Regaining fitness after an injury requires patience, a plan and the assistance of healthcare professionals. Furthermore, exercising too hard may do more harm than good – take note!
Pain signals your body that it needs a break, and continuing can result in more damage or injury. Ignoring these warnings could result in even further injury to yourself.
Start Slowly
Time away from exercise can result in muscle and tendon deconditioning that leads to re-injury. To avoid this scenario, start slowly and work your way up towards reaching your fitness peak without incurring injuries.
Adjusting your workouts to accommodate an injury requires careful planning and collaboration with healthcare professionals such as physical therapists and personal trainers. They will help you understand your body’s new limitations so that you can gradually transition back to high-impact exercises or sports without jeopardizing its recovery.
Beginning your recovery journey is best achieved through low-impact cardiovascular exercises such as swimming and stationary cycling that will increase heart rate and stamina without exerting too much strain on injured areas. Yoga poses or specific bodyweight exercises like wall push-ups can also be added into the regimen to build strength without overstraining joints. Focus on meeting small goals like walking without pain or doing overhead presses painlessly before celebrating them as milestones along your way.
Work on Mobility
Even when injured, you can still improve your fitness levels by working on mobility. Small movements, stretches and even short distance walks are effective ways of keeping the body active without worsening an injury.
As per Physical Therapist Amanda Katz, it is also essential that when returning to your regular workout routine you begin slowly rather than ramping up intensity immediately. This will prevent reinjuring your injury as well as straining other areas by compensating with other muscles in an attempt to stay on schedule, says PT Amanda Katz.
As long as you take it slowly and seek professional guidance, you should be able to resume your exercise regimen, rebuild strength and reach your fitness goals again. Although injuries tend to heal at different rates and there may be setbacks along the way, keep focused on reaching your goal as quickly as possible!
Strengthen Your Muscles
Recovering from injury takes time; whether that means running with shin splints or landing awkwardly while jumping for a dunk shot, getting back into fitness takes longer than you may realize. Rushing back too soon could cause more harm than good and set you further from reaching your fitness goals.
Starting out, choose low-impact exercises such as swimming, walking or stationary biking that will reduce unnecessary strain on your injury area, such as swimming. Add strength training moves to keep muscles strong and advance overall fitness levels.
Concentrate on performing each workout with perfect form to ensure that all muscles are being fully worked and to prevent further injuries. As your muscles strengthen and your musculoskeletal system becomes stronger, injuries should become less of a factor.
Prioritize Rest
Exercise is vital to healthy living and can enhance many areas of activity. Unfortunately, even experienced athletes can overdo it and suffer injuries; thus it is imperative that when injured you rest.
Forcefully pushing yourself will only aggravate an injury and may lead to another one elsewhere in your body. Therefore, it is wiser to start slowly and increase fitness gradually until reaching previous fitness levels again.
While taking this time, focus on increasing flexibility and mobility while getting ready to begin exercise. A great place to begin would be light cardio exercises such as jogging or walking; these will increase heart rate without placing pressure on an already injured area.
Work with a Trainer
Physical therapists or certified personal trainers can be invaluable resources in aiding you with safe, efficient workouts. They know how to protect injured areas, provide optimal loading levels and build strength and fitness in order to prevent long-term injury prevention.
Expert trainers understand how to create effective exercise programs, with proper form and movement patterns designed to promote recovery and avoid injuries that might otherwise resurface later, derailing your long-term goals.
Professional assistance can also provide guidance in setting measurable and realistic short-term goals to track your progress, helping you celebrate small victories as you keep working toward greater ones. Doing this helps cultivate a healthy mindset necessary for maintaining consistent physical activity despite injury – keeping a positive outlook can prevent setbacks and ensure an easier return to fitness.