It’s easy to feel restricted when you have an injury that affects the ways you work out, but with a little adaptation you can keep up your fitness, strength and flexibility levels until you’re fully healed. Here are our tips for keeping fit with an injury.
Stick to gentle exercises
Low-impact workouts like Pilates, swimming and yoga can be ideal for exercising with a wide range of injuries and conditions, including sprains, back pain and osteoarthritis. These workouts can also loosen stiff joints and muscles and ease tension. If you’re joining a group fitness class, tell the instructor about your injury so they can adjust your movements to suit.
Exercise regularly for natural pain relief
The great news is that exercise naturally releases endorphins which assists in pain relief, so by exercising in a gentle way you could feel better in a number of ways. Even if you’re simply going for regular walks this can help to minimise your reliance on pain relief medication, and it will give a boost to your mental health, too.
Look at it as a positive
Broken your arm? Why not take it as a chance to focus on building strength in your bottom half? You might even begin a new sport or exercise type to work around your injury. If you’re used to weightlifting you could find benefit in trying yoga for the first time, for example. Turn that negative into a positive and you might be surprised by the advantages.
Allocate time for rest and recovery
It may be tempting to ‘tough it out’ and stick to your pre-injury workout routine, but it’s important to remember that your body is still healing. Keep workouts light and regular but allow days for rest too. Varying your training is a good idea too so you can restore your strength, flexibility and fitness as a whole.
Speak with your personal trainer
Our personal trainers are here to help with customised fitness and nutrition advice so you can get the most out of your time at the gym. Your trainer can be an invaluable resource in your recuperation, so don’t be afraid to ask questions and explain the areas you’d like to focus on while you’re on the road to recovery. Visit our personal training page to get your 3-session trial pack for just $89.
Watch your nutrition
If you’re a regular gym-goer you probably have a pretty healthy diet already, but it’s worth keeping away from inflammatory foods while you’re on the mend. White flour and potatoes, cayenne and peppers are all examples of these. Eat plenty of fresh vegetables and consider taking a multivitamin to aid the repair of muscle tissue, tendons or ligaments.