Training through injuries

[kinski]

Hello chaps,
Wondering what your experience with injury has been.
Did you find the doctor to actually be helpful?
Did you train through the pain, only to regret it later?
is it better to man up, cross your fingers, and just train, or abstain from the gym.
I've been dealing with this damn wrist/forearm injury for nigh on 6 weeks now. Haven't really been training in that time; hasn't felt better, if anything, it's gotten worse. The doctor just threw a brace at me and said "don't do anything remotely hard." That was 3 weeks ago.
I'm contemplating just getting back into the swing of things. I would like to think the human body is capable of handling a lot of stress, and given enough time and stimulus can heal without fancy medical oversight.
Thoughts?

[Corrie]

My experience is that in weightlifting you need to learn the difference between a twak and an injury. Tweaks happen often and can be trained through as long as you're not making them worse. Injuries should be trained through but you need to be really careful.

It's been my experience that letting an injury heal until it "feels better" usually results in the injury coming right back the next time you hit the weights heavy. The idea that you should be working through injuries with low weights has been a godsend for me. Franklly it makes sense to me too. You need bloodflow to the area to get the nutrients in and the waste out, and you need to keep the area active to avoid excessive scar tissue or tightness upon healing.

[Ezpeasy]

The idea that you should be working through injuries with low weights has been a godsend for me.

Could not agree more.

As for OP, I generally find general physician visits to be pointless. He will generally recommend RICE+NSAIDs for 2-4 weeks and to check back up after that point. Of course, I've already been doing or have done that protocol, but since I didn't consult with him prior to this it seems I didn't do it. However, if I think the injury is substantial enough (possible surgery, or will need to diagnose severity via x-ray or MRI), I'll go straight to an ortho.

Also, you didn't provide much info about the injury... so not knowing the particulars, I would continue to work out but not with any movement or weight that aggravates it.

[PFerrari]

It's very helpful to also pre-hab the affected area before you begin working with these low weights. Do some mobility, self-massage, foam roll/pvc pipe, whatever your favorite method is. And do this after exercise too. And you likely do some things like this when you're sitting around watching TV.

Really depends on the nature of the injury though and we don't have much speciifcs as Ezpeasy identified.

[kinski]

Well, I BELIEVE the injury occurred when I was doing clean and push presses. I did not feel any pain during the movement, but immediately after, I set up to do some incline benching, and had to stop with 135 on the bar after about 2 reps.
I had never done clean and push press before, and pushing from a racked clean just put my hands in an awkward position. Mix that with the ego and trying to push weights overhead your not accustomed to = bad idea.
Oddly enough it feels very similar to the pain bodybuilders describe from too much barbell curls. I NEVER curl, but I started curling my rice bucket one day to test what movements cause the most pain. Without a doubt, curling that damn 35 lb bucket caused hell on my pinky side. The same pain occurs from supinated chins (palms facing my head)
When I was still trying to work through the pain, dips/presses/handstands actually made the pain go away intra-workout, but post-workout it would come back with a VENGEANCE. I'm contemplating X-Rays, but don't think my insurance will cover it. My mom let me see her osteopath, and needless to say his methods weren't so helpful.
So, pinky side pain right below wrist. Pressing (of all sorts) causes pain about an hour post workout. 3+ weeks of complete rest has resulted in MORE pain.

[PackMule]

My back is still a little stiff most days from a back injury I had a couple months ago. When the injury first happened I couldn't squat or deadlift shit. Pressing was also out. At first I was stubborn and kept trying to go with lower reps and probably too heavy, figuring my back was fine. It kept hurting then I took a week off because of a vacation or something, and the time off made it worse. Got back from that week off and decided to do sets of 8-10 on squats every day and within 3 days it was feeling about 90% better and I was back up to decent weights.

[Corrie]

My back is still a little stiff most days from a back injury I had a couple months ago. When the injury first happened I couldn't squat or deadlift shit. Pressing was also out. At first I was stubborn and kept trying to go with lower reps and probably too heavy, figuring my back was fine. It kept hurting then I took a week off because of a vacation or something, and the time off made it worse. Got back from that week off and decided to do sets of 8-10 on squats every day and within 3 days it was feeling about 90% better and I was back up to decent weights.

The back sure is a bitch to injure isn't it? I think I accumulated some stress on my back over many months of overextending my lumbar spine while I squatted, benched, pressed...everything except pulling basically. It still nags at me all the time even though the pain is gone unless I really extend my back.

I have had the same experience as you though. Lots of reps with perfect form and I feel like the injury is gone. I was at the seminar a few weeks ago and for the few days after that my back felt perfect. Months of dealing with sore erectors and it's gone in a weekend of lifting with good form.

[PackMule]

Yup pretty awesome how that works. I think mine was from weight loss + my belt being in between notches and putting it a bit too tight for deadlifts.

Yeah still can feel it but I'm good enough to squat heavy now so that's good enough for me. Hah.

[Tamara Reynolds]

Having an orthopedic surgeon and a physical therapist who actually know about lifting and who have the goal of getting me back under the bar as soon as possible has helped immensely.

But, as was said earlier, knowing the difference between an injury, a "tweak" and general soreness is key. There are some things you can train through and some things you can only train around. I've had to do both.

[Ezpeasy]

Sounds like you were catching your cleans in a bad position and/or transitioning to PP in an awkward way. What weight?

I'd keep away from any work that bends your wrists + adds a lot of weight (handstands), stick to ultra light presses (way less than a normal work set), probably no dips. Does benching cause pain?

I had a forearm injury from a bad clean (really bad form), it went away after what seemed like a long time but Ibasically avoided any work that would directly aggravate it.