Wrist strain, elbow pain, runner’s knee, ankle sprain and plantar fasciitis… Over the years I’ve had my fair share of sports injuries and every time, I’m told to use the RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) method for recovery. Sadly it’s never worked and I wind up sitting out for weeks if not months.
But there is hope yet.
Three weeks ago, I hurt my back and the most extraordinary thing happened: I returned to weightlifting within a week of injury. What did I do differently this time? I ditched RICE for movement.
How I hurt my back
I remember the morning of my injury well. I was in the middle of strength training when a message from my mum got me worried about my son. The wise thing to do would have been to pause and sort things out before going into my second drop-down set of 73.5kg deadlifts. But there was no time to even weigh the options—my timer signalled the end of a 3-minute break and I walked up to the barbell on autopilot.
The first rep moved like clockwork. It was on the second rep that I felt my abdominal brace give way just as the barbell passed my knees. I should have dropped the weight like hot potatoes but subconsciously completed the lift with a yank.
The perfect formula for injury
Initially I blamed the injury on my poor concentration, but there was more to it. My husband, who’s also my coach, pointed out the strength imbalance in my glutes that had likely caused my right hip to shift on that second rep. This unevenness was a niggling issue that I had known for awhile but foolishly chose to sweep under the rug.
Procrastination aside, I also have this pesky tendency of getting complacent after my heaviest lifts. The fact is: I had just deadlifted my most comfortable 81kgs right before the accident. This could have led to an inflated confidence when it came to lifting lighter weights for my drop-down sets… Overall, an expensive lesson in humility.
Denial, frustration and acceptance
My immediate reaction to the accident was denial—I led a yoga class an hour after the injury and later enjoyed a sumptuous lunch that felt almost celebratory. I must have still been high on training endorphins because I only started to feel pain as the day wore on.
By the time I reached home in the afternoon, I was beginning to feel the consequence of my negligence in every step, every bump on the road, every sneeze and cough. Every movement that I made had to be delicate and carefully calculated or a sharp pain in my lower back would jolt me back to my handicapped reality.
That’s when my denial turned into frustration. I remember very gingerly lowering myself down to the ground in my room, only to realise that I could barely flex or extend my spine without wincing. Lifting an arm or a foot in bird-dog was out of the question. In fact, I wouldn’t have been able to stand if not for the support of nearby furniture.
At the end of the day and after many tests, my husband and I emerged with a list of exercises for me to do. The plan for recovery was straightforward: keep moving within a pain-free range and avoid sudden movements.
The day after the accident was the most trying. I could barely bend forward, let alone pick things up, and had to ask for help with everything: making the bed, grabbing groceries, carrying and bathing my toddler… It was a struggle trying to make sense of my situation to my two-year-old. This hit the hardest and was my biggest motivation. I didn’t have weeks for RICE—I had to get back on my feet right away.
Project Back Rehab
There was no icing, compression or elevation this time around, and hardly any rest. Instead I focused on moving really well and was more hardworking than before; alternating between brisk walking and my rehab exercises.
Here is the list of exercises that I performed multiple times a day. The rule of thumb is to move with care—go as slowly and deliberately as needed to maintain perfect technique. Stop or regress the exercise at the first sign of pain.
Clamshells (30x)
Prone hip extensions (20x)
Cat-cow (5x)
Bird-dog (5x)
Front plank (30s)
Side planks (30s)
Banded glute bridge hold (at bottom position) with knees wide (30s)
Banded glute bridge hold (at top position) with knees wide (30s)
Banded glute bridge lifts (20x)
Bodyweight squats (20x)
Bodyweight Romanian deadlifts (20x)
What kept me going whenever I felt disheartened, were the numerous podcast interviews with back expert Professor Stuart McGill that I listened to on Spotify, my newly vested interest in spine health that had me tirelessly researching back injury rehabilitation, the encouragement from my ever-supportive husband, and most of all: the unmistakable progress that I was making day to day.
One tool that I found particularly useful was video footage of my daily rehab. In comparing these videos, I saw how I was able to move through even broader ranges than the days before and this compelled me to forge on with my movement prescription.
Building a solid foundation
To sum it up, I spent the first week post-injury brisk walking, being diligent with rehab exercises, and using yoga to explore my range of pain-free movement. Once I was able to move through the exercises well, I gradually started to add in more bodyweight exercises, followed by small weights. It’s been three weeks since the injury and while I feel like my strength and agility are back, I’m not in any hurry to lift heavy.
With all of my new knowledge and insights, this mishap almost seems like a blessing in disguise. It’s taught me the importance of mental fortitude and body awareness in rehabilitation, given me the privilege to be able to look at my movement habits with new eyes, and forced me to pay even closer attention to how I move and address weaknesses as I see them.
I’ve been so inspired by my research on spine hygiene that I’ve even started to implement new activation work that is specific to what I need for training. For this phase, my focus is to reduce the imbalances in my glutes and build a stronger core; eventually, the goal is to move more weight, better.
