Your Athlete Guide To Injury Prevention And Recovery
Unfortunately, injuries are an inevitable part of most triathletes’ careers, but they don’t have to be career-ending or even season-ending. The classic approach, take a few weeks (or months) off training, then jump back in where you left off, is flawed and likely to extend injury recovery time and lead to future injuries. Today, we will reframe how you think about injuries and advocate for more patient and thoughtful injury recovery and prevention methods. We will top this off with a quick and dirty step-by-step guide that details the fastest and safest route to return to racing.
Let’s get into it:
Reducing Injury Risk
Of course, the initial aim of any coach is to prevent injuries before they occur. Although some athletes are more genetically predisposed to injuries than others, this is no reason to despair. No matter your predisposition, the following four pillars of training and lifestyle are sure to make you more injury resilient:
Endurance: Coach and athlete must work in unison to ensure that the training load is balanced seamlessly with lifestyle stresses. Too much load and stress will lead to injury or burnout. On the other hand, too little will result in negligible fitness gains.
Functional Strength: A tailored strength training program that considers an athletes’ experience and specific needs will drastically reduce injury risk. This, in unison with a consistent mobility and self-care/stretching routine, is an ideal prescription.
Nutrition: So-called ‘supporting habits’ may not be the sexiest part of being a multi-sport athlete but are nevertheless paramount to remaining healthy. Sufficient daily hydration and pre and post-workout fueling are an easy but important piece of the performance puzzle.
Recovery: They don’t call me the recovery coach for nothing. We all know you want to train hard and improve quickly, but all those hours of training put tremendous physical stress on our bodies. Without enough downtime and quality sleep, our bodies will eventually break down.
As you have probably surmised, the best approach to injury prevention is not a one-stop-shop but a holistic approach to training and lifestyle. If you train hard, you must also live healthily. Our bodies are naturally resilient but only up to a point.
Rest Does Not Equal Recovery
Instinctively, as people and athletes, when something hurts, we want to rest. However, this is not a sound method when we take a long-term view of injury prevention and recovery.
As an athlete, you probably know, once you get one injury, it always seems to lead to new injuries in other places, or the same niggle continues to crop up no matter what you do. This is almost always because of total breaks taken from training. In reality, it is better to reincorporate activity as soon as possible, of course being careful not to aggravate the injury. Total breaks from activity, rather than allowing time for healing, lead to a less resilient body and, therefore, a more injury-prone body.
Instead of taking the commonly utilized reductionist and narrow view to preventing injuries, such as specific exercises or stretches, the optimal path to reducing injury risk is to employ a more holistic view and focus on building global resilience. A resilient athlete is, under all circumstances, less likely to get injured than a non-resilient athlete.
As triathletes, we are unique thanks to the three sports at our disposal. We are, therefore, privileged to be able to use a multi-sport approach to injury recovery. For example, suppose your Achilles is bothering you; a heavier focus on the bike and swim will enable you to continue pushing fitness forward while retaining tissue resilience and allowing for time off your feet.
The critical point to understand is that injury recovery (and prevention) must be solutions-based. Sitting around doing nothing never got anyone anywhere. Consistent training, not consistently taking time away from training, is the path to reducing injuries.
The Achilles, a pain in the ‘heel’ for many athletes, and a perfect example of an injury that does not typically recover without continued stimulus. Many athletes will stop activity completely then be surprised when the Achilles takes longer to heal than anticipated. Additionally, in a return to running athletes will unconsciously shift mechanics to ‘protect’ the Achilles, causing niggles on the other side of the body. A preferable approach would be to work in some eccentric loading via the athlete’s strength routine, for example, doing calf raises on a raised platform with heel over the edge.
Sarah’s hands are choked back on the aero bars, there’s tension in her shoulders, her diaphragm is compressed, and her hips are rotated backward on the seat.
Resulting in:
Compromised breathing ability.
Fatigue-inducing tension in the upper body.
Reduced power output due to poor biomechanical positioning.
Good Posture:
Exhibit two of our bike posture analysis with Sarah.
Now, Sarah's back is flat, her upper body is supple, there's plenty of 'room' between shoulders and hips, and her pelvis is rotated forward.
Resulting in:
Space for the lungs to fully expand.
Reduction of mechanical fatigue due to tension.
Ideal postural alignment, allowing for proper power output.
The Return to Racing Guide
Ok, so you did everything right, you ate well, you got enough sleep, you strength trained in the postseason, but, maybe, you fell off your bike, or, perhaps, you’re just unlucky and got a stress fracture in your foot. What now?
First off, you must realize that there will be a frustrating (and possibly long) path ahead of you before you feel 100% again. Therefore, patience and accountability, aided by a good coach, are paramount over the coming weeks and months. The following step-by-step guide charts a healthy and sustainable road to recovery:
Heal and Recover Emotionally: This can be a week or two, but not any longer. Allow yourself time to feel upset post-injury, but prepare mentally for the comeback.
Get Active: Although this isn’t officially training, it’s critical to the recovery process. You need to begin moving the body in ways that don’t delay recovery time. Examples include walking, easy spinning, or maybe swimming if appropriate. Proper coaching will prescribe highly tailored sessions that allow progression without negative impact.
Train Within Context: Once the body has reached a critical turning point, you may resume suitable (and usually easy) training. This stage requires the most patience and accountability to ensure consistent but safe doses of training. It is easy to overdo it at this stage if you are too excited and without proper coaching guidance.
The Return to Full Training: Finally, the day has come, your injury no longer causes you pain or hinders activity in any way. You can get back into the swing of things. However, you must recognize that fitness progression must begin from where you are now, not where you were when you sustained the injury.
The Return to Racing: With a sound plan, the help of an experienced coach, and a little luck, you’ll be back racing in no time. However, don’t rush back into competition, listen to your body and if the pain crops up again you’ll have to back off. It’s important to manage expectations and take note of the lessons you learned from your recovery journey so that you reduce the likelihood of a similar future incident.
Beyond the initial few days, every phase of an athlete’s return will require sound judgement and be imprinted by the heavy hand of effective coaching. It isn’t simple. It demands collaboration, feedback, and strength of leadership, but engagement in the process by coach and athlete is sure to minimize the negative impact of an injury in the broader picture of the performance puzzle.
Maximizing injury prevention and recovery isn’t rocket science, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Nail the basics, stay consistent, be patient and attentive, and you’ll find yourself on an upward performance trajectory in no time, despite injuries today.