Why do we get injured?

We get injured when the capacity of our stuff, is exceeded by the load we put on it.

I remember having to play baseball at school for sport. It wasn’t a sport I particularly enjoyed. Especially considering that when playing among other kids forced to play a sport that isn’t their chosen one, skill can be lacking. This meant running between bases, could see balls often fly anywhere. And a number of times, like many of me fallen friends, they would find me. With force.

The most memorable time was when a flying ball made contact with my flying balls. My 3 offspring are evidence that this didn’t cause permanent damage, but the pain of the incident is easily recalled, and flashbacks to writhing on the ground clutching at my early teen assets still feel pretty fresh.

Compare this to the time I was struck on the head with a ball (helmets weren’t the fashion then) and I still made it to the base with a slight rub of the noggin and carried on. Those aware of my lack of memory and focus may question if this had lasting impact though.

Trauma injuries such as these happen when we are impacted by something that overcomes our ability to be resilient to force. These type of injuries are difficult to prepare for, outside of picking the people you play sport with. Blunt impact will do what it will, though there could be potential to minimise force on the rest of the body, but in the Not Really Yoga system, we are more concerned with injuries that occur as a result of our movement capacities. This includes strength and range of motion.

Traditionally, it would be suggested that “getting stronger” would be the key to improving capacity, and ensuring that we can tolerate large loads applied to the body.

The kicker here, is that we only get good at tolerating the loads relative to the movements we have trained. The functional fitness craze argues that we need to move in different directions and so on, but still, different directions don’t ensure that we can tolerate load.

The key is to improve our range of movement, and become strong at the end of these ranges, and in varying directions.

For example, someone that can do a 50 kg dumbbell fly, could still be injured by a 5kg dumbbell in a range they haven't trained in, partially if the shoulder sat at a “weird” angle. Exposing our bodies progressively to these weird angles, at end ranges of motion, is the key to becoming resilient to injury.

Because injury tends to happen in the movements and ranges that we haven’t given attention to.