Everyone knows that when exercising there’s always a risk of injury. When hard training regularly, it’s almost an inevitable thing, I’ve been there! It doesn’t matter if it’s a fractured or broken bone or a sprained ankle, it always stings the ego to be stuck and housebound while convalescing. Is there be a way to still keep your fitness levels up and workout when injured? Yes, most of the time it’s all in your head. You can easily do some light (albeit ego destroying) workouts that increase the blood flow to your muscles helping you recover that little bit faster as well as retaining some functional fitness. Read on for our 5 Keys To Rapid Recovery when Injured!
1. Know the actual source of your injury and get it checked out
Assessment is half the cure. When working out with an injury it’s crucial to know how bad the injury is and what is actually causing the main source of the pain. For example a reflective pain in your leg might come from an injury in your back, so although you might be avoiding to stress to your leg you may actually be putting more pressure on the real source of injury with potentially devastating effects.
2. Focus and psyche yourself up!
When injured many people have a mindset that you can’t workout, which is false. It’s important to not get frustrated and fall on the couch and complain that there is nothing to do, because there usually always is. Will, focus and psyche yourself up to overcome obstacles and think about what can be done, rather than what you can’t do at the moment. Use focus to maintain some sort of movement and know that once you’ve made the effort, you’ll be on your way to recover faster and get back to a steadily more active lifestyle, and likely be even stronger than ever into the bargain. If you can’t climb one flight of stairs, climb half, if not half, then a third and so on. Even smiling changes your physiology, internal dialogue and gives you energy -try it for yourself and see!
3. Don’t ignore it
When injured always keep in mind that if it hurts, don’t do it! The yearn and burn of wanting to exercise can feel insuperable and while a little workout can increase blood flow in the muscle and assist in quicker healing, it can also make it worse if done incorrectly or to excess. Check out the video below for an easy workout which you can perform in your own living room whilst downloading some much-needed inspiration into yourself too!
4. Drop the resistance level, go for duration
To assist the healing process, drop the weight intensity and switch to lighter workouts, more reps or longer walks. Also a good option in training when injured slightly eg. with a sprained ankle would be swimming or a water group activity or mild gentle yoga moves, it’s fun and helps relieve pressure but still works on your mobility engaging your life force to work its magic!
5. Balance it out
The healing process occurs deeply from a good base of unhurried relaxation (including deep breathing) so it’s essential to balance workouts and relaxation time. Don’t be afraid to totally change your training and workouts style if you’ve had a major injury and be open to sensible and creative ways to energise your body. You have to focus on healing the injury and you’ll find, often within a shorter than expected timeframe, that you can increase the frequency and intensity of workouts because you listened to your body and its needs.
You can always train and focus on the muscle groups that aren’t injured. If for example your knee is injured you can still work on your upper body; if your wrist or shoulder is injured, you can do more cardio, legs and core exercises etc. Experienced a physical comeback and want to share your story? Let us know below and remember, on your journey back to recovery “mile by mile it’s a trial; yard by yard it’s hard; but inch by inch, it’s a cinch!”