Niggle or injury? Knowing when to stop.
Niggle or injury? Is it such a binary subject? Here Coach Alan writes about some of the ways we might be able to answer this question.
All too often, I have had conversations with ‘broken’ athletes who are at a very low ebb; the conversation has taken a ‘failure’ tone… I’m injured, the athlete says. After ten minutes of conversation, it can come often turn out that the athlete is one of many things that isn’t injured: tired, sore, niggled, stiff, bruised or simply out of their comfort or experience zone. So how do we know when to stop?
Reflection
So how can you, as an athlete, learn to surf these experiences? What can you learn from the experience of others? First of all, let’s look at what is discussed in those ten minutes of conversation I mentioned above.
This conversation will always start with my asking what exactly happened? Followed by what did you do directly before the problem arose? Was the athlete rushing, did they warm up properly? Then I would look at and ask about what has training and life been like in the previous two weeks and the last few days? Very frequently it can be the case that the last few days have had comments of ‘I’m tired, or I don’t feel great’ or ‘work has been hectic’, ‘I didn’t sleep well’. These are all red flags that the athlete isn’t in good condition and perhaps approaches to sessions, and even sessions themselves can be tweaked or changed. Often this conversation can also include what were you wearing during a session (cold muscles don’t work well!)?
This first section is all about gaining perspective on how you have got into the current state. This process of reflection will help you as an athlete to more easily recognise these patterns in the future, enabling you to recognise and respond more quickly in the future. This is a subtle skill of experienced athletes that a coach can help you to explore and learn about, but ultimately you the athlete are the only one in your own body feeling those sensations.
My first key tip would be to recognise these red flags and back off and take a step back from some sessions or as I have recently picked up from Jim Vance to ‘romance’ your body into a session. If you are tired, sore or just plain grumpy going into a session, often your body needs a little subtle charm and persuasion to ease it into a session. Our heart rate doesn’t go from resting to 200bpm at the click of the fingers for a good reason and gently getting the body moving and taking a progressive approach can work well when you aren’t sure. If after a longer warm-up than normal, you still don’t feel great, adapt the main set by reducing or removing any intensity.
Tip 1: Gain perspective
Signs and Symptoms
Expectation management is a significant factor in organising and preparing for what is a normal part of training, and that is a lack of comfort. To improve, we need to stretch outside of our comfort zone, and this means physically as well as mentally. All athletes should therefore expect a level of discomfort at some stage. The second part of knowing when to stop is being able to recognise what is normal and what isn’t this means understanding the signs or symptoms of training vs an injury and everything on the spectrum in-between.
Tip 2: Injury-free to injured, is a wide spectrum with many points in-between.
Understanding the difference between something acute and chronic is also important. An acute issue is something that has come on quickly and has come about due to one singular traumatic event. Breaking your collarbone in a crash would be a good example. A chronic issue can develop slowly over a long period, a.k.a an overuse injury. These can often sneak up on you and are common in endurance sports but can also often be linked with your work environment—postural changes linked to a poor desk setup, for example.
Acute issues are often more clear cut, and the response is more clear cut with clear action in terms of x-ray, immobilisation period and then a return to normal stable function. Chronic issues are more difficult to gauge, and this is where reflective practice and learning comes in! Tracking your sensations in training with comments in a training diary can help you to identify these trends and patterns.
Tip 3: Keep a diary to help record and recognise patterns (also helps with Tip 1!). Training Peaks offers a free basic account where you can do this here.
Comments during the week on sessions can make things look clear when you try to remember why you didn’t do that easy hour run on Sunday.
Being able to track and grade any pain or discomfort you have is important as it can help you identify what might be muscular stiffness vs what might be a tear, tendon/ligament or bony issue. This must be done in a before, during and after training format. This can help you gain perspective and also point towards a cause. For example;
Before
Symptoms
No issues before a session, I warmed up but it was a bit cold outside and then I did my first 400m effort and my hamstring was really sore. This points towards a muscle tear overload whilst cold. This is an acute issue that requires the session to be stopped and responded to.
Bit sore before a session this evening, my hips felt sore and achy during the warm-up I tried the first rep and it felt the same and gradually got a little better no problems after. This is likely due to a long day sitting and is a sign that condition isn’t great. Too much load at this point could cause issues so maintain or reduce activity until symptoms fade.
Response
Make sure you are wearing warm clothing for the conditions.
Complete some light mobility exercises before starting the session.
Reduce the intensity and make the warm-up more gradual, repeat the mobility exercises once warm. Complete the build set and re-assess function.
During
Symptoms
Sudden pain or poor function
The gradual build-up of pain or poor function
Response
Stop, reduce the intensity, it could be that session wasn’t progressive enough and perhaps too hard to start.
Stop session early, many repetitions of good form are helpful. Many repetitions of bad form start to build an unhelpful pattern
After
Symptoms
After training soreness the correct response is stretching for 30secs with 3 reps. If this has no effect or pain or swelling develops then rest is required and training needs to be further reduced.
Is an issue staying the same or getting worse?
Response
If it is staying the same then reducing load will allow the body the capacity to recover.
If it is getting worse then significant rest and action must be taken.
How you feel first thing in the morning is significant. If something was an issue the day before but when you wake up there is no discomfort or tightness that limits what is a normal range of movement for you then you are likely in the clear to train.
For any athlete, an ongoing change to their normal form or technique is a reason to stop and respond to an issue. The athlete knows when to stop when normal recovery is not achieved.
It is normal in the course of training to get tired, stiff and sore at times. Perspective must be found, and used, if you have just completed a large amount of training relative to your normal levels then this is to be expected. If work has been very stressful and you have not been able to recover, again this is to be expected. A short period of overload in training can be hard to get through at times. So let’s look at recovery periods.
Normal periods of training can include blocks of rest of easier training for 36hrs. Requiring rest for three days is a sign you have gone too far.
The time to stop is when you believe that the situation is getting to the point at which you won’t be able to recover to normal function with a period of prolonged rest or absence from training
Conclusion
Defining something as niggle or injury is challenging to do especially with a lack of experience as it is not a binary area and requires judgment. Judgement and making a good call is significantly helped by a depth of experience. Therefore to improve in this area recording, tracking and reflecting upon any incidents are important to actively develop experience. Ultimately awareness and taking a step back with a niggle will lead to recognition of an area for improvement and avoidance of something short term and of low seriousness becoming something long term that significantly impacts on training. A little extra rest a little less stress will ultimately lead to long term consistency which we all know from previous blogs is the real ‘secret’ to endurance training success.
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