HOW TO TRAIN WHEN YOU HAVE A NECK INJURY FOR THE CROSSFIT, F45 AND HIIT ATHLETE.

If you love your HIIT, and you know who you are…I’m talking to you, CrossFitters, F45 junkies or you’re a boxer etc, we know that getting back to exercise is likely your number 1 priority! Watch the video or read below to get our tips on getting you back on track as soon as possible.

As we said in our last post on back pain, taking time out of training is boring and can seriously impact on the gains that you have made. When you have become addicted (in the healthiest possible way) to getting the most out of your body, training with intensity and seeing the huge improvements in your health and injuries take on an altogether more frustrating element the can affect your body and even your mental state as well.

The reality is, the better you allow your body to heal, the quicker you can be back to 100% and the less likely you are to have recurring injury, and the rehab is going to take some effort on your part, so what CAN you do to get back into it at full speed?

The first thing to work on is recognising that just like gains you have made, THERE ARE NO SHORT CUTS in healing your injury.

Sadly we cannot immediately heal injuries without letting your tissues repair themselves, but you CAN work smarter to reinforce healing, strengthen what you can strengthen, and make sure that you’re healing things properly to minimise risk of recurrence.

In the video below, Martin outlines some of our possible recommendations for managing neck pain while still keeping up your training.

For those of you who enjoy reading the video is transcribed below.

As always, if you have any concerns, neck issues, be they old or new, or just want to get the most out of your training, we are here for you so don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Hi guys Martin here from Align Chiropractic and what I wanted to talk to you about today is something that we see super commonly, which is people that we're taking care of who have are getting neck pain or other issues with their neck where they are also really keen on their cross fit, their f45 their boxing or other forms of high intensity training. 

The main question they ask us is:

“Do I have to stop doing my training for the injury to get better?”

What I want to talk through with you today are the things that you can do while you're managing an injury so that you're not making it any worse and you can keep the gains that you've made from the training so that you can keep the metabolic conditioning, you can keep losing weight and you can maintain muscle by keeping training even while you’re working through the process with us of sorting out the neck issue. 

First of all, we're going to get you to shift focus. So, neck issues are often exacerbated by upper body exercises and things that are super dynamic so people with neck issues can often find doing sit-ups are really uncomfortable because it strain you can strain your neck a little bit. 

Similarly they might find that pushing weight overhead is uncomfortable because of the position that your neck goes into.

So what we suggest you do is move to some exercises or rather, substitute exercises that are super comfortable. 

Often they are lower body exercises, so you can do air squats or you can do squats where you're holding a dumbbell or a kettlebell. 

You also can do lunges, in fact you can can do almost all of the lower body exercises. 

You may find that while performing more dynamic stuff that there can be a little bit of a jarring. So in that instance we're talking skipping or box jumps, Also running for instance might not be comfortable, so we're going to suggest that you substitute by maybe doing things on an exercise bike or do things where on a rower where you can make sure that you're keeping a more controlled cadence, but most importantly, you're looking after the alignment of your spine by making sure your head is nicely above your shoulder rather than coming forward. 

What we can do upper body wise when we're managing a neck injury: often horizontal things, such as horizontal pushups.

Pushups can be okay so long as you’re keeping your posture really neutral. 

Horizontal pulling like ring rows can be comfortable even though perhaps exercises like pull-ups might not be because of that neck extension that is commonly involved with it.

So key here then is focus on the lower body, get rid of really dynamic movements, like things that have jarring in them and substitute for things that eliminate the overhead stuff in particular. 

The second phase once we have been working with people and we are getting some improvement in the way that their neck is working but they're not a hundred percent, then we're going to start adding in some things that are a little bit more dynamic but are a little bit more forgiving on your neck. 

As we’re reintroducing things we might go “you’re not ready for box jumps yet but you can do step ups” for instance, or “you're not ready for skipping but you can do single leg hops as an exercise”

The key thing to remember here if you're training with a neck injury is first of all you just want to wind things back, shift focus and you can get a lot of benefit in working on lower body stuff then as things start to recover we will reintroduce things but in a modified form that reduces how much jarring and how much movement of your neck is required. 

The important thing to remember is, you can keep training through almost all injuries, the most critical thing though is to think through and get advice on what the things you need to avoid and what really clever substitutions you can put in place.

Simple exercises for people with neck pain

If you have neck pain, tight shoulders or headaches that come from your neck then I suggest you watch the video below.  

In the video I run you though some very simple movement exercises to keep you mobile, try and get your neck moving again and hopefully help make you more comfortable as you go through your day. 

I have tried to keep them very quick and easy so that you can incorporate them into your day simply and without having to make it too obvious that you're doing them.

If you are concerned about your neck pain or you have any questions, or if you experience discomfort doing them, then please do not hesitate to get in contact with us. 

As always, the video has been transcribed below, but I recommend you watch to get a demonstration...and to see me in my solo video debut. Enjoy. 

Hi I'm Kieran from Align Chiropractic. I just wanted to run you through a quick exercise for getting your neck moving.

Now if you're somebody that suffers from neck pain, a tight neck or headaches that feel like they come from your neck then this video is for you. 

One of the main group of exercises that we recommend for our clients regularly are to get their neck moving again. 

It's really important that your neck range of motion is even to both sides, it should be pain free and it shouldn't feel too tight one side compared to the other. 

The important thing to remember when doing these exercises is don't push through a pain barrier or push to the extremes of your motion. 

What we are wanting to do is get to the point of restriction and just relax into that position. 

So its very simple to do; first of all we're looking at rotation. 

Turning your head to one side holding it at that point of restriction for three seconds come back to the middle then turning the other side. 

You're looking for it to be even on both sides and pain-free, hold for three seconds, back to the middle. 

Next we go straight to side, lateral flexion for three seconds, back to the middle and then to the right-hand side for three seconds and finally, back to the middle again.

Remember, it’s three seconds on each side and you cycle through all four of those five positions 5 times to keep things moving.

If you are finding a lot of restriction or are particularly uncomfortable on one side more than the other, that can be an indication of a more significant underlying imbalance.

If you are feeling that or have any concerns about how your body is moving,  I'd recommend that you get on to us and let's figure out what's happening for you.