Written by Matt Vincent
Well since you have decided to be part of competitive strength sports you know this comes with the territory. There is a difference between minor and major injuries. I will make this simple major injuries require surgery. If something requires surgery then do that and get to rehabbing. Minor injuries need to be addressed trained around and pushed through. For me strains and pulls happen and adjustments to your training will have to be made. There is a fine line between pushing through an injury and helping it heal faster and making it worse. For me personally I find that low weight high repetition works best. As does rest, ice, massage, heat, and stretching. You will have to figure out what works for you.
As I said earlier warming up properly will help most of this and something like a little extra time focusing stretching or rolling on an area may allow you to continue training as normal. More severe things may have you avoiding lifting around them. For example if I injured my lower back and cannot squat as prescribed I would still do the exercise with no weight and up the reps. Following this with some hot cold contrast showers helps me tremendously.
Training your hardest you will always be riding that line between healthy and injured. Most likely I will spend the majority of the 1st half of the season with some type of tweak. Last season I had a couple and all of them trained around or through. Just off the top of my head last year I had problems with my right hand, low back, left side ribs, left Achilles, and my right shoulder. These things were all minor setbacks and took work to get back where I needed them. I was able to get everything healed and healthy to allow me to finish strong at the end of the season when I needed it.
Despite the degree I have on the wall and the crayon MD addition I added I am not a certified doctor, so always be careful and train smart in regards to injuries. As a rule of thumb, if something hurts, stop doing it. If it’s important, figure out why it hurts, fix the problem, then get back to doing it. That said, we all deal with aches and pains due to old injuries, stiffness, or just normal wear and tear. Only you know the difference between discomfort you can, and should, work through, and pain that is your body’s way of telling you to stop doing whatever you’re doing immediately, if not sooner.
Matt Vincent is a top Professional Highland Games World Champion. Matt has spent the last 15 years strength training with a focus on functional strength for athletics. Track and Field for LSU as a shotput, discus, and hammer thrower, two top 3 finishes in SEC and two top 5 Regional finishes in Discus. In the last 6 years he as traveled all over country and trained with many of the top coaches and athletes in various fields form Weightlifting, Strongman, Powerlifting (both Geared and Raw) and now focus on Highland Games. Matt also has competed in all of these different disciplines to make sure he has a 1st hand knowledge of training and competing. With success as a top AM Strongman qualified for nationals 3 times. Powerlifting numbers of (875-700-700 in APF @275) and (675-425-665 @ 275 RAW). Weightlifting numbers of (319 Snatch and 400 Clean and Jerk @ 105+). Highland Games he won 3 AM World Championships and 1 Professional World Championship as my first year Pro. Matt is also the Author of Best Selling Highland Games Training Manual for Developing Max Strength and Power: Training LAB. Website, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter
