Down But Not Out
Proper care and a positive attitude can help overcome a pre-contest injury

You’re injured. Now what?

This scenario became a vivid reality for FAME Pro Ocean Bloom just days before competing at the 2004 FAME Fitness World Championships. After traveling all the way from Vancouver to Toronto for the event, the experienced Fitness, Figure and Fitness Model Athlete suffered an agonizing muscle tear in her leg. Devastated, yet undeterred, Ocean immediately brought in a doctor who specialized in a rapid-results system of therapeutic treatment. “The doctor came to my hotel room the night before the show and spent 2 1/2 hours working on my leg,” she recounts. For Ocean, quitting was not an option. She went on to compete as planned and placed an impressive fourth in Fitness.

Despite Ocean’s admirable perseverance, healthcare professionals typically do not advocate competing while injured. At the same time, many believe training through an injury can actually promote the healing process. Dr. Ken Kinakin, a chiropractor, 20-year bodybuilding and powerlifting veteran, and founder of the Society of Weight-Training Specialists (S.W.I.S.), is one health professional who falls into that camp.

“Depending on the type of injury and its severity, weight training can be beneficial,” Dr. Kinakin says. “After the initial swelling is reduced and you have confirmation no structural damage to the muscle or joint exists, light, low-volume resistance training can gently restore strength to the injured area and can also reactivate the nervous system to start increasing strength and stability.”

This school of thought led FAME Pro Wahid Gardizi into the FAME fold. Originally a competitive martial artist, the FAME Muscle and Muscle Model Athlete first took to the gym after injuring his wrist in a soccer game. “I couldn’t do anything for a few months,” Wahid recalls. Training through his injury taught him patience and gave him much-needed motivation. He began lifting weights for physiotherapy and started seeing results immediately. Within 16 weeks, Wahid regained full function in his wrist. He enjoyed the training so much he ultimately began competing with FAME.

No matter which body part is injured, Dr. Kinakin notes the damage often takes longer to heal properly than many athletes think. Training hard before you are ready or, worse, trying to work through the pain, are poor recovery strategies that can actually set you back. “Most competition training is too intense to allow for proper healing,” he says. “It’s best to rehab the injured area and train all the other body parts hard.”

At the same time, simply packing up and calling it a season can be extremely difficult for athletes with an eye on the prize. For those who are serious about the stage, Dr. Kinakin recommends getting treatment every day from a healthcare professional who understands contest training and uses a variety of healing techniques to address the problem. He also emphasizes the importance of listening to your body. “Don’t blindly follow a training routine,” he advises. “Your regimen is a guideline that should be modified on a daily basis, based on how you’re recovering.”

After all the best treatment advice is followed, one of the most valuable tools available to an injured athlete is his or her own mindset. “Attitude decides your fortune,” says Wahid. “Stay positive, visualize your success and keep believing in your dreams.”

Ocean Bloom believes the challenge of overcoming her injury before the 2004 FAME World Championships ultimately made her a stronger competitor. “Having a terrible injury made me push myself harder than I ever had before because I could no longer rely on my physical strength to get me through my routine,” she admits. “I had to give 150% using my attitude.” The process also impacted the production of Ocean’s first fitness DVD, which she was making at the time. “Instead of the original direction of the DVD, I let my injury become the focus,” she explains. “I learned how to embrace my obstacle and make something positive come from it.”

So while an injury may seem devastating to the athlete planning to compete, the process of working through it might just provide opportunities to revisit a sensible training routine and to develop a winning mindset – all the things that may have sent him or her down the path to the contest stage in the first place.