Tips to Keep Up Your Exercise Regime Even If You've Been Injured

If you're a person that has a regular exercise regime going on, it is important to keep up some level of fitness even if you've been injured. More then likely there are still some alternative exercises that you can do while nursing an injury no matter what type of injury that may be. This is important so that when you're healed you will be able to return to your normal activities as quickly as possible, including your exercise regime.

First and foremost see a physician or physical therapist to learn exactly what exercises you will be able to partake in to keep that stamina going. Focus on maintaining your strength while your recovering. Be aware of pain as you try to do your exercises as this is an indicator that tells you to stop what you're doing and maybe try something else as you don't want a re-injury of the injured body part. Here are some exercise tips you may want to try while recovering from injuries to various parts of the body.

Ankle Injuries: Twisted and sprained ankles are the most common types of injuries especially for people who participate in sports. This can keep you out of the action for awhile. Cardiovascular low-impact workout exercises such as swimming, rowing or riding a stationary bike could be ideal while recovering from this type of injury. Upper body circuit training with weights is another alternative. This strength training can be done while sitting and not putting stress on the ankle.

Strained and Pulled Muscles: For this type of injury follow the RICE method which consists of rest, ice, compression and elevation. If the upper limb is where the injury occurred, you can still run and jog to stay in shape. If it's a lower limb injury, try throwing a ball with a partner to give your abs and shoulder muscles a good workout. A tip to help prevent this type of injury from occurring in the first place is to allow yourself a good warm-up of 5 to 10 minutes and a cool down period at the end of your workout, and don't forget to stretch.

Knee Injuries: This is a major weight bearing joint so you may be restricted in a number of exercises if you end up with this type of injury. You could possibly be allowed to do some cycling but check with your doctor to make sure it would aggravate or do more harm to the knee area. Swimming using a pull buoy to give your legs support and stop yourself from kicking may be an alternative exercise you could try.

Back Injuries: Knowing exactly what type of back injury you have is going to determine what exercise alternatives may be available to you. Walking, if pain allows it, is great way to keep up cardiovascular fitness. You need to discuss with your doctor any forms of exercise he thinks are appropriate for the type of back injury you may have. I'm an expert in the field of back injuries. I have suffered from both upper and lower back pain for years. I've even had lower back surgery and I still suffer with bouts of severe back pain periodically. Walking is the best exercise for my problem, and then accompany that with lots of rest.

Besides my personal experience with back injuries, this data was complied from information on Staying Fit While Injured-Safe Sport and Working Out While Injured-University of Michigan Health System-UMHS Newsroom

Sources:

www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom

www.safesport.co.uk/Staying Fit While Injured

personal experience with back injury