Injuries are an inevitable part of sports, especially for growing youth athletes in an uneven world of early, on time and late maturers! As a parent, it’s natural to want to ensure your child heals fully and avoids further harm. However, the instinct to enforce complete rest—even for healthy body parts—may actually do more harm than good. Here’s why continuing training, with appropriate adjustments, is essential for your athlete’s long-term development and will help reduce the risk of future injuries too!
The Principle of “Use It or Lose It”
The body is highly adaptable, but it operates on a “use it or lose it” principle. Athletic qualities like speed, strength, endurance, and power are maintained only through regular use. When these qualities aren’t utilized, they begin to degrade surprisingly quickly:
- Strength can decrease within 2-3 weeks of inactivity.
- Endurance declines even faster, with significant losses in just 7-10 days.
- Speed and power also regress rapidly, impacting an athlete’s explosiveness and agility.
That means while taking complete rest for 6 weeks may mean the initial injury has healed, it also means that the Speed, Strength, Power and Endurance of other body parts is now compromised, which is exactly the conditions we need to another injury to occur.
For a youth athlete, these losses can compound the challenge of returning to sport post-injury, often leading to a frustrating cycle of injury-recovery-injury.
The Risks of Complete Rest
While recover is essential for the injured area, completely rest for the whole body often leads to:
- Detraining effects: Loss of overall fitness and athleticism makes the eventual return to sport much harder and longer.
- Imbalances: Healthy body parts become weaker or stiffer, increasing the risk of compensatory injuries when activity resumes.
- Psychological challenges: The inability to train and the loss of social interactions with friends and team mates can affect an athlete’s motivation, confidence, and sense of progress.
Instead of complete rest, a modified training approach that keeps the athlete engaged and maintaining their fitness can break this cycle.
Training Through a Lower Body Injury (e.g., Ankle Sprain)
A lower body injury like an ankle sprain doesn’t mean your child must abandon all training. While the injured area should be protected and rehabilitated in line with the guidance of a medical professional, the rest of the body can still benefit from exercise.
Example Training Adjustments:
- Upper Body Strength: Incorporate exercises like horizontal pushing (Bench press, Push ups), vertical pushing (over head press, incline bench press), horizontal pulling (Dumbbell rows, Seated rows) an vertical pulling (Chin Ups, Pull-ups) to maintain pushing and pulling strength.
- Trunk Stability: Core exercises such as Med ball rotations, Planks, Anti-rotation presses, or Side planks keep the trunk engaged and resilient.
- Healthy Limb Focus: Single-leg strength exercises for the uninjured leg (e.g., Bulgarian split squats or Single-leg presses) prevent total lower body detraining and also provides a cross body effect to reduce strength losses in the injured limb. (It’s a real thing! Google it!)
- Conditioning Options: Upper-body-focused conditioning like battle ropes, medicine ball slams, or a hand bike ensures cardiovascular fitness is maintained.
This approach ensures that, while the ankle heals, the athlete retains their overall strength, fitness, and athletic capacity and returns them to the sport they love much faster and fitter than total rest.
Training Through an Upper Body Injury (e.g., Wrist Fracture)
An upper body injury, such as a wrist fracture, can similarly be worked around with a creative training plan.
Example Training Adjustments:
- Lower Body Strength: Focus on lower body exercises like Squats and Lunges. Machines like the Leg press or Hack squat can also be useful for avoiding strain on the injured wrist.
- Unilateral Upper Body Work: Use dumbbells or machines to train the healthy arm such as a Single arm Bench Press or Kneeling single arm overhead press. Research shows that training one limb can still provide a “cross-education effect,” maintaining some strength in the injured limb.
- Core Work: Incorporate exercises that don’t require wrist involvement, like Deadbugs, Lying leg raises, or Hollow body holds.
- Conditioning Options: Use lower body-centric equipment like stationary bikes or perform bodyweight circuits focused on lower body and trunk.
Key Benefits of Modified Training
- Maintains Fitness Levels: Keeping the uninjured parts of the body active preserves overall athleticism.
- Boosts Recovery: Exercise promotes circulation and healing, even indirectly benefiting the injured area.
- Prevents Mental Stagnation: Staying active keeps the athlete’s routine intact and fosters a sense of progress.
- Facilitates a Faster Return: By staying fit, athletes can reintegrate into their sport more seamlessly when cleared.
What Parents Can Do
As a parent, you play a critical role in supporting your child through their injury. Here’s how:
- Consult Experts: Work with a qualified and experienced strength and conditioning coach alongside you physiotherapist, or doctor to design a safe, individualized training plan.
- Encourage Consistency: Remind your child that even small efforts to stay active pay off in the long term.
- Celebrate Progress: Highlight their dedication to training as a win, even if they’re sidelined from competition.
By prioritizing modified training, you’re not just helping your child recover—you’re setting them up for long-term resilience and success in their athletic journey.
Encourage your athlete to embrace this mindset: injuries are challenges, not roadblocks. With a smart, adaptive approach, they can come back stronger, fitter, and more determined than ever.
