During a Facebook Live years ago, someone asked me...

“How do you come back after an injury?”

I remember being genuinely confused because I’ve never thought about it that way.

For me, stopping was never an option. The path was always forward.

There have been detours. Roadblocks. Workarounds.

But I keep moving.

That’s the mindset: don’t stop, work around.

Today I’ll show you exactly how to do that.

Let’s dive in. 🚀​
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🧠 Mindset: Don't Stop. Work Around.

At some point, you're going to get hurt...

A shoulder. A knee. A hip that didn't used to make that sound.

Most people stop. They wait to heal, lose momentum, lose muscle, lose the habit, and then have to start over.

Here's the mindset that's served me better: don't stop. Work around.

When I tore my the MCL in my elbow, I trained around it — lower body (yuck I know), and some light work with my other arm.

(I did this in a company beer league softball game I, unsurprisingly, too way too seriously. 😂)

The first week, I was in the gym with a sling on one arm. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

When I had impingements in both shoulders, I couldn't do flat or decline pressing for 6-months…

But my chest didn't atrophy because I kept working out. I never stopped.

I was able to do high incline presses and overhead work, which strangely didn't cause pain. I found what I could do and I did that.

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(You can watch me tear my hamstring in the video. ☝️ I trained upper body two days later and stayed off legs for three weeks until I could train quads again.)

Talk to anyone that's spent 38 years working out like I have and they can give you a doctoral dissertation on their lengthly list of injuries.

It's not a matter of if, but when.

This is just what happens when you've been training hard for a long time. The answer isn't to stop. It's to get specific.

When a client comes to me with an injury, here's the process:

🔍 Identify what actually hurts.

Not the body part, but which movements. Can you overhead press? Great. Flat bench? If that's out, it's out.

Test movements light and build a clear list of what works and what doesn't. You'll be surprised by how much you can still do even if you can only do legs.

(I know, that would be worse than death. 😵)

Never push through pain. Work around it. The key is asking better questions and focusing on what you can do, not what you can’t.

🩺 Address the root cause.

Go to PT. But find a sports physical therapist that works with athletes, not old borderline crippled people. Apologies to my dad 😝

We want someone that's going to help you so you can continue to workout. Not someone that says, "If it hurts, just stop doing it. Forever."

Don't skip this and try to self-diagnose your way through it. Get evaluated by someone who actually knows what they're doing.

I even once flew to St. Louis to see a physical therapist. That's how important this step is. It can be a game changer if you find the right person.

💪 Keep training everything else hard.

An injury to one area doesn't shut down your whole body.

We've had clients strength training in a brace after ACL surgery and in a sling after shoulder surgery.

The body is more resilient than you think, and there's almost always something you can do.

Refuse to use it as an excuse to stop entirely.

The goal isn't to be comfortable. The goal is to keep moving.