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The Injury Opportunity: How to see your setback as a chance for choice and change



That disheartened feeling.

 

That pit in your stomach.

 

The tightness in your throat.

 

Dismay. Distrust. Frustration.

 

I get it. I really do.

 

To be injured is a difficult time. For anyone, really, but especially if you have big health, fitness, or performance goals in the works.

 

It means you have to adjust everything. Your lifestyle, your schedule, your plans, your goals, even the way you get around if you can’t walk on your leg or use your arm.

 

It’s really hard. Literally painful. And it’s really easy to get caught up in the mind's thoughts around it never changing, taking forever, or ruining your entire life, for example.

 

I just heard from someone who is struggling with this very thing, a new injury on the heels of some other limitations, and it inspired me to dive into this topic.

 

So, if you’re reading this and you’re in this tough place, listen closely. I’m here for you.

 

While I help people fully heal injuries, pains, or chronic problems every day, I’ve had my share of them, too.

 

As a competitive runner, I found myself going through pretty constant cycles of training, racing, injury, cross training, and running again.

 

I mostly had overuse (or chronic) type ones, those that come on over time or from patterns, rather than a fall, break, or tear. Maybe that’s why I specialize in these types of problems. I know them intimately.

 

And believe me, though I was getting injured, it wasn’t for a lack of strength. 

 

I’ve always included strength training. We had good programming in college cross country and track, and even next level strength programming when I was in grad school and got to run a season of indoor track for the NCAA D1 Wake Forest University.

 

Which, by the way, I got to do only BECAUSE of an injury.

 

True story.

 

Let me explain.

 

I got to run a bonus season of indoor track when I was getting my Masters in Health and Exercise Science as a Demon Deacon.

 

It was pretty cool actually. In addition to my grad responsibilities (and working out of the gymnasium offices), I got to use the separate athlete weight room, had fellow middle distance teammates to practice with on the track or the hills behind campus, got to race at Clemson, UNC, and Virginia Tech, actually had an 800m personal best during that time, my all-time PR in the 800, and it let me do what I did best during school- also run, train, race, and have an outlet that kept me healthy, strong, and fit, and meeting people outside of my department- runners!

 

As I feel into that experience, it’s so exciting to realize I got to do that. 

 

It was this rare bonus season where I donned the WFU race kit, got more gear and perks than before, and even got in free to coveted Wake-Duke basketball games because I was a student-athlete and got to cheer on Chris Paul from the student section.

 

And, guess what, it’s all because I had an injury.

 

Yup, I had a calcaneus (heel bone) stress fracture during my Sophomore year of undergrad at Hastings College in Nebraska.

 

I spent the entire indoor track season doing every run and workout in the pool, and hitting it hard in the weight room.

 

I was determined to come back for outdoor track season healthy and strong. I didn’t want to miss any seasons of college sport. It was really important to me. I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I was all-in.

 

But miss a season I did.

 

And while I was so upset at that time, I discovered some really important things.

 

I found a tenacity within myself to be the best overall athlete I could be. 

 

I did pool runs solo in a cold, steaming pool at 6:30am in January. I crutched around campus in the snow and up and down 4 flights of stairs in my dorm. I did second pool workouts during my teammates' runs in the afternoon. I used the weight room to complete our full strength and conditioning workouts and loved the time I got to spend there with my team and pushing my body.

 

It was hard, but I rose to the occasion.

 

I was sad to red-shirt a season, and had zero idea I’d get to do another at a D1 school as a walk-on, which was crazy! I got to be a student-athlete (what I did best for many years) once again.

 

So what does this all mean?

 

It means we don’t know what amazing, positive things can come from injuries, setbacks, or times of trial.

 

We can't know, until we look back on it in hindsight.

 

Sure it feels horrible at the time. We have all these ideas of how things should go, and this is not going how it should go. It’s hard because it’s out of our control. 

 

But, just know this… 

 

You don’t know yet how this setback will work FOR you.

 

And I think different setbacks come with different lessons.

 

That college injury showed me my tenacity, and led me to a bonus season at Wake Forest.

 

A series of injuries while I was in PT school and at the peak of my marathon success helped me understand the body and injuries in ways that gave me personal experience with the things I was learning. And led me to treat injuries the way I do now.

 

Two years ago, when I sprained and fractured my left ankle, it was a month after the unexpected death of my clinical mentor, who meant so much to me. I was heartbroken.

 

I spent the next 6 weeks sleeping, grieving, crutching, and working on patients (how he taught me). That injury allowed me time to grieve, made me stay with it rather than “run away” from the deep grief with running and workouts, my go-to coping mechanism. And that was healthy. I grew, developed, and fully processed his passing over time.

 

I also went through the full rehab process myself, which was good for me to experience so I can better help my patients.

 

Believe me, I never wanted to be injured. I never liked it. But, like my mom has always reminded me (moms are so smart), each one has helped me relate to my patients, has helped me do better work for others. And she was right. Now I’m so glad those happened because I can say all this to you.

 

While every injury or setback was hard, I discovered a joy in that process too. Like I wrote last week about practice, it can have these great moments of progress, of momentum, of delight.

 

So, if you’re dealing with a new injury or setback…

 

Even if it’s on the heels of previous limitations, which I know is super frustrating..

 

Consider this..

 

It feels painful now because you don’t have control and it’s not what you want.

 

It brings up uncertainty, despair around time, losses, and fears.

 

Will it get better? How long will it take? Do I have to just get used to this? How will my body change if I can’t work out the way I’m used to?

 

These thoughts and feelings are all normal. And what you can start doing immediately, whenever you're ready, is you can start to see them. Look at them. Get curious. Journal. Feel them. Feel the frustration. Feel the fear. As much of it as you’re able.

 

Then consider the opportunity that is in front of you.

 

To learn more about the body– your body– perhaps.

 

To meet new helpers and guides who become trusted advisors or close friends.

 

To see something in you you didn’t see before.

 

To spend time in areas of life that tend to get neglected when you’re focusing on working out or running out the door.

 

To spend time on your body in new ways, which might get neglected because of your busy lifestyle or beliefs around health, wellness, and fitness.

 

What an amazing opportunity.

 

I know it doesn’t feel like it right now.

 

And we can’t expect to have a D1 level track coach calling us up, or the like (which, by the way, didn’t happen. I went into her office. I convinced my graduate coordinator to let me do track. I made that opportunity happen).

 

And we usually only see the blessings of a hardship in hindsight.

 

But what if you looked for them now.

 

What if you decided how you wanted to handle this. And WHO you want to become in the process? 

 

What if you saw it as the start of a journey? A hero’s journey, where you are being “called to adventure” and instead of refusing the call, you heed it and step onto a path which will change you, move you, and help you become more than you were before. Because of the challenge- the being challenged- in and of itself.

 

Imagine the possibilities of that.

 

And trust that this hardship is happening FOR you, not to you.

 

I love you. I get you. I am with you.

 

You’re amazing.

 

Lara “the injury is an opportunity” Johnson


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