If you’ve picked up a nasty injury through team sports, weight exercising or from day to day life there are still methods which can keep you fit yet still allow you to recover. Even when suffering from back pain you can make a positive contribution to your fitness that can allow you to keep your existing levels of fitness high. Atrophy and excess fat can be avoided by exercising in precise ways that allow the damaged area to heal.
Hand/Arm Injury
Your injury could be severe, like a broken wrist or arm, or simply a strain or pull. Regardless, it means you can no longer play team sports or use weights until it has completely healed. Even sports like football should be avoided because it is a contact sport and arms are frequently grabbed and pulled. You can manage the situation by doing various leg exercises like the leg press, but make sure they aren’t machines that require any input from your upper limbs. You can also go running to keep your cardio fitness at a good level, but avoid swimming and cycling, you need your arms to do both and the extra intensity can really stunt the healing process. There are many ways to train when you have an injured arm, just make sure they’re sustainable and contribute to its healing, otherwise you’ll make things worse.
Bad Back
A bad back can be ultimately debilitating, yet one of the worst things you can do is sit around doing nothing. There are various manners of pain management you can look into if it hurts, but your best bet is to stay active. Trying anything heavy like cycling is a big no, because you can just make things worse and add months the recovery process. Walking can be a great place to start. It keeps you active without putting excess strain on the back. You can increase the pace as you see fit, just be careful to keep the ground you’re walking on flat. If you’re walking up hill then your back will be doing some of the push work with your legs, so be careful and edge yourself into it gently.
Leg Or Foot Injuries
If you have a leg or foot injury then many forms of exercise are lost to you. But don’t fret, because there are other things you can do. If you just have a foot injury you can still exercise the legs by using certain machines that only exercise the calf and thigh muscles. If your whole leg is hurt however you’re best to stay using upper body methods of exercise. You can try doing pull ups, depending on how strong you are and how bad the injury is. Make sure you have someone with you to help incase you need assistance coming down off the bar. You can use exercises like bench pressing, which can keep your muscle mass up, or, if you want to focus on cardio try using lower weights with more reps, this can get your heart pumping and ensure your cardio doesn’t flag too much. If you don’t think this is enough you can use a spin machine, using your arms to pump it like your legs would a bike.
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