I’ve suffered from many injuries. Pain and I are on a first-name basis. Not the discomfort you feel from working out, but the sharp, stabbing, radiating pain that hits when your lower back says fuck you.
Rehabbing and the pain isn’t the hardest part about getting hurt.
Standing over the bar, worried you might hurt yourself, is tough, but that’s still not the hardest part.
The client views you as less capable because they believe you lack the know-how. That’s tough, but it’s still not the hardest part.
The hardest part is the complete loss of confidence in your body and what it’s capable of. If this sounds a little too familiar, hang on to your hats because it applies to you.
The Hardest Part
Confidence is a fickle mistress. One moment, you’re flying high, setting PRs, playing with the kids, or feeling like everything in life is swell. Then, in a moment, everything changes. You lose your job, your partner drops a bomb on you, or your knee buckles, and you can’t put any weight on it.
One moment, your confidence is high, and the next, it’s shattered. Of course, it’s all hypothetical; it’s an illustration that confidence is as unpredictable as the stock market or your partner’s mood. Those of you reading have probably experienced moments like this, but I’d like to share mine.
I’d gotten out of the car and was walking to the Physical Therapist’s office while dealing with three injuries.
Three herniated lower back disks.
Torn left triceps muscle.
Inflamed left A/C shoulder joint.
My body confidence was at an all-time low. While my mind was throwing an all-out pity party, a gentleman in a wheelchair without legs rolled past heading to PT. The pity party came to a grinding halt with a massive dose of perspective.
It reminded me that things can always be worse.
As much as injuries and the pain and inconvenience they cause suck, it doesn’t suck as much as missing limbs. So, how do you go about rebuilding your confidence to do stuff after getting hurt?
I’m getting to that.
The Hardest Part Solved
The positives from my experiences were evident in how I helped my clients deal with their issues, including.
Missing limbs
Atrophied limbs
Before and after joint replacement surgeries
Parkinsons disease
Plus, some clients were either dissatisfied with Physical Therapy or unable to afford it. I had to find ways that would work for each of those clients while still trying to achieve a training effect and rebuild their confidence.
Physical therapists and doctors are licensed and trained to help patients manage pain as part of the healing process. Personal trainers do not. The only pain they should put their clients through is the discomfort from working out.
So, how did I rebuild their confidence?
First, a quick primer on pain. Pain is a complicated issue that far exceeds this article’s scope. But at the heart of pain, pain is a threat. The brain senses a threat, real or perceived, and boom, you feel pain. The most effective way to alleviate my clients’ pain was to reduce the threat.
That involved finding body positions and exercises that didn’t cause pain. Once I found it, I went with it, and this accomplished two things. First, it maintained a training effect to produce results. Second, it helps rebuild their confidence brick by brick, demonstrating that their bodies remain capable.
It took time to rebuild their confidence, but it happened. The physical game we play with pain and injury is one thing, but the mental game is another.
Wrapping Up
Rebuilding your confidence after a setback is just as vital as rebuilding your body. Finding what you can do after getting hurt, rather than focusing on what you can’t do, and then repeating that process, works.
For both your body and brain.
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Customized workouts you can do at home
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