The inevitable part of any workout type is an injury. It may happen because you were too hard on yourself to achieve a goal or it was simply a mistake. You could decide to let months of training and hard work go down the drain, or you could wake up and do something about it.
How to stay fit following Injury
While recovery is your goal, staying fit should be a goal too. Recommendations include following a workout injury with minimal training, and this could help maintain your fitness for 3-4 months. Also, you should workout for 70% of your VO2 at least once a week. An injury doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stay at home till it’s all better. Get on your feet and get working.
Maintaining muscle mass
You dread letting go of your muscle mass and want to keep them. It is possible with the right steps. All you have to do is do enough strength training, train your whole body, and get your diet on point. A balanced diet with carbs and protein in the correct ratio would maintain body and muscle mass.
Injured and want to Exercise: These are your best options
Walking: Walking is useful as it gets you moving. Brisk walking has less impact on the body. Likewise, stair walking would stimulate you and ease knee pain. Walking is rehabilitating, and it strengthens your muscles.
Swimming: Swimming also has a low impact on the body. Most likely, swimming would improve your cardiovascular endurance over time. Swimming is useful for individuals who have injuries on their legs. Although the workout involves all body parts, the upper body is more at work.
Pool running: This mimics actual running but less strenuous on the body and joints. It is an effective workout for runners. Although it provides great cardio workouts, the impact is low when compared to running on a track.
Cycling: Cycling is another low impact workout that stimulates joints and muscles for recovery. The type of injury is assessed to know what type of bike is suitable for cycling.
Strength training: A good strength training routine incorporated into your recovery process would yield a good result. Also, a good strength training routine will train the whole body. Lunges and squats are examples, and they would improve your balance and stability.
Exercises to Avoid when injured
High-intensity workouts (HIIT):
HIIT involves very intense cardio movements like burpees and jumping. They tend to have a rough impact on joints. However, there are various exercises to do to get your heart racing. HIITs are at the extreme, so it’s best to avoid them.
Running:
Running is a high impact exercise that could aggravate your injury if you are not careful. However, you could substitute with the pool running. It has a low impact on the joints and is more effective. Individuals with joints injuries would perform pool running effectively.
Strength training with multiple reps:
Performing multiple reps doesn’t get you faster results. You should not be doing a hundred squats at once. A lot of reps could strain your joints and worsen your injury. You want to get optimum performance in good form while performing 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps.
Ways to Prevent Further Injury
Warm-up and cool down
Warming up before exercise will stimulate your body. A warm-up is more effective than delving into the activity directly. A little stretching would warm you up. Also, working out activates your muscles, and cooling down allows your body to recover and go back to its normal resting stage.
Your body needs to cool down. You could achieve cooling down by doing lightweight exercises, and stretching could suffice too. A proper cool-down exercise could decrease soreness and make you feel better.
Use a personal trainer
Personal trainers are more knowledgeable than you when it comes to fitness goals. They consider all other factors to help you achieve what you desire.
Listen to your body
Your body is like a complex machine with different systems, surely when something is about to go wrong, signals are sent. You tend to see warning signs that could help you prevent further injury. Ignoring body signs is detrimental to your health. Therefore, you should always listen to what your body is saying.
Staying fit during injury is achievable as long as you are up to the task. A proper diet, positive attitude, and minimal exercise will help you keep it and stay healthy. Also, remember to be smart about it and do not be obsessed with perfection. However, if you need any help, feel free to consult us.