3 Ways To Maintain Fitness During an Injury

It’s a classic deterrent to progress in your fitness journey; one wrong twist or awkward landing causes an unfortunate injury that pulls your progress to a screeching halt. The bad news is that your linear progress will occur much slower.

While think may seem discouraging at first glance, there’s good news to look forward to! Most injuries are temporary, meaning that with rest and recovery, you can get back to your routine. But what if you want to remain active during the downtime?

Here are three ways to maintain fitness during an injury:

Keep Moving

While you may lose hope during an injury, it would help to look at the positive side. If a part of your body or a joint experiences injury, you can take the opportunity to cross-train. For example, if you hurt your ankle while running, consider focusing on upper body exercises that strengthen and condition your shoulders, back, and arms.

On the other hand, if you injure an arm, you can take the opportunity to train your lower body. Treadmill workouts have plenty of health benefits that can support your recovery and fitness journey.

Recover and Re-Evaluate

Maintaining your fitness isn’t only about the work in the gym; how you approach your goals outside of the gym is equally essential to your journey, as an effective approach can help make the most out of your recovery time. Depending on your injury, consider performing mobility exercises to keep joints moving.

Eating well and getting adequate sleep can also help you recover faster, thus maximizing your progress outside the gym. Plan your subsequent workouts and what you want to work on once your physician has cleared you for activity.

Prioritize Mental Wellness

Injuries are discouraging, so prioritizing your mental health is a must! Injuries can hurt your psyche more than anything. You may be scared to do the same movement that injured you in the first place.

One of the best tools to help you get through this time is your mind. Consider using positive self-talk that uplifts your spirits.

Overall, experiencing an injury is no fun. But something to consider as athletes or if you just like exercising, in general, is that you’ll move through cycles in your fitness. These ways can help you maintain your fitness during an injury, whether you are a weekend warrior or an Olympic sprinter.