Exercise While Injured?
When you are an active individual, especially a committed athlete or a fitness enthusiast, an injury can truly be a major roadblock. You can’t stand to have a crimp in your style, being forced to sit on the sidelines while you wait for your body to recover. The first thing you need to do is take care of your injury through rehabilitation. As you travel the road to healing, you can think about ways to continue to be active.
Finding Ways to Exercise While Injured
It’s really a Catch-22. You don’t want to lose all of the gains you have made by being immobilized. At the same time, you want your recovery to go as quickly as possible. If you aren’t careful or you are too hasty in biting off more than you can chew, you could find yourself facing a major setback. This could mean serious delays for your rehabilitation and in some cases, you could do permanent damage. As you look for ways to continue to exercise while you are injured, do your homework first. Choose activities that will not aggravate the situation and that could even improve your rate of healing. As always, be sure to consult your doctor before starting any type of exercise regimen while you are injured in order to ensure that it is safe for you.
Walk, Don’t Run
If you are facing an injury that has caused damage or strain to your lower extremities, running is the last thing that you should do. This is tough news to hear for the person who loves to job. However, you’ll need to take baby steps in order to get back to doing your favorite form of exercise. Start out with walking short distances at a slower pace. As your injury improves, you can go longer distances at a faster rate, eventually getting back up to speed with running. Listen to your body. If you are feeling pain, it’s time to ease up and re-evaluate.
Opt for Low Impact Alternatives
Regardless of what your injury is, high impact will be out of the question until you’ve healed. Fortunately, there are always low impact modifications that you can do. Whether you have a cardio workout you can’t resist, aerobics, or strength training, you can alter your exercise plan by using less weight and cutting out any jumping. Talk to a personal trainer to ensure you are exercising safely.
Dive In
Swimming is an excellent form of exercise that can compensate for an injury. You’ll work every part of your body while in the safe, gently environment that is provided by water. Swimming is an excellent fat burner and toner. Just look at the lean physique of Olympians. Make this part of your daily routine and you’ll feel great. You can stay in shape without risking another injury or further damage.
Think Yoga
Many diehard, fitness enthusiasts do not give yoga the proper amount of credit. Yoga will provide you with strength and flexibility, helping you to achieve optimal flexibility without enduring high impact activities. You should still discuss your injury with your yoga instructor before you get started. It will be possible to modify your exercise plan to accommodate for the injured area of your body, avoiding additional strain. You may find that meditation is extremely helpful as well in achieving balance while you work to a return to full form.
At New York Dynamic Neuromuscular Rehabilitation, you’ll have access to the most advanced approaches to therapy for a variety of injuries.Whether you are dealing with shin splints, peroneal tendinitis, hamstring injuries, Achilles tendinopathy, or ACL injuries, you will be in good hands with only the best in physical therapy.
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