When you look at your athletic career as a series, rather than a point in time two things happen. For starters, I myself take it less for granted, the seasons of sport and a friendship that has been more intimate and lasted longer than any other. Second, you can remember the highs and lows, my lows like many, tied to injury and periods of time not being able to do what I love. I am fortunate not to have had any significant injury until my 30’s when a calf strain put me out for months. But when I look back more critically the small things come to the surface, like chronic pain, mobility issues or race day niggles.
I had the idea recently to apply one of my engineering tools as a way to anticipate injury and create a foundation for a strong season void of issues form the past. This tool is known as a DFMEA (Design Failure Mode Engineering Analysis) but simply it is a chart that lets you look at ways things fail, the likelihood of occurrence, the effect of occurrence and how to avoid. I’m not saying that everyone/anyone should go this deep, but perhaps it’ll serve as a reminder that injury’s happen and the work done now will be the best effort to eliminate the problems we typically see peak season.
Step 1: List out any previous injuries or physical limitations/issues
Piriformis pain on the bike also tied to back issues
Calf Strains
Shoulder pain (rotator cuff)
General mobility
Race day fueling (fatigue/gut issues)
Step 2: List out how the failure occurs
Piriformis Pain – stabbing pain out of swim onto the bike
Back Issues – Throwing out my back a couple of times
Calf Strain – Sharp/sudden and completely debilitating calf pain
Shoulder Pain – soft pain that inhibits lifting and can sometimes be felt in the pool
General mobility – Squatting inability, pain from sitting, awkward form
Race Day Fueling – Sudden fatigue, bloating, gut issues or inability to consume calories
Step 3: Fill out the following form –
Numerical values are from 1 (low) to 3(high or sudden/undetectable) and Score is multiplying each out in a row.
Use the Rank to determine which are the highest priority and then look at an action plan with associated date/frequency of work.
Summary
The biggest mistake athletes often make is self-diagnosis and training through injury. I am no expert and have had terrible experiences even with distinguished and expensive ‘experts’ in the past. 2 things I’ve learned through my career 1) generally the best and most important ingredient for recovery from injury is rest (time off) and 2) the worst kind of injuries show themselves quickly at the point when is no longer practical to correct them. If you’ve made it all the way down to this point in the post my simple ask is to consider what has and therefore will go wrong, what you need to prevent it and how/when to get started. We all have different capabilities when it comes to access to knowledge, money and time, but the sheer exercise of going through above may help prevent heartache and get you to you’re A-race ready to perform at your best.
Additionally, I’d love to be shared with any material (recent functional strength/mobility or nutritional/fueling plans) to consider. Like mentioned above, I’ve had so many coaches, nutritionists and PT’s in the past, but I like the idea of still learning and understanding the more recent trends.
Thanks!
David Welby 