Successful people make lists.
One of the things all my clients who are rehabilitating from an injury want from me is assurance that they will get back to the cage or the ring or the mat as soon as physically possible. They may or may not want to know what is physically wrong with their knee or their spine down to the anatomical minutiae that I may feel I need to give them. They probably do not care how my manipulation or exercise is going to influence their neuro-immune system and chemically alter the biophysiology of their brain. That is physio nonsense which they cannot relate to.
What do they all want to know?
“When can I wrestle?”
“When can I roll?”
“When can I fight?”
Every so often patients will even question whether they will ever get over this horrific experience. They will see their dreams drifting away from them, become disheartened with their progress, and they may even think about giving it all up.
Everyone feels this way to an extent. Basic tissue healing times fall between 6-10 weeks, which is a long time to go without performing all the exercises or drills or training you would like to, and a long time to be swayed from the path toward your goals. One of my roles with the elite or recreational combat sports athlete is to ensure their focus is not swayed, that they keep things in perspective and that they are successful in their rehabilitation.
Successful people make lists.
More accurately, they examine and prioritise. They identify which actions and tasks will propel them most efficiently and effectively toward their goals. Forbes magazine has previously identified this trait as something commonly seen in powerful CEOs, financial traders and high flying entrepreneurs. I feel this is a trait all athletes should instil as part of their recovery and return to sport.
Take for instance MMA contender Conor McGregor. Following an injury to his left knee in his UFC featherweight bout with Max Holloway on 14th August 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts, an MRI showed a full rupture of his anterior cruciate ligament, a medial collateral ligament sprain and a posterior horn meniscus tear.
Source: https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA
McGregor underwent surgical repair under the world renowned orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache (who also operated on former UFC welterweight champion and future Hall of Famer Georges St Pierre and NBA superstar Kobe Bryant) and moved temporarily away from his home camp at SBG in Ireland to California, USA, to fully immerse himself in his rehabilitation at the Movement Performance Institute (previously the home base of George St Pierre’s successful ACL rehabilitation).
McGregor pulled himself out of the spotlight that seems to suit him so well, and for a period of 6 months all you heard from the brash Irishman was each step he was taking on his road to recovery.
The self-proclaimed “best mind in the game” demonstrated evidence of this title when he distanced himself from friends, family and training partners all for the good of his rehabilitation. He removed all distractions and separated from his life to concentrate on his foremost objective: rehabilitation. When he managed to get the all-clear to hit a punch bag, you heard about it. When he nailed the Movement Performance Institute record for a successful and efficient triple jump, he told you about it. Finally, when he returned from injury in July 2014 in his home city of Dublin, Ireland, he did so in style and quickly dispatched of Brazilian foe Diego Brandao.
This is a message I pass on to my athletes. To ensure the success of your rehabilitation you have to make your rehabilitation one of your life’s top 3 priorities. Perhaps not number one like McGregor’s was, but at least somewhere alongside your family and your career.
That may mean your immediate training objectives change. Your goal to improve the speed of your double leg takedown will have to wait. Instead, you replace it with a much more difficult rehabilitative focus. That may mean full range of motion, or improved control of your body. This adds perspective to the hours of repetitive movements and exercises me or my ilk may prescribe to you. This gives meaning to the ice bath I force you into after our physiotherapy session. It ensures that each step of your future is directed towards rehabilitative success.
Examine your training programme currently. Most amateur and professional combat sports athletes will divide their time into technical combined or sub-sport practice sessions (e.g. MMA sparring, BJJ or wrestling, etc.) and physical strength and conditioning sessions. When injured, some of the strength and conditioning exercises and drills which usually take up your time may be limited due to restrictions caused by the injury. Alternatively, pain (or a clinician’s advice) may stop you taking part in your technical classes.
This should never become “free time” because if it does that means it is “wasted time”. Instead, this should evolve to become the time within which rehabilitative exercise, deep tissue massage or even perhaps manipulative therapy should be your sole focus.
Far too often I see supposedly “elite” athletes who want to recover from injury, but they look for shortcuts to return to their sport sooner. Remember, a recovery must last to be considered successful. One injury not rehabilitated fully can lead to ongoing problems.
Successful people make lists.
Here’s mine:
1. 5:30am Strength & conditioning session
2. 8:30am Outpatient combat sports physiotherapy clinic
3. 4pm Write article to emphasise the importance of prioritising rehabilitation
4. 7pm Go home to wife and son.
Stay healthy and keep fighting
The post Key to a Successful Rehab: Prioritizing Your Injury appeared first on FightMedicine.NET.
