How To Stay Fit And Healthy When Injured
If you’ve recently been injured, you don’t have to sit in your easy chair nursing a bowl of ice cream or mashed potatoes for comfort. You can stay fit and healthy even if you can’t do your normal workout. It may take some modifications or changing your fitness routine, but it’s possible. Get creative to overcome your limitations while you keep your goal in mind. Always listen to your healthcare professional before starting an exercise program to ensure you won’t exacerbate your condition.
Once you get the green light, identify things you can and can’t do.
If you’re in a complete body cast, finding what you can do is a challenge. Most injuries aren’t that dramatic. Usually, it’s the upper body, lower body, or weakness that leaves you bedridden. Those things don’t affect all muscle groups. If the injury is on the upper body on one side, you can still work the opposite side and your lower body. If you’re bedridden or can’t stand unaided, you can work your arms in many ways. Don’t shy away from exercising the uninjured arm or leg. Studies show that using exercises that elongate the muscle— eccentric exercises—benefits the other side as well. You’ll slow muscle loss on the injured side and maintain muscle mass on the uninjured side.
Are you bedridden?
Stretching exercises can be valuable for several reasons. It keeps your joints lubricated, increases circulation, works the muscles, and prevents muscle aches from laying too long. Besides stretching, you can do arm exercises, work on grip with a rubber ball, lightly flutter your legs, and keep moving. Arm exercises are possible in a wheelchair and bed.
Work on your upper body strength if your lower body is injured.
The reverse is also true. If you have a lower-body injury, it doesn’t prevent you from exercising your upper body. Do a modified leg lift with an uninjured leg from a wheelchair. Nothing stops you from doing bicep curls with an uninjured arm or seated curls with a leg injury. If your upper body is injured, taking walks, squats, and other lower body exercises keeps you toned.
- Swimming or pool exercises are excellent if you have an injury. The water keeps you more buoyant, so it’s low-impact. Use a cast cover or cast designed for use in the water.
- Focus on staying active and maintaining your fitness level. Don’t try to push yourself to the point it’s dangerous. Always do warm-up and cool-down exercises before you begin, even if the exercise is mild.
- Isometric exercises—contracting the muscles and holding—can be done without putting weight on an injured area. Some exercises aren’t safe for certain injuries. Choose your isometrics wisely.
- If you have a physical therapist, ask for help creating a workout plan to maintain your fitness level or tell them your workout strategy to see if there’s any way it can harm you. Always protect the injured area, but work the rest of your body.
For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center
Clients at VIP Fitness in Fort Lee, NJ, tell me the two hardest things to overcome on their road to good health are motivating themselves to start a fitness program and pushing themselves each day to go to the gym. It’s the reason that many people think that getting fit is more mental than it is physical. If your brain can’t convince your body to start exercising, you won’t get any benefits. It takes mental toughness to persuade ourselves that pushing hard and exercising are beneficial. It’s also far too easy to say, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”
We help clients at VIP Fitness in Fort Lee, NJ, learn to eat healthier. That includes more than meals. It includes snacks as well. What you eat should give you energy without spiking blood sugar. Food that causes blood sugar to rise rapidly has an aftereffect. It also causes blood sugar levels to drop just as rapidly. The type of snack you eat makes a difference. Eating the right food before exercising can improve the quality of your session and start the recovery process.
Depression can affect anyone at any time. It’s more than just feeling sad or having the blues. It’s a clinical problem that requires treatment. Depression can come from mental or physical issues, so always check with your healthcare professional when you experience symptoms. Exercise, no matter what the type, can help depression. It’s become an adjunct therapy that works better than some medications. The more intense the exercise, the better. The body can’t operate at peak intensity for very long. It’s why HIIT exercises are so beneficial. It alternates the intensity between peak and recovery pace.
One of the things I most often hear from busy people is that they don’t have time to exercise. Their life is already too chaotic to add one more thing to do. While it’s true that exercise takes time, it’s a stress reliever that can clear your head. It also helps you become more productive. That means you save time doing other things while you stay healthier. The healthier you are, the less time you spend at the doctor’s office and the more energy you have.
Many people in Fort Lee, NJ, find it a task to maintain their fitness. You have to say no to delicious treats that are unhealthy and yes to exercise. Since time began, many have struggled to make physical tasks easier. It’s almost against the nature of man to add physical work that doesn’t build a shelter or end by accomplishing a task. What most people don’t realize is that it is productive. It’s sculpting your body and keeping you healthy. Changing your perspective on exercise helps.
Illness or injury can cause pain. Exercise can also create pain if you overdo it. One of the most devastating types of pain comes from arthritis. It’s a deep pain that inhibits movement. It can cause people to take OTC drugs like ibuprofen or acetaminophen so they can function each day. Unfortunately, taking too many OTC and prescription pain relief drugs comes with an entirely different set of issues. You can reduce arthritis pain naturally. The only side effect is improved health.
Feel the burn or love the burn, both these phrases describe feeling the accomplishment of pushing yourself until you feel the burning feeling in your muscles. That burning occurs when the body fuels the muscles in a process known as glycolysis. It causes glucose to break down to create adenosine triphosphate—ATP. The amount produced depends on how much oxygen is available. The higher the intensity level the more anaerobic glycolysis takes place. Lactate is the byproduct. The increased lactate causes a hydrogen ion to separate to create lactic acid which causes a drop in the cell’s pH. You don’t have to feel the burn to benefit from a workout.
At VIP Fitness in Fort Lee, NJ, we focus on helping you achieve your goals. We create a workout that allows you to reach those goals quicker and focus on excellence, not average. What is the difference between an excellent workout and an average one? It’s not how much time you spend at the gym working out, what is it? It’s how efficient you are, the effort you put in, and the attention to detail, which includes ensuring you’re doing every movement correctly.