treatment we are given. That is the root of the issue. And what is what needs to be understood in order to invoke change.

Reconnecting with YOU

So now that you’ve started to dig into the YOU of things, it’s time to really ponder what you’ve identified and start a course for your truly desired life destination. Take the answers and insight from the questions above and use them as a tool to help you understand yourself better. These are the positive and negative triggers and influences in your life. What changes can you start to make to create better situations and outcomes for yourself. What can you start doing or stop doing so that you can better connect with yourself? Use this insight to help you navigate relationships, friendships, environments and situations that you face each day so that you can live a better life thats focused on you, your goals and what’s best for you. Learn how to check in with yourself, listen to yourself and make decisions based on what’s best for YOU.

As always, write these exercises down in your journal, comment below or share with me directly.

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It’s Me Time

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Each year I give myself a mantra, theme or area of focus to help me stay grounded and goal focused. “It’s Me Time” was one of those themes. And it was during that time that I really learned to be selfish and to put me first. Though it was one of the most challenging things I’ve done, I am amazed at the immense value and impact it had on my quality of life and happiness. This wasn’t an overnight change. Rather it was a series of choices, experiences and lessons that helped me change my life into what I truly wanted it to be. These are lessons that I want to share with other women who feel stuck, so that you too can get to a happier place in life.

“It’s Me Time” is a ladies truth series that will explore the areas of life that we routinely and historically tend to let ourselves down in. I want to help you focus on Self-Care and Mastering Your Life. These are areas that we must reclaim to build ourselves up and become the stronger, happier versions of ourselves that we were always meant to be. Some of these topics will be uncomfortable for you to read and reflect upon, and just as uncomfortable for me to write. But, they will be truths that we much face, address and come to terms with if we want to change our lives. I will address the many excuses that we women give ourselves, and others, for not living the lives we desire and instead trying to adapt to an OUTDATED blueprint of life.

I’ll tell you now that this series is incomplete. Why? Because it is still developing. Each day brings new challenges, experiences, insight and growth opportunities. I invite you to follow along in the way that is most comfortable for you, whether it be silently on your own, directly with me or engaging socially by joining in on the conversation and sharing your challenges, experiences, questions and helpful advice. So if you’re not doing so already, follow me on instagram, email me directly at: flexyfitnews[at]gmail.com or connect with me on Facebook.

Your first lesson is that of SELFISHNESS

This is probably the most important lesson because it is the root of our success and failure. When we fail to realize our importance and value in our own lives, it has a skewed rippling affect on everything else in our lives. Whether we realize it or not, the way others treat us is typically a reflection of how we treat ourselves and what we allow. (Now, I’m not referring to racism or other economical, systematic injustices….let’s table that for another day.) I’m talking about those interpersonal relationships with our so-called friends, family members, co-workers, boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife that either contribute positively or negatively to our lives.

When we think of the word selfish, it typically comes with a negative connotation. When you read the definition below, does it make you feel like only caring for yourself is bad?

For many it does, but the thing is, it shouldn’t! I think the misleading feeling is created by the word “only”. It almost makes it seem like you have no regard for anyone else, but that is not the case. Being selfish is not about only caring for yourself, it’s about caring for you FIRST. There is nothing wrong with that, in fact there is everything right about that! So let’s rethink this. Being “Selfish” is about being devoted to caring for yourself and having your primary concern be with your own interest, benefits, welfare. Primary, means put you first. After you learn to successfully do that on the regular, then you will truly be prepared to care for others in a healthy manner.

As women, all too often, we spend time focused on everyone else instead of taking care of ourselves.

This has become an expected way of life that we are all too aware of, see the detriments of, yet still feel disempowered to change. The truth is, we can not adequately care for others without really and FULLY caring for ourselves FIRST. We are not invincible. Our bodies are aging and facing breakdown each day. The things we do (and don’t do) only further contribute to that aging and breakdown process. So we must start practicing better self care – physically, emotionally, mentally, financially and spiritually to help make positive deposits back into our life and wellness – this is what being SELFISH looks like. We have to learn to be selfish, with our time, our minds, our energy and our lives in order to have better self care. It is time to start really living our lives, instead of just tiptoeing around it.

Next Steps

So now that you know the truth about being selfish (that it’s not just okay, but it’s a necessity) what are you going to do to start making it a daily practice? Many of us want to do better, but have no idea where to start, how to start or how to make it stick. Well, that’s why you have me! I AM HERE TO HELP. So let’s get started. Grab a journal where you can keep a collection of your thoughts and notes. I want you to start by making a list of the things that you don’t currently do for yourself that you know you should be doing and also think about why you feel you don’t or aren’t able to do those things. Write it down in your journal, comment below or share with me directly.