Today’s guest post comes from Michael Gregory, a trainer, writer, and strong coach who’s back to discuss reframing injury and how to use training to aid recovery.
Warning: Avengers: Endgame spoilers ahead.
The road to recovery is paved with more training
Let’s talk about acute injuries in your clients—those slips that leave a scar in the shape of a teddy bear. If you get hurt, the best recovery plan is to keep training and treat the injury as less serious than it might seem. I’m not saying pretend nothing happened, but you should adjust your training only as much as needed to work around the pain. As a coach, you aren’t a doctor, but you are part of the recovery chain and may be the first fitness pro around when an injury occurs.
Know your role
How you respond matters to your client more than you might realize.
You’re a top-notch programmer who doesn’t plan workouts your client isn’t ready for, following the principle of progressive overload. One-rep maxes aren’t spontaneous events; they’re planned for weeks or months in advance. Because you program smartly, you know that any injury your client sustains under your care isn’t a career ender. It’s simply a nudge from the weight room that can teach them more about resilience.
If you train hard, you’ll accumulate battle scars. Now it’s time to help your clients move past injuries in the most efficient way possible.
The biopsychosocial model of pain for acute injuries
This framework, from Dr. Austin Baraki of Barbell Medicine, applies to nearly every injury you or a client may sustain. The idea is to create the best environment for healing—don’t panic and quit, but adjust training only as much as necessary.
Step 1: Reassure, aka “Don’t freak out.”
Even in the worst scenarios, stay calm. Positive thinking and a touch of placebo can help clients manage fear and stay engaged in the process. This psychosocial aspect is the most important to get right from the start, since anxious thoughts are hard to root out later.
Step 2: Assess the situation
Like a careful scout, you need to get your bearings. Should you help, end it, or post about it on social media? The person already knows they messed up; overreacting won’t help. Start by asking what they were trying to do and what they felt. Keep a steady face and don’t show outward worry. This is the first two steps of the OODA loop—Observe and Orient (Decide and Act come next).
Step 3: Move forward by reintroducing movement in a non-threatening context
The client is down, not out. You can still help them return to heavy lifting and progress. The goal is to backtrack from the exact movement that caused the injury in as short a distance as possible. Start with these questions:
1) Load: Is there a weight you can use that doesn’t hurt? If you can drop the weight and pain disappears, do that. If a deadlift tweak happens, drop the weight off the bar. If it still hurts at 135, go lighter, maybe to the bar, or even a PVC pipe.
2) Range of motion: Where does it hurt? If pain occurs with just bodyweight, adjust the range of motion. For deadlifts, if the pain is in the first two inches off the floor, raise the bar until you’re out of the danger zone. This isn’t about perfect form forever, but about safely progressing back to full movement.
3) Exercise selection: If reducing weight and range of motion still hurts, switch to a different exercise that trains the same goal. The point is to show the client they’re not broken and that they’re still capable. There are many alternatives to keep building strength and confidence, rather than simply sticking with leg presses or cycling for recovery.
Training is recovery
This whole process is really about reassuring people they aren’t fragile. Some clients may have avoided pain their whole lives, so they’ve never learned to push through adversity. By teaching this process, you give them self-reliance. Resilience—tenacity, fortitude, mental toughness—can be strengthened like a muscle, with each successful step through a challenge.
So, don’t injure clients on purpose to teach them about toughness. But do stay composed and precise when accidents happen.
About the author
Michael is a USMC veteran, strength coach, amateur surfer, and mushroom enthusiast. He spent much of his military career as an intelligence officer and MCMAP instructor in the Pacific. He now lives in Bali, where he writes, trains, and has had a few near‑death experiences in surf that’s bigger than he’s comfortable with. For more from Michael, check out his Instagram, Facebook, or his website www.composurefitness.com.
