By: Michael Beiter

I watched a football movie called ‘The Program’ all the time. One of my favorite scenes was when the star running back went down in practice, and the head coach leaned over him and asked, “Are you hurt, or are you injured?”

“What’s the difference?” the player asks while reeling.

“If you’re hurt, you can still play; if you’re injured, you can’t.” Coach responded.

The player decided he was only hurt and walked it off.

I use this lesson in my own life all the time and teach it to my clients too.

Yesterday, I fell while running up the stairs with my dogs. I went down hard and felt my left groin tweak. I was already limited in mobility because I was so sore from a workout a few days before. I laid there for 15 minutes before I crawled up to the counter, took some ibuprofen, and went to Hy Vee to get some muscle rub.

Then I took a nap, drank a bunch of water, and soaked in an Epsom salt bath to round out my afternoon.

This morning, I was supposed to squat. After three reps of front squats, my left groin locked up.

Here is where a lot of people screw up! They would chalk the workout and do nothing.

I grabbed a band and did what I could. The difference between doing nothing and doing what you can may seem trivial, but it’s not.

Too many people use an injured groin to not train at all instead of regressing the difficulty of their exercise until they find something doable that doesn’t hurt. Regressing and progressing exercises to match your needs is a skill every exerciser learns with practice.

I got hurt, not injured, and worked around it.

I have a guy in an appointment getting x-rayed because he jacked his hip up. We’ve been talking back and forth, and he’s already told me he trained the other leg where his hip and upper body didn’t hurt. Not exercising is not an option for him, whether hurt or injured.

In short, there’s ALWAYS something you can do. Most of the time, regressions or targetted body part training is enough to give tweaked areas time to heal.

This is not to say there aren’t instances when you need to take a break from the gym, and your doctor is your best advisor on those, but even then, your job becomes to replace your exercise time with recovery time, ala naps, baths, etc.