People who exercise regularly are sometimes stopped in their tracks by an injury. While it is advisable to seek professional treatment,
a variety of self-help measures can help to speed the recovery process. The faster you can heal and back to your favourite exercise,
the better you will feel.
Here are some pointers to reduce frustration:
Realise that you can actually stop exercising for up to three weeks before your aerobic fitness starts to decrease.
Switch to cross training; in fact any other aerobic activity will maintain your aerobic fitness. Just make sure that it is not going to harm your injury site.
Help the injury to heal by both stretching and applying ice to the site.
Once your physiotherapist or other health professional declares that you are ready to resume your normal exercise activities, make a slow comeback.
If you have been doing cross training, your lungs and heart will be ready for hard work again. But if you have had a muscle injury, for example, you may have to ease yourself back into training as the muscle will still be weak.
It is important to understand why an injury has occurred. Over-training is a common cause. Were you over-doing exercise and resting too little?
If you are a runner, maybe your shoes are too old or not suited to your type of exercise; maybe you are doing too much speed-work and too little slow recovery sessions. Think about your exercise program just prior to the injury and you may well learn something about why you got injured.
Stay motivated
Sometimes, an enforced lay-off, due to injury is enough to stop people exercising altogether.
What you need to do is to keep reminding yourself, every day, of the benefits you enjoyed from exercise.
Keep these positive ideas in your mind every day and you should find that your enthusiasm doesn’t fade.