Training With A Lifetime Injury

Dealing with a lifetime injury, in addition to being physically debilitating, is probably one of the most mentally and emotionally debilitating aspects of weight training.

When I was in high school, I fractured my right wrist playing basketball. Unfortunately, I wasn’t posterizing a seven-footer…

but instead dribbled into a brick of man-child (16 years old, 6’1”, 230lbs, 315 pound hang power clean . . .). As we made contact, I bounced off him and fell on my wrist. About a week later when I had difficulty holding a single sheet of loose-leaf paper in my right hand, I knew that something was seriously wrong; I had fractured my wrist. I wore a cast for about a month and a half, but my wrist wasn’t healing properly. Apparently, I needed surgery. Well, I didn’t get surgery. At this point everyone pipes up about health insurance, but, whatever our family’s health insurance was at the time, we just couldn’t afford even the discounted cost of surgery. As a result, I now have a permanently deformed and weaker right wrist.

This “lifetime” injury affects my grip strength, wrist strength, wrist flexibility, the way I have to hold the bar, and consequently, my whole right arm, including my shoulder. Teenage girls can beat me in right handed arm wrestling and about half of my hand is off the bar when I bench press. Put simply, this injury sucks. But, I’m here to tell you, it’s okay. You can get through it, and you can still be great. You just have to have perseverance, some pain tolerance, and, as the Team Fusion Coach would emphasize, training intelligence.

Now you may not have a bum wrist, but you might be able to sympathize with the kind of injury I’m talking about. It’s the kind that doesn’t quite take you out of the game, but makes you think, “I would be SO much stronger if I wasn’t injured in this way!!” It makes you angry; it makes you sad; and sometimes it brings you to the brink of just giving up. Well don’t!!!

I’ve had some hard times with my wrist, but it’s a part of me and my life. Of course I have the occasional “C`mon man,” but, for the most part, I’ve grown to live with my injury and, importantly, train with it. I take precautions, like wraps, stretching, icing and compression. I give my wrist extra attention and time. I strengthen areas around my wrist and make technique adjustments to compensate and account for my injury. And even though I know that my wrist may never be as strong as it could have been, I know there is still potential for it to be stronger. Know your weakness(es) and instead of giving up or getting down in the dumps, strategize. Accept what you have, and figure out what you can do despite the limitation. I think you will be amazed at the things you’ll be able to accomplish. A couple of years ago, a doctor told me that with my wrist, I shouldn’t be able to clean at all, and yet, here I am preparing for my second Olympic weightlifting competition.