8 Tips on Working Out While Recovering From Injuries

June 17, 2021 by Amy H 0 comments

Reading Time: 4 mins

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Learning how to workout while recovering from injuries can be frustrating. Especially when you’re used to pushing the tempo and giving it your all.

But an injury is a sign that your body needs time to heal itself. Pushing through it or not taking the appropriate steps when training could just make it worse.

However, you can still exercise and stay in shape when nursing an injury. You just have to be smart.

Here are 8 tips to help you devise a weekly workout routine while you’re rehabbing.

1. Speak to a Medical Professional

This first tip kind of has to be here, but it’s important nonetheless.

Speaking to a doctor and getting the clearance to workout is essential. Recovering from injuries is an individual process, and only he or she can tell you when it’s appropriate to start lifting weights or running again.

Certain injuries can actually improve with a little exercise. But others, like meniscus tears or ones that involve nerve damage, could actually get significantly worse.

Also, none of the information in this article should be taken as a substitute for medical advice.

2. Warm Up First

Improving injury recovery is about mitigating risk. So, first and foremost, be sure to do a nice, long warmup any time you exercise.

Stretching before workouts is an essential injury prevention technique that athletes, health professionals, and fitness enthusiasts all know works.

Your body uses that time to increase its core temperature, make muscles more pliable and loose, and adjust things like pH levels to be more fit for activity.

A warmup should consist of light cardio movements like walking, jogging, or low-impact machine cardio. Follow that up with a few light strength movements and stretches to get your body prepared for movement.

3. Emphasize Cardio Movements

Cardiovascular exercise is especially good when you’re nursing an injury.

Here’s why: cardio pumps fresh, oxygenated blood throughout the body and into our cells. Coincidentally, muscle and other injuries in the body heal when fresh, oxygenated blood makes its way to those areas. That’s why getting your heart rate up can help boost recovery.

Of course, you should avoid any cardio movements that make your injury worse. For example, if you have an Achilles tendon injury, you should probably avoid running and any weight-bearing forms of cardio.

4. Choose Low-Impact Exercises

Low-impact exercise should be the name of the game when recovering from injuries. Workouts that eliminate jumping and other plyometric, aggressive movements can lower the chances of you tweaking something or making your injury worse.

Sticking to full-body, bodyweight exercise is also a good way to exercise with an injury. Exercises like push-ups and sit-ups work several muscle groups at once, which helps distribute the load over several joints instead of just one or two.

5. Avoid Anything That Hurts

This one may seem obvious, but “obvious” doesn’t always apply when you’re champing at the bit to get back in the gym.

As a general rule of thumb, don’t do it if it hurts. Whatever “it” is—a weight lifting exercise, a cardio movement, or even a stretch.

Your body’s pain signals are telling you there’s something wrong with the movement. It might not seem like a big deal, but this is not a good recipe for recovery.

6. Listen to Your Body

In general, listening to your body is a skill we all should practice. The human body is a complex system that is pretty clear with us when things aren’t going well (or even when they’re going right).

As recovering fitness enthusiasts or athletes, we’d do well to listen to its wisdom.

Besides listening to pain signals, also consider things like the number of days spent in the gym each week and which types of workouts you’re doing. If you’re insanely sore after exercise or feel like your injury isn’t getting better, it may be time to change up the routine.

7. Get Plenty of Sleep

Besides working out, practicing other healthy habits can be key for your recovery.

For example, sleep is absolutely essential for recovery. Deep sleep triggers the release of hormones and chemicals in the body that repair, restore, and even regrow certain tissues.

And not for nothing, sleep is also a time when your body is still. This gives your muscles or other areas of your body time to relax and heal, which is so key when you’re in the midst of rehab.

If you’re nursing an injury, you should be aiming for the adult-recommended 7 to 9 hours each night. Try winding down an hour before bed by shutting off screens and maybe do a few light stretches before bed.

8. Focus on Nutrition

Other than the types of exercises you can do in the gym, nutrition is another key component of injury recovery. Aim to dial in your diet so you can get back to one hundred percent faster.

Certain foods, especially those that are highly processed or made with lots of sugar, have inflammatory responses in the body. Inflammation is linked to several chronic diseases that kill Americans. And it could also be a reason your body is taking a long time to recover.

If you want to speed up recovery, try eating mostly whole foods like lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Also, drink plenty of water and do research on vitamins and supplements that might be beneficial.

Working Out While Recovering from Injuries

Working out while recovering from injuries is challenging, but doable.

The key is to adjust your workouts to meet your needs. Avoid doing movements that hurt and remove exercises that simply increase the risk that you’ll stay injured (or worse, get injured even more).

On top of your weekly workouts, be sure to dial in your sleep and nutrition. These little things can also go a long way towards promoting recovery.