We all have been there. You're running along, 72 degrees and sunny and you're on your favorite, fresh trail. You glance up at the cloudless sky, grateful to be alive, and BAM! A huge rock crosses your path out of nowhere and you hit it and fall. Your ego is bruised, but worse yet your ankle is a mess. It hurts so badly you have to end your run right then and there and hobble back to your car. Then something else hits you: What if you can't run after this?



Anyone who is used to exercising moderately or aggressively can understand the frustration of having an injury that prevents you from keeping up your normal routine. It is very important, however, to treat yourself gently in order to get back on track as quickly as possible without compromising your health.

If you have suffered an injury such as a sprain, pulled muscle, or repetitive use injury, the first thing to do is apply the RICE principle. RICE is an acronym for rest, ice, compression and elevation. For example, if you twisted your ankle as in the above example, once you got home you should lie in a prone position and put ice on the injury for twenty minutes. Resting and icing it in a prone position for twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off for the first forty eight hours will decrease pain, inflammation and swelling. You can also take ibuprofen to help with the inflammation and swelling. Of course, any medication or treatment plan should be approved by your doctor before implementing. If you have severe pain you should definitely seek medical advice from a trained professional. If the injury is milder, however, continuing the rest and ice treatment while wrapping the sprain and keeping your leg elevated should help the healing process.

Perhaps you are not a runner, but an avid weightlifter. Many weightlifters have suffered from pulled muscles, usually caused by either hoisting too much weight or lifting weights too quickly, with improper form. You may have been working on your shoulders, doing shoulder presses or lateral raises for your deltoid muscles you felt a snap-type pulling - and then you couldn't lift the same weight again without pain. This could be a pulled muscle, ligament, or tendon. In this case, it is probably best to see a doctor and rule out a tear in the muscle, tendon or ligament before trying to treat it yourself. Assuming it is just a pull, the best thing you can do is rest. Nobody who likes to exercise likes to hear that, but it truly is the only way to heal. Over-the-counter pain relievers may help the pain, and so can mild ice treatments or heat after the first 72 hours. However, you do not want to apply ice and heat or take painkillers to simply mask the symptoms so you can continue working out. This is a surefire way to increase your true healing time! Instead, work out different muscles as far away from the injured area as possible. If you hurt your shoulder, focus on legs and abdominals, and increase your cardio routine for a while so you don't feel badly about your workouts. If you simply refuse to stop working out your upper body, at least work out antagonistic muscle groups (muscles opposite the injured area) that don't hurt your injured muscle when you move. For example, you may still be able to do bicep curls if you hurt your shoulder, so long as you keep your arms in by your side and fairly stationary as you lift with only the lower part of your arm. Again, it's best to lay off the area entirely. You will know when it's okay to resume working out the area, and the area can take weeks (or more!) to completely heal.

A repetitive use injury can also happen from weightlifting, but it is more common with runners or those who play specific sports that use repetitive motions. It is exactly what it sounds like - an injury that occurs from using the same motions over and over, so that the muscle, tendon or ligament is strained beyond what it can normally handle. This can happen when you increase your distance or speed in running, lift weight using the same body part too close in time without sufficient rest, or if you're training for a competition or sport that requires an increased number of practices or routines. In the case of a competition, depending on how severe the injury, unfortunately sometimes the only thing you can do is sit it out. If you are not training for an event, you may be able to just back off a bit or get more rest in between your workouts.