It’s The Fight That Keeps You Young

Have you ever noticed how folks that stay active and healthy look younger than those of us that are sedentary? Well that “youthfulness” is on the inside as well as the outside, and it shows up in tendon and ligament strength.

Tendons connect muscles to bones, and ligaments connect bones to bones. When we start working out we are stressing the tendons and ligaments as well as the muscles. All the lifting, pushing, pulling and jumping we do puts micro tears in the soft tissue, which is normal. But sometimes we go too far without knowing it, and injure ourselves. There might be a sharp and searing pain, and then what do we do?

First of all let’s talk about the difference between soreness and injuries. You work out hard, you might feel cooked after the WOD, but you make it through the day. 24 to 26 hours later your muscles feel TIRED, it hurts to sit down, and you’re cursing CrossFit. This SORENESS is called DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness, and it is best handled with good sleep, eating well (protein and fresh veggies) and loosening up your body with movement and stretching. If it’s really severe you can even sit in an ice bath to calm those screaming muscles down. Keep coming to the workout as we will scale around your soreness.

INJURIES, on the other hand, require more attention than soreness. When you tear a muscle or tweak a joint there is swelling and pain. For the first 24-48 hours you want to apply ice to get that swelling down. We used to take HEAPS of anti-inflammatory aids, and even called them vitamin I just to make it thru the day. But now we know better. To learn more about why NOT to take Advil of Ibuprofen read this good blog post by physical therapist and CrossFit trainer Kelly Starrett. How much ICE should I apply, you might ask? 20 minutes every couple of hours. Ice massage is the most effective; rub that ice cube or a frozen dixie cup right on that sore tendon for five minutes. When you apply ice the blood is drawn away from the iced area which reduces inflammation. Once you stop icing blood rushes back to the area, which promotes healing.

Once you’re on the mend you will find that scar tissue forms in the once injured area, and this needs to be worked out. Sometimes you can get in there yourself and work out the knots, and other times it will take a masseuse, physical therapist or body worker of choice.

Watch this short video on the CrossFit Journal to learn about the stages of healing, also by Kelly Starrett. Bottom line: if you are passive about icing and taking care of your injuries then you will heal more slowly. If you are pro-active you will mend quickly.

One of the benefits of CrossFit is that it strengthens those tendons and ligaments. If you’re just getting started and feeling some pain, don’t worry as you will get stronger. As your tendon and ligament strength builds you’ll feel younger on both sides.

-Beth

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 5:49 pm and is filed under Health and Sickness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.