What does your own capacity and load have to do with injury?

We hear it all too often...

I can't start because... my back, my shoulder, my knee, my ankle... etc etc etc.

These people often end up doing... nothing. Or they do something... that won't actually fix the issue.

So... nothing that actually impacts healing/improving or dare I say... strengthening the problem.

They allow this excuse, valid as it may feel or be, to be the reason they don't DO THE THING.

Let's talk about this model of load vs capacity.

Here are some things we have to take into account.

1: Anatomical dysfunction (how might this prevent us in the task at hand?)

• Your anatomy that isn't how it's supposed to be or isn't how it once was. (Hint... injury, born with, etc)

2: Stress/Diet/Sleep

• Your recovery. You're building yourself up or breaking yourself down

3: Functional issues

• What can you do, what limitations do you have in how you perform. Skill, Flexibility, Strength in and out of positions, ETC..

Each of these 3 things have a big impact on how you move and perform in whatever it is you do. Be that work, life, relationships, or the gym.

And let's be honest...

We all have work, duties at home, plus the 3 things mentioned above.

So now let's take this idea of capacity vs load...

The less capacity you have, the more susceptible to injury you will be.

HERE IS WHAT YOUR DOCTOR DOESN'T KNOW.

And... here is what keeps you from doing the thing you want to do.

YOUR CAPACITY.

Again... your capacity is 1, 2, 3 above + your workload, relationships, and ways you move (or don't move) your body.

Your doc will tell you... stop doing a certain thing and take this thing to heal.

Your uniformed Chiro/PT might tell you the same, while giving you some general basic exercises to do to change the issue. (There are plenty of good ones out there, this isn't throwing shade on all of them, but some of them... the same as some gyms...meh)

Yet... you have wants and needs... right?

Might we do better than... stop this, take this, and only do these few things till it gets better?

Your previous injuries aren't holding you back.

There are a lot of people in the world with your exact injury that live a life without the challenges that you do in that specific area.

HOW?

Might we be able to...

• Improve our stress, diet, and sleep? (These are probably the biggest things to look at in modern day)

• Improve our response to thoughts/other people's actions?

• Improve our anatomical challenges and functional issues?

If we aren't trying to improve in all of the above, one specific issue has a much less chance of improving.

Imagine your capacity being everything listed... and the more you work on them all the more capacity you have.

Might this mean that... when presented with LOAD... we have more capacity to play with such load?

A body with too much load without enough capacity for it GETS INJURED EVENTUALLY.

The idea is... we should be increasing our capacity.

We should increase our ability to adapt to the demands of life.

Then, whatever LOAD we put on ourselves... be that movement demands, or life demands... will become easier.

If you remember anything here, remember this... You don't improve anything at all... by doing nothing. (or dancing around the issue).

If you want to bend, move, and flex through life... if you want to be strong and limber and dance gracefully... you must address your capacity.

And you do that in the following...

• Strength, Power, Speed, Endurance

• Agility, Stamina

• Flexibility, Mobility, Balance, Accuracy, Coordination

You don't accomplish these things without a practice that works on them all, and nothing does that without STRENGTH & CONDITIONING.

See ya out there,

D.