Healing from Injury: Developing Patience to Heal Well

Everyone agrees: Injuries are a bummer! For athletes, they can be particularly challenging because they may stop or change our abilities to do our favorite activity for a period of time. When you have a competition or event or occasion you’re preparing for, an ill-timed injury can be all the more stressful. 

But injuries are also a part of life. They happen. Learning how to deal with them in a constructive way will help you get back to moving in ways your love, fully healed. Having patience is key to this process.

What Does It Mean to Be Patient through Injury? 

When you get right down to it, being patient through an injury means giving your body time to heal. This typically means not doing the activity we really want to do and finding strategies to make that time away from our preferred activity fulfilling. It can also mean doing activities we may not enjoy as much, like rehab exercises.  

So a lot of patience around injury can look like finding other ways to occupy your time and attention and developing strategies to make healing activities more enjoyable. 

Finding Patience by Doing Substitute Activities

One of the best ways to stop lamenting about what you can’t do is to find something you can do. In other words, use diversion tactics on yourself. If you’re a runner and can’t run right now, try swimming, aqua jogging, hiking, cycling, yoga, Pilates, or strength training. All of these activities will contribute to keeping you fit, helping you move well, and even improving your running. 

Whatever your preferred activity, there are very likely other types of movement and exercise you can swap in while you're healing from an injury. If your injury is such that most movement and exercise options are unavailable to you for a period of time or full rest is the best option, you can focus on training your mental strength and confidence. 

There are loads of books, podcasts, YouTube videos, and articles about building mental strength and confidence. Training your mind and building confidence are such powerful tools for your athletic pursuits and life in general, and they’re often underutilized. Use this time to invest in your brain power. You can even focus your mental training on helping you get through the healing process. 

Finding Patience by Focusing on Rehab Exercises 

Rehab exercises likely won’t show up on anyone’s top 10 favorite things to do list. Finding a way to make these palatable, or even fun, can be very helpful. So, here are a few strategies. 

Pair your rehab exercises with something you really enjoy, like a favorite TV show, podcast, or music. Do them in a nice place, like a park or your backyard. 

Set up a motivation mindset by focusing on how happy you'll make your future self by sticking with these rehab exercises. Think about how much more prepared you’ll be to get back to the activity you love because you put in this effort. Remember that all these small reps add up, day after day. This is how you can participate in your healing and future wellness. 

On those days when you’re really frustrated and feeling stuck in your injury, remind yourself that this will pass. It’s OK to feel frustrated and annoyed and to acknowledge that you really don’t want to do these exercises.

When you're so frustrated you just don't want to carry on with your rehab program, set a lower goal for the day, like doing half the exercises, just to get yourself going. You may surprise yourself by doing the whole routine. And if you only get through half of the exercises, that’s better than none. You can get back to it the next day. It’s OK if you aren’t perfect with your rehab, as long as you stick with it the best you can. 

Also, rehab exercises can help give you a sense of agency: this is you helping yourself to heal. Pay attention to how these efforts are making your stronger and helping the process of recovering from injury. Noticing your own ability to help yourself can be very empowering and help your motivation: we're all more motivated to do things that deliver beneficial results.

Also consider finding a personal trainer to work with through this time. Having someone there to help you get through these rehab routines can be really helpful. Personal trainers can also help make sure you're doing your exercises correctly so that you're getting the most out of your efforts.

Finding Patience by Focusing on Community

One big challenge with being injured is that many times the activities we love are connected to community. The weekly group run. The regulars we connect with in Pilates class. Our foursome that meets at the golf course every month. 

When you’re injured, not only can’t you do the thing you love to do, you also don’t get to be with your community. It’s a double bummer! So, look for other ways you can get involved.

Can you volunteer with your running group? Can you meet with your Pilates pals for coffee after class? Can you help organize the next golf tournament or contribute to the monthly newsletter? 

These communities are also great places to find other people who are also or have been injured like you. Talking to other people who can identify with where you’re at can be really helpful. They may also have resources or advice to help you through your healing process.

Find Patience by Learning from Your Injury

Injuries slow us down or stop us from being able to do what we’d like to be able to do. They’re not something we ask for, but they can be something we learn from. 

Injuries can teach us about weaknesses in our bodies or can alert us to the need to slow down or take better care of ourselves. Take the time to understand what caused your injury and how you might have been able to prevent it. 

Take note of the rehab exercises you learn; they may be useful in the future. Discover other helpful exercises that can help support the rehab that you're doing. This is a great time to learn about good biomechanics and ways to maintain whole body fitness and strength.

Learn about the best recovery methods so that you have tools you can use in the future if this happens again. Find the professionals in your area who can help with recovery and injury prevention, such as physical therapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists, and personal trainers. 

Learning from the injury process can make recovery and healing feel more productive. You can come out the other side with a better understanding of your body and how to help it keep moving in healthy ways. You will also be better equipped to deal with an injury in the future. 

Find Patience by Focusing on Good Nutrition

It’s always important to remember through any healing process that you need to nourish yourself well. Many people mistakenly believe that because they’re injured and perhaps not as active as normal, it’s a time to cut back on how much they’re consuming. The opposite is true: you need to fuel well to heal well. 

Remember, healing takes energy. So, this is a great time to focus on great nutrition and eating enough to support the healing process. Focus on creating healthy meals, making sure your body has what it needs to get you back to good form as quickly as possible.  

The Ultimate Reason Patience is So Important

All of this focus on patience has an important purpose: your body needs time to heal. Pushing through an injury, doing too much too soon, or skipping the necessary protocols to heal your body properly can have really unpleasant consequences. 

When you rush the process, you may reinjure yourself or you may cause a smaller injury to become a more serious injury. You may also cause some other part of your body to become injured because it’s compensating for the original, not fully healed injury. You can also end up causing permanent damage if you don’t allow an injury to heal completely. 

And, if you skip rehab or don’t get to the root of an issue, you may be likely to experience the same injury in the future. 

No one wants these poor outcomes. 

It is always worth it to do what you need to do and take the time you need to take to make sure an injury is well healed. The road can be long and sometimes uncertain but doing it right the first time is always something to get excited about. It’s a path you’ll always ultimately be thankful you took.