I’m currently injured at the moment and it’s crap – being unable to do the exercise that you enjoy can really have a negative effect mentally and physically, so here are 5 tips to overcome your injury.
1. Know that you will exercise again.
It might seem like a prison sentence when you’re told you can’t exercise like you want to. You might feel really low – particularly if this exercise is a way for you to de-stress.
Trust that it won’t be forever.
For the majority of injuries, rest is sufficient to get you back to full health. All you need is some patience and the belief that you will once again exercise pain free – if you give it time.
2. Active rest.
Resting doesn’t mean sitting on the sofa doing nothing (although doing this every once in a while won’t kill you). This is your opportunity to discover the other forms of exercise out there.
- Yoga might be the answer, there are forms of yoga that can be done with almost any type of injury, in some cases this may help speed up your recovery.
- Swimming may be for you, with no impact it is easy on the joints but also provides resistance to the muscles that help build strength.
- Walking, gentle and effective, save money on traveling on transport and gets you out in the fresh air. What’s not to love?
- Resistance training is brilliant for the body. It keeps your muscles and your bones strong and allows you to work other areas of your body while resting your injury. This might be with weights or bodyweight alone.
There are lots of things you can do to stay active while allowing your body to heal.
3. Don’t worry about weight gain.
This may be the first thought in your mind particularly if this exercise regime helped you to lose weight. It’s a natural thought.
This point involves a lot of self trust. If you are eating based on hunger – and by this I mean, eating when hungry and not eating when not hungry – then your weight will stay the same.
When you exercise less, you use less energy, so you won’t be as hungry.
If you exercise as a way of allowing yourself to eat anything at any time then take this as an opportunity to get in touch with your hunger.
Don’t fight your body on this one. By going too far in the other direction and trying not to eat you may starve your body of the essential amino acids that it needs to repair itself thus extending the recovery time.
Stick to healthy whole foods
sensible portions
honour your hunger
make peace with not eating if you’re not hungry
and relax.
4. Get a sports massage.
This is essential for recovery. Unless your injury is a result of an accident, it’s likely that your injury is from over use or imbalance of other muscles. Resting is essential to healing your injury but massage will attend to the root cause.
If you have shin splints because your calves are tight for example, addressing the calf tightness will speed up your recovery.
See a professional and get their advice. Once you know where the issue is you can start stretching, foam rolling and strengthening other muscles to aid your recovery.
5. Don’t stop when you are fully recovered.
Once you’re able to get back to your chosen exercise, don’t stop with the stretching, foam rolling and cross training. All of these activities provide variety to your programme that will help you in all areas.
Stretching is great for flexibility and when we’re flexible enough we lower our risk of injury.
Foam rolling and massage ease tight muscles and stop future injuries by keeping everything running smoothly.
Other exercise such as yoga, swimming, walking and resistance training work your body in different ways, by doing this you can improve your overall fitness and keep things interesting.
So there you have it, a few tips to getting through the injury. It’s a difficult time but it’s not forever.
You can get through this.
Ainzlie
