Obstacle course race pushes your body to the limits. It’s no wonder most OCR athletes have tried physical therapy to keep their body in check. But contrary to popular belief, physical therapy is not just for injury rehabilitation.
Physical Therapy helps level up OCR performance. Physical Therapy helps avoid injury
“Obstacle course racing? Piece of cake!” said no one ever.
Despite the physical rigors of obstacle course racing, it is attracting people from all walks of life, adding challenging and exciting elements to address the need for more physical activity. OCR participants exhibit a calm willingness to face extreme weather conditions and unfriendly terrain. When your childhood pastime has evolved into daunting 20-foot warped walls and tilting monkey bars, you can’t just chicken out like you could when you were a kid. The mission of staying active takes you back to your compelling whys and knowing that you have a team that backs you up. The new challenges and physical rigors combine with teamwork and a nostalgic sense of fun from the obstacles to provide a powerful emotional draw to the millennial generation, opening the doors widely for further OCR popularity growth.
OCR athletes on why they started obstacle course racing
“I used to hate any physical activities and opted to binge eat when I was stressed at work,” shared Diana, or “Di” as her OCR clique fondly calls her. She recalls how she gained 10 kilograms in just 6 months and how she was body-shamed for it. The ugly remarks served as her wake-up call, embracing OCR as the key physical element in a healthier, more active lifestyle. Di represented the Philippines earlier this year in the OCR Shardana World Team Challenge held in Italy.
Di’s fitness journey, of course, wasn’t easy. “I forced myself to go to the gym. Although I did not enjoy it at all, I still pushed myself to do it to lose weight and get fitter again.” She remembers dragging herself to the gym religious involvement with physical activities such as running. She subsequently embraced a lifestyle change: working out instead of partying over the weekend and choosing healthy food over sweet and fatty foods. Not only did Di gain the results she wanted, she also discovered happiness in finding fitness-oriented people who inspired her to do sports.
“I got curious about it because I easily get bored with running only. They involved me in their trainings and I got more and more motivation to push myself to be better. The best thing about (this) OCR community is its people. You might be competitors during the race but after that you will be friends again. Everyone is here to motivate each other and no one will be left behind,” Di shared.
Sarah, a fellow Philippines representative at the Shardana World Team Challenge and in the upcoming Lake Tahoe Spartan Race, participates in obstacle racing events to support her family. Her uncle was one of the prime movers of OCR in the Philippines while her parents are certified adrenaline junkies who are into outdoor sports, including OCR. When her parents join OCR events, she joins, too. Prior to embracing OCR, Sarah had a strong tennis background, playing competitively on school, national and international levels from the age of five through her university years.
“I think a lot of the reasoning behind why I continue to do OCR is because I enjoy it talaga. It was all me, no one tells me to do it. I just want to.” More than enjoying it, Sarah told us how the sport challenges her enough that she gets motivated to be better on her own. “I enjoy the challenge of conquering obstacles. I enjoy seeing how much more I can do with my body,” she declared with conviction.
As it turns out, obstacle course racing is a sport for all. No sports background is required and everyone can experience the same exhilaration from conquering obstacles and completing events. Di and Sarah’s stories, however different, are similar in one aspect - anyone can learn to enjoy and excel at OCR. When asked, Di and Sarah cited different reasons for why they got hooked on OCR, but they definitely agree on one thing - OCR mentors and friends who encourage and push them to strive harder are a key element of enjoyment and success.
Since Di found motivation to do better in OCR, she stepped up by joining events. But as her OCR training intensified leading up to this year’s Shardana World Team Challenge, she experienced “off days”, suffering from nagging pains in her ankle and her foot. To get her back into competitive form, she sought help from a sports physical therapist to assess her condition and provide her treatment.
Physical therapy helps level up OCR performance
After never needing a physical therapist her entire tennis career, Sarah’s first encounter with a physical therapist was due to leg pain she got from one of her races. The pain persisted for months, limiting her ability to move around and join other competitions. When she was set to compete in the Italy event, she had several sessions with a PT for her shoulder mobility. Since then, she makes it a point to regularly see a PT before any OCR event.
Is it because OCR is dangerous? Both Di and Sarah said otherwise and shared how their encounters with a PT, who specializes in sports related cases, made them more informed on how they can - enjoy their OCR experience and at the same time minimize the risk of strain and injury.
“I had to learn that OCR is not just about working out or training only. I never took my recovery, stretching, and warm up seriously until I got injured due to overtraining. What’s most important is to recover well and to make sure you do the obstacle correctly in order for you to get and perform better. I definitely recommend (a personal trainer and) a physical therapist to stay injury-free and to get the right advice. Although you might think you are working out correctly, there still might be something that you have missed out to perform and get better,” Di stressed out.
Physical Therapy helps avoid injury
Sarah highlighted that “(Being with a PT) keeps me away from injury, helps me build and use the right muscles, helps me recover, helps me figure out what I need to correct and what I need to train or learn to perform well (to be) injury free.” Proof to their statements is the girls’ podium finish in the recently concluded OCR events.
Obstacle course races test both physical fitness and mental tenacity. Being in pain disrupts enthusiasm and motivation to continue due to fear of experiencing worse case scenarios. This will not only limit performance in competition but also affect activities of daily living. At Pretty Huge Obstacles (PHO), experience matters. PHO’s mission is to make sure that every member will enjoy OCR pain-and limitation-free. Hence, housed within PHO are professionals dealing with sports as well as conditions related to OCR. They have accreditation recognized locally, and internationally they have extensive experience in aiding athletes to perform at their top level, recover optimally, and return to sports and other functions efficiently.
Given each member’s personal motivation and being credible sports specialists, there can be no walls too high for any OCR athlete at PHO.
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