Start with A Sustainable Health Coaching Program For 2020
Christmas shopping is over (well for some) and now you are in a dilemma. You must fulfil your previous year’s resolution – being fit and healthy. Well, the clock is ticking, and you still are in the same shape as last year.
Most people never realize that they are out of the race to make their resolution success, still, there are people who have suffered injury and can’t make or ensure that their health and mental fitness is great. Seriously, there are various health coaching programs and fitness regimes, but do they really help you if you are in the process of recovering from an injury.
Being on Track
Not many people know that recovering from any kind of injury is a process. When a person is returning to sports or recovers, there are two main aspects present – mental recovery and physical recovery. Here both are equally important but have their own challenges in terms of coaching technique, healthcare, etc.
In the case of an athlete, each injury and athletes are very much different. Hence, for the successful return to normalcy, it is necessary to find out the flexibility and adaptability present in the methods of recovery. Certain injuries are physically significant, so they will require long-term rehabilitation for the athlete to return in full strength.
There are others that are mentally taxing and will require a confidence booster for the individual to return to his or her normal life or for an athlete to return to play. There are a separate timeline and plan for each injury, and it will get changed throughout the whole process. In the case of an athlete, recoveries can’t be compared to others as it is often different.
Here one thing to keep in mind that each athlete has their own challenges in terms of physical or mental. Hence, it is important to adapt to it and overcome those injuries.
RICE
Regarding the physical approach for recovering from an injury, it is based on the areas injured, the type and severity of the injury. The first and foremost thing you should do have a clear understanding or at least research about the beginning aspect of the rehabilitation.
For the first 24 to 72 hours, the major focus must be to reduce the pain and swelling, especially before you start the rehabilitation program. Here this refers to the usage of the rest, ice, compression and elevation which is known as RICE.
These tools will play a major role in the recovery process of the individual suffering from injury and even provide comfort from physical pain. Besides RICE, there is a wide range of motion (ROM) exercises you can do which are also significant. Such exercises will lower stiffness and swelling, thereby helping in speeding the physical recovery of the injured person.
For example, in the case of athletes, the best ROM exercise for ankle pain is to place the injured ankle in an ice bucket and for around ten minutes. After that, once the injury has reached the point where the pain as well as swelling, is under control, you can begin with a subtle rehabilitation program.
What is The Rehabilitation Program?
Now the program starts with doing more ROM and other basic non-weight bearing strength exercises. This will slowly progress to plyometrics and other sports specific exercises. Ultimately, it ends with sports activities and practices.
A major thing to keep in mind is that setbacks will occur regarding all kinds of injuries. It is normal however, there is a need to do certain adjustments in terms of the exercise and expectations so that you can get a better balance for the athletes. Now once the rehabilitation is over for the athlete and when they are back to full sports participation, the goal is to maintain their strength and reducing the chances of more injuries, a maintenance routine of various exercises. Bracing or taping will be introduced.
Mental Aspects of The Injury
One of the major aspects of recovery is the mental aspect of the injury. Frankly, this is because there is no scientific approach for educating athletes and individuals about the step-by-step procedures involved in recovering fully mentally.
It becomes critical for coaches and athletic trainers to assess the mental state, drive, and personality of the athlete. If these are known at a personal level, then it will help in the recovery process as the sustainable health program can be tailored as per everyone’s requirement. Certain people would like to know all the details regarding the coaching program and won’t need any kind of encouragement while for others it is the opposite, where they will require constant guidance and reassurance.
It is important that the coaching program gets synchronized with the person undergoing it, as it will easily help them in recovering mentally. Also, once the rehabilitation or he coaching program has started, they must be motivated mentally, so that the setbacks, frustration, pain, and disappointment are pushed back. Even though there might be a myriad of various emotions, which also must be eradicated. For doing this, the health coaching program must contain various tools for encouragement during the recovery process.
Approach You Might Want to
Take While Going with A Coaching Program
- Knowledge Is Power
The first thing before you start a coaching program is to make sure you are aware of what is in it. You must first know what is physically wrong with you. Here, the trainer or the coach will provide you with the various visual aids like drawings and anatomy charts.
Combined with the pictorial representation and the verbal description of the injury, along with the rehabilitation time, it will be easy for you to get prepared in the coming weeks and for the various challenges. Also, you must be aware of the physicality of the injury you are suffering from as it will help you to have a clear understanding that setbacks are common, and if they are normal too.
Even athletes and sports players do all the necessary things and still suffer from setbacks. Of course, this would be frustrating for them, especially when they are not prepared for this.
- Understanding and Finding Out Teamwork
One of the most important aspects for any individual or athlete suffering from injuring who is going through a coaching program is to have a better understanding of teamwork. Working as a team along with the coach, trainer, etc will be great for rehabilitation. A successful recovery will be tough if there is no combined effort and full cooperation among team members.
It is necessary that the recovery must begin when everyone is on the same page and open to discussion. Such things will provide a great amount of support in the recovery of the athlete.
- Setting Up Goals
Goal setting is one of the major and common approaches to a long-term process and any issues. A short-term and long-term goal approach can make the coaching program more effective. Regarding the short-term goal, they are the best ways to give athletes a sense of accomplishment, right at the beginning of the coaching program.
Daily and weekly goals will give a strong focus and lower the chances of getting frustration among the users of the coaching program. Now long-term goals can be set for months and they can sometimes even be the end goals when the person is fully recovered. Just like the short-term goals, these will assist the athlete or the user to be focused and think of the short-term ones as the steppingstone for accomplishing the big picture.
- Imagery and Visualization
Sometimes certain athletes and individuals will respond in a great manner to the visualization tools. One of the major parts of rehabilitation is the trial and error method. Hence, it is important that you are open to the fact that sometimes people might not respond in the given manner to certain strategies.
With visualization and imagery, one can get the required amount of motivation and focus in doing the various activities present in the coaching program. They can imagine where they would want to be in a week, a month and even in the next session.
The coaching program would provide an outlet for dreaming big and even for making them feel like they are part of the game. Here some of the major examples are where people have the vision of completing five free throws or doing 100 successful push-ups in one week.
- Making It Fun
The coaching program must not make the users bored and even needs to maintain motivation. For this, the trainer or coach should create games out of the various exercises like using prizes or treats as the form of incentive for finishing the daily program.
Even they can incorporate the coach and teammates to make them feel as part of the team. Such things will best ways to integrate into the normal routines of the exercises present in the coaching program. Plus, it will lower the monotony of daily treatment and exercise.
- Creating Confidence
Another factor needing attention is confidence. This can be achieved by making the individual do various kinds of sports-centred exercises. Such activities will make sure that they are involved in certain team activities and will help the coach to motivate and provide a good amount of encouragement. Such things will assist the individual to gain confidence and help sports personnel to take part in their sporting activities without being afraid of getting injured.
Long Term Approach
A good health coaching program will assist their clients in developing strategies for getting overall health, wellness, and well-being. The wellness coach of such programs will help the individual in getting their goals by working on their individual values as well as strengths, through a long-term wellness strategy. Working with a wellness coach of such a program will be empowering, inspiring and motivating.
If you check out a wellness coaching program is the collaboration among the client and coach for achieving their goals. These wellness coaches will give highly personalized help.
Based on their specialization as well as certification, various wellness coaches will take on various approaches. Hence, it is necessary that you get the one matching your current goals.
How Can Coaching Program Be Advantages for You?
Based on the years of experience and focus of the organization providing health coaching program, the following are the major goals set by them –
- Exercise
- Nutrition Counselling
- Emotional & Mental Health
Most of the wellness coaches of these coaching programs will work closely with their clients, often in terms of a one-on-one basis, thereby providing them with tools for getting their personal wellness goals. No doubt, wellness coaches would often try to motivate their clients and even help them to remain on track as they make lifestyle changes.
These health coaching programs would be having wellness coaches who provide small steps to get to these goals and even the required support and guidance through the journey. Also, wellness coaches will empower their clients so that they can reach their goals.
Basic Examples When People Might Go for A Health Coaching Program
There are multiple ways of how a coaching program can make you healthy and happy. Some of the basic examples are –
- People who are diagnosed with medical conditions needing lifestyle changes like diabetes.
- Individuals suffering from medical conditions like stress and anxiety can gain benefits from wellness coaching programs too. It is better if you consult your doctor in this regard to have a better understanding.
- When people make certain lifestyle changes like quitting smoking or reducing weight.
- People who want to improve their health and well-being. Keep in mind that there isn’t anything wrong with a person wanting to improve his or her health as well as overall wellness.
- Individuals who want to avoid injury or illness from becoming worse.
Wrapping Up
As the new year begins, there is no harm in opting for a good health coaching program. Go ahead and try it!
