Have you ever gotten injured doing an exercise and heard your doctor say, “Well, don’t do that exercise anymore?”
There’s a better answer. For coaches like me, it’s important to ask the right questions in order to get the right answer. Instead of focusing on the exercise, you were doing when you felt a pull in your back or hip, ask yourself: What was your stress level leading up to the workout?
Were you training with a coach or trainer or watching a video and not really focused?
How has your nutrition been? Lots of protein and veggies? Or chips, dips, and crap?
Have you been sleeping closer to 8 hours a night or 4 hours a night?
Are there certain positions that are difficult or painful for you to get into, but the instructor at your boot camp class just tells you if you keep forcing yourself, it’ll get better?
Every human being has a limited capacity for how much total stress they can endure on a given day.
And when we overdo it and exceed our capacity, that’s when bad things happen — like injuries and illness.
So if you got injured in your workout, and the previous 24 hours looked like this:
2 hours in a car and 10 hours at a desk
No breakfast, fast food for lunch, pizza, wings, and beer for dinner
4 1-2 hours of sleep at best
Zero time spent on managing stress or improving your flexibility
… then it wasn’t the kettlebell swing that hurt your back.
It was all the other stuff that pushed you past your capacity before you even picked up the kettlebell.
The good news? All the other stuff is controllable.
So, help yourself get set up for success and prevent injury and illness by starting with the basics every day:
- Getting 7 Hours of sleep
- Eating some protein and colorful foods at each meal
- Work with an experienced coach
- Keep your water intake at 64oz – or half of your body weight
- Add nutrition supplements to your daily routine
