When you exercise regularly, being side-lined by an injury sucks.
Not only does it derail you from your fitness goals, it messes with your head. You start to doubt your ability to return to your previous level of fitness, wondering if you’ll ever be back at 100% again.
Some people push too hard, too quickly and end up re-injured. Others give up entirely. There’s a fine line between challenging the injury enough to aid recovery and over-doing it.
As a personal trainer and group fitness instructor, I’ve taught and trained many people recovering from soft tissue injuries. Torn ACL’s, tight IT bands, strained rotator cuffs and impinged shoulders. I’ve also had my fair share of injuries, including a recent (and very painful!) intercostal muscle strain.
My suggestions for strength training after an injury?
- Seek professional help immediately. Although many injuries heal on their own (given enough time) others require specific stretching and strengthening exercises to maintain range of motion and minimize further aggravation. In my experience, physiotherapy and chiropractic care are the best places to start.
- Follow the advice of your practitioner (you’d be surprised how many people don’t!). Your physiotherapist or chiropractor will give you specific exercises to do. Do them! Don’t stop doing them after a week or a month. Or even when your injury starts to feel better. Build them into your recovery training plan, gradually progressing them as you regain strength.
- Don’t expect to perform at the same level you did before for a long time. Turn off that little voice in your brain that constantly compares your current performance to what you used to be able to do. You’ll get there (or close to there) again.
- Go slow. Rehab and corrective exercises should not be performed to fatigue. You shouldn’t feel delayed onset muscle soreness the day after you do them like you might after a heavy chest and back day. The goal of rehabilitation is to REHAB the muscle, not build size.
- Don’t forget the rest of your body! ACL injured? You can still do pushups, pullups, bicep curls and core work. Biceps tendonitis? Squats and lunges and planks are for you. Work around the injury. Be creative with your workouts. Enlist the help of a personal trainer if you need ideas!
Do I follow my own advice? You bet!
Here are the 3 core exercises I’m doing daily to regain strength after injuring my intercostals:
(This video is part of a YouTube challenge to Vlog Every Day in August [VEDA]. Head on over to my YouTube channel to see what else I’ve been vlogging about!)
Have you ever suffered from an exercise-related injury?
How did you go about strength training afterwards?
Disclaimer: Although I am a BCRPA-certified Personal Trainer, I AM NOT a physiotherapist or chiropractor. The above suggestions are general and likely to apply to a broad range of situations. For recommendations specific to your own injury and rehabilitation, please make an appointment to see a local physiotherapist or chiropractor 
oh yes!! slow is key. My husband is learning that now with coming back from a knee injury.
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Slow and steady and knowing the difference between how a muscle feels when it’s working vs how it feels when it’s strained… a very fine line!
glad to see you are on the mend….;)
Thanks Tracey! I even made it to 8 am Flow last Saturday. Couldn’t do a few poses, but surprised myself!
As always, you have provided such helpful, sound advice about dealing with injuries! I went through a rough patch with exercise-related injuries between 2008 and 2011. But even when the doctor wouldn’t let me do any regular cardio after breaking a toe, I still found ways to work around it with a hand crank exercise and strength training machines I could sit on that didn’t put weight on my feet. It’s all about ingenuity and perseverance!
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Hi Shira,
Thanks so much for your appreciative comments! Injuries can only slow you down if you let them. You’re right; it’s all about being creative!
Another great post. You can’t rush an injury, that’s for sure. If you do, you just risk reinjury, and then an even greater rehab battle.
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Connie (that’s a joke, fellow readers, referring to Carrie’s recent blog post…),
Thanks for your kind words! It’s nice to know that somebody thinks I’ve written more than one great post!
I giggle every time I use the word ‘rehab’ to describe healing muscles; sounds like something hollywood actresses do!
Yeah, I guess it does, doesn’t it? Then again, an injury that keeps one from working out just might induce a sip of beer or two.
Connie thinks so, too…
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I sprained my ankle playing football in the midst of training for an 10k run in July, and it is still giving me twinges. I’m back to being able to ride a bike and walk longer distances, but it is hard to convince myself to get out of the house after such a long break (for me). Thank you for your advice! Your blog has been a constant reminder that it is ok to not over-exercise while injured and potentially re-injure myself.
Glad to help, Elizabeth.
July isn’t very long ago (although it feels like forever, right?). Sometimes injuries stick around longer than we’d like. Makes me wish I were 20 again and healed overnight!
All great tips! 3, 4 and 5 especially goo to keep in mind as you (general you) move forward in your training!
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And specific ‘you’ too, right?
I’m listening to my own advice; I worked other muscle groups today and did my rehab exercises!
Right!
Happy to hear you about your workout today!
Take good care!
Could not agree more: Do your rehab! Do it some more! Keep doing rehab! I wish both my daughter and husband had taken this to heart post knee surgeries!
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Such great advice Tamara!!! Yes, the biggest prob is so wanting to be were you were to soon & the re-injuring .. not good! We are so often are worst enemy – we can tell other people but when it comes to ourselves – well,
I have not had many injuries over my 30+ years – knock on wood!
I have had a couple & I am so bad at sitting still! If I could do nothing, I did that but I had times when I was able to work around it & that is what I did… find the thngs I could do yet not hurt the injury more.
Thx Tamara – always great posts!!!
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Great tips! Love #2 (especially combined with #1 – ask for advice…then follow it). I’ve had numerous injuries over the years. I’ve been pretty smart about returning to exercise slowly (pretty smart
). It is the things that keep me from running that drive me crazy.
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Hi Tamara,
I have just recently (about a week ago)strained my intercostal muscle on my left side whilst lifting heavy furniture (!) and it’s hurting like anything. Have realised i need to do very little for a while but as a busy mum that’s not easy. Do you recommend any stretching exercises to help things heal? I’ve still got my xmas shopping to do so I can’t be sitting around for too long!
So sorry to hear that Sarah. If you have strained your intercostal muscles (and only a chiropractor or physiotherapist can tell you for sure, upon examination
), stretching is not what they need. A strain is really extreme over-stretching. They need time to heal and then they need to be strengthened.
I was told to avoid lifting anything heavier than a gallon of milk for the first few weeks after my injury. Now, after 6 months, I am only just fully recovered, having re-strained it several times in the interim after over-doing it.
I encourage you to seek professional help and make sure you’re doing the right thing for YOUR body!
Keep me posted! I’d love to hear how your recovery is going.
Hello Tamara,
My PAC recommended exactly what you did last summer: rest, ice, and pain killers when needed.
I just had a health visit and turns out I have strained my intercostal muscles on my right side. I’ve been feeling sore since NYE, but didn’t have severe pain until 2 days, when I sneezed after completing 5x deadlifts with 70lbs.
Your posts have been quite helpful regarding rib muscle strains and I look forward to taking on the Spartacus Workout after I’m healed.
I definitely want to follow Tip #5: Don’t Forget the Rest of your Body. My PAC said I can walk, not jog (which makes me super sad because I have a 5k coming up in March). I’m trying to be creative, but all I’ve thought up so far is stationary bicycling and perhaps assisted push ups (on knees).
How did you keep moving with your injury last summer? Are there exercises you can recommend that do not utilize the intercostal muscles that you found easy to do? Thanks!
Hi Kimberly,
So sorry to hear that you’ve got this injury too. It’s no fun.
There are lots of exercises you can do that don’t require torso twisting. Both upper and lower body. You’ll have to try them out and see what does and doesn’t cause you pain. If it’s painful, don’t do it!
Try things like body weight squats and lunges (holding core and bum tight throughout). Seated shoulder presses, bicep curls, side arm raises, bent over rows and reverse flys. You may find you have to limit the range of motion on some exercises (again, it depends on where your injury is and it’s severity).
I found that seated upper body was more comfortable because I didn’t have to use my core as intensely. Of course, I ended up using lighter weights than normal, which is fine for maintenance.
Let me know what you end up doing and how it feels!
Hopefully you’ll be ‘spartacusing’ soon!
Tamara
Hey Tamara! It has been a month since your reply of suggested exercises to try while sidelined with a rib injury and I’m here to report back my progress.
I tried body weight squats and lunges, however, my rib muscles were so sensitive that even the slightest jolt coming up through my feet (especially on the right side) would jolt me to the side. Decided to put these off for a while.
Next I tried all the upper body work mentioned while seated. Being seated helped immensely! I had success with shoulder presses, bicep curls, and side arm raises. I wasn’t able to get into the bent over rows or reverse flys since it applied pressure to my ribs, even in the slightly bent, seated position.
Overall, I was thrilled that I could still rock it in the gym! Thank you so much for the recommended exercises. And now I have another story to tell!
After 2 weeks of taking things easy at home and in the gym, my ribs felt so much better. I had started to massage the muscles in between my ribs to relieve that pressure/tautness, in essence, the Graston Technique. So here I am feeling better and I decided I’m going to take up squats again. With weight. I should not have done that! After a week and half of even using low weight, I acquired another injury. ;_;
This time it was a lumbar strain with (most likely) a small herniated disc. In addition, my right pelvic bone has shifted out of place, which is causing mild-severe sciatic nerve pain when sitting for long periods of time. I have a feeling my pelvic bone may have been out of whack since January and I definitely know now that I was not ready to return to even a small part of my normal routine.
I’m working with physical therapists now and already the advice they’ve given me has helped tremendously. That and a great soft tissue massage! They are happy that I am still exercising, without the deadlift and squat for now. In fact, they said the upper body work I’ve been doing is perfect.
As I make progress I will share the lumbar and core strengthening exercises/stretches as I learn them. Right now my ‘assignment’ is to complete the cobra pose (2 pillows under your chest) and cat & camel 10x each twice daily, piriformis stretch twice daily, and use a foam roller on my spine and glutes before bed.
This was so helpful. I can’t do them yet because it still hurts! My injury is very high intercostal under the scapulae with some strain in the lower scapulae muscles thrown in. Bronchitis with lots of deep coughing made me vulnerable I think. When I felt better I did a volunteer day that included several hours of repetitive heavy scrubbing with my right, dominant arm. Brilliant!!! The chiropracter has helped so much. I used to do the side plank and all of these look like something that will be great–very slowly building up when I recover. I see that you posted about your injury a while ago–I hope you are better and strong again. I looked all over for something on this type of injury and yours is one of the few and the best. Thanks!
Thanks so much for visiting Pamela. I’m happy to hear that my posts have helped. I am much better, thanks! Although I do still feel occasional twinges when I lift too heavy or train too many days in the week. It really is a long, slow recovery!
Pop back and let me know how you’re doing!