If you’re a lover of fitness and working out, suffering from an injury can be frustrating, to say the least. The time you’re out of the gym to allow your body to heal will feel like forever, but returning too early could result in an even worse injury. Returning to your workout routine is going to be a process but keep these tips in mind before you get back into your routine.
Don’t Rush It
There’s no specific time to say you should take off after an injury because it varies with each person and each injury. When you first get injured, your doctor will likely give you a recommended amount of time to take off and they may even send you to a physical therapist during your recovery. It’s extremely important to listen to your doctor and don’t return to working out until they say it’s time, even if you feel like you’re ready to go.
It’s very common for athletes to feel like they’re ready before their body is actually ready to handle a hard work out, so it’s best to just listen to your doctor. If you really think you’re ready to go back to the gym you should set up an appointment to get clearance from your doctor first.
Ease Back into It
Once you’ve been cleared by your doctor to go back to working out, you need to ease back into it. Don’t expect to hit the gym and begin lifting as much or running as far as you were prior to your injury.
A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is you should reduce your activity by 20% of what it was prior to the injury. This means reducing weight and reps, reducing speed and distance, and reducing the number of times per week you’re hitting the gym.
If you try to jump back into your old routine, you’ll likely re-injure the same area. If you’re used to hard and intense workouts you may want to consider changing it up to something that’s easier on your body, with short bursts of more intense activity.
Remember to stretch before and after every workout to ensure your muscles, tendons, and ligaments are ready and warmed up for the movement. If something you’re doing hurts, stop doing it immediately. It’s going to be a slow and frustrating process, but if you ignore the pain and other warning signals from your body, you’re bound to end up with another injury.
Recovering from a recent injury? At OrthoNOW, we specialize in getting your injuries wrapped up so you can heal better, sooner. We provide treatment for sports injuries, CrossFit injuries, and more! For more information about the services we provide, please call us at 855-447-6784.