With race season under way and the trails baked hard, it is inevitable that most of you are going to come off your bikes at some point. Unfortunately some of you will also end up in A&E with broken bones, stitches, bruises and all sorts of other injuries. You are not alone though as my rider roster has taken a hit in recent weeks with 2 wrist fractures, an AC joint, and fractured coccyx amongst others! As you can see from the Instagram video above, my top junior rider, Morgan Tyrrell took a big slam at Leogang World Cup, dislocating his wrist! Savage!
I just wanted to let you know some of the advice that I give my riders to help get them back on the bike after a trip to the hospital……
1. What CAN you do? This is really important and is all about attitude and remaining positive. Rather than always saying, ‘I can’t do this or can’t do that’ you should focus on what you CAN do.
Broken wrist? Well it looks like leg day for you then. Can’t hold the bar on your back? Well it is going to be leg day on the leg-press machine instead!
Even if all you can do is sit on the spin bike and do some aerobic conditioning, then it is still something positive that will limit your fitness losses whilst you are off.
2. Eat healthy to heal quicker. Diet is super important for healing and you should really make a concerted effort to eat loads of veggies and plenty of quality protein. Cut out the sugar and the beige coloured processed crap. If you really want to go for it then start making your own bone broths and use a collagen supplement like this one that I recommend to my riders:
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=9jw.I&m=3VsjD3BodWJ4s4k&b=0yJLM7wH2sl1K5qttvyGgg
3. Get a diagnosis and get treatment. This may sound obvious, but too many people think that just ignoring an injury will let it heal perfectly. Whilst this can happen, you stand a lots better chance of returning to riding at 100% if you get some physio or other rehab type treatment. Whether you go private or NHS, get seen, get a diagnosis and then actually do the rehab work!
4. Work the other side. The human body is amazingly resilient and there are some interesting tricks that we can exploit to minimise strength losses during periods off of training. For instance, if you break your left arm then you can minimise the muscle loss in that arm by continuing to train the right arm. Your body likes balance and symmetry so will apply part of the training stimulus to both sides. With lower leg injuries you can do some single leg work on the leg-press machine or do some single leg glute bridging on the floor to maintain strength and performance.
5. Positive language. Do not always refer to the injury as the ‘bad’ side or ‘injured’ side. Instead refer to your wrist that is ‘healing,’ or simply using left and right instead of ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ sides for instance. It is important to use positive language to reinforce the fact that you will get better, and you will return to riding.
I really hope that you don’t need this advice, but if you do then I hope it helps you out a bit. Keep the rubber side down, and stay strong.
Ben
Bodyweight Strength Programme available here:
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=9jw.I&m=3VsjD3BodWJ4s4k&b=bsW2d5BbCG.GZTuf1rTFCA