Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your personal trainer in Amarillo. You’ve been injured. Now what? How do you keep progressing towards being fit and well if you’re stuck in recovery? I have the answer to that and much more today. If you have any questions or would like more information pertaining to an injury you may have, give our team a call: 806-322-3188.
We are down to our final three spots in Downsize. If you have 15 inches to lose in 6 weeks by eating real food and exercising then you need to jump in on this deal – we only have 5 days left until enrollment closes. Right now, we are offering this at an extremely low rate. You’re getting unlimited small group training, nutritional guidance, accountability and support from our team of trained experts. We also have an upgrade VIP package that includes 6 private personal training sessions with one of our awesome coaches. All of our awesome workouts last 30 minutes or less and have little to no equipment. This is a program you can get done even when you are tight on time. If that sounds like something that you’re up for, give us a call: 806-322-3188. We will send you the application and help you get one of those three remaining spots.
Imagine this, you’ve been consistent with your workouts, you’ve been making killer food choices, your results are great. Suddenly, you get injured. I don’t know what’s going on this month, but I’ve had a lot of friends get into car wrecks. People are driving like daredevils. My friends have had whiplash, they’re hurting through their backs, their necks are strained, and worse. Obviously when injury occurs you will need to take some time off of your normal routine to recover, but how can you still see progress while healing?
In the case of a car wreck with the whiplash and back pain, it foremost will depend on the extent of the injury. Some people can bounce back from a light wreck with no problems, some people have a little bit harder time recovering, and some people get hit pretty darn hard and it causes serious problems. Let’s say that the doctor told you that you will have to take off the next two to four weeks to heal. You’re are performing the recommended light stretching and following the lifting restrictions, but how do you keep your results going?
- Check in with your doctor. Find out what’s really going on and what you should/should not be doing to help you recover ASAP.
- Keep your nutrition in check. Nutrition is about 70 to 80% of the fitness battle. You can keep on track by making sure you’re not consuming a ton of excess calories when you won’t be burning them all off.
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- Drink all your water – Who saw that coming? Drink half of your body weight in ounces everyday.
- Eat all your protein and veggies. Focus on beans, potatoes, peas, etc. Keeping your starch servings between zero and one. Eat lots of fibrous vegetables to increase your vegetable count.
- Reduce your carbs. Don’t do a typical low carb diet, but reduce them. If you’re not being active, you don’t need to eat as many. Remember, your body does not physically requires grains, but it does require starches (i.e. fruits and vegetable).
- Reduce fruits to zero to two servings a day. That’s still sugar that won’t be burned off because we are reducing our activity.
- Protein, vegetable, healthy fat ratio should be in balance. Make sure you eat all 3 with your water. If you eat all of those regularly it will help you not over-gain while you are healing.
- Get ready to exercise. Then we have people who don’t want to stop being active. They have been consistent with their workout and sitting on the couch binging Netflix seems counterintuitive. They could be afraid that they’ll lose their momentum when they go back to the gym, they’ll quit for good, or maybe they just love it so much that the feeling of doing nothing is irritating. First and foremost, you should be heeding your doctor’s orders. However, if it is a light injury with a mild recovery, you can partake in things like light stretching, walking, and core engagement. This doesn’t mean doing crunches necessarily, but try standing and contracting your core.
Here’s an example. Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Place one of your hands on top of your stomach. Don’t press in, but just lightly lay it on top of your shirt where you can just feel it is there. Keep your hand in that same spot and try and squeeze your stomach away from your hand. Release your stomach back to your starting position, squeeze it away, and repeat.
Maybe you build up to squeezing away while counting down from 10, when you get to 0 hold that position for 30 – 45 seconds, then release it back counting forward 0 to 10. This will help strengthen your core. You’ll also notice, you won’t be able to do this if you are slumped over. Thus, you are building your posture while engaging your core. Poster is something you can work on regardless of what phase of recovery you are at. Working on posture, core engagement, walking, and light stretching are all great ways of keeping active.
If you dealing with neck pain, you’ll see a lot of people stretch it out by pulling their heads to one side or the other with their hands. Please don’t do this. This ends up stressing the muscle out and prolonging the strain. Do a little light stretching or maybe a massage technique with The Stick or just have someone massage it for you. Whatever you need that is gentle and will relax the muscle. If the doctor recommended heat or ice, go for it! We just want to give the body an opportunity to recuperate in a gentle way so we can jump back into exercising as soon as possible.
Let’s say that you were in a wreck and were on bed rest for 3 weeks. You’ve healed and are ready to head back to the gym. You don’t want to immediately return to the gym and do the same things you were doing before you were hurt. If you jump back in at the level that you were at 3 weeks ago, you are more likely to become injured again because your body has deconditioned itself while you were resting. It only takes 7 to 10 days to start losing the muscular tone and strength that you had built. It will come back faster than it did the first time around, but while you were doing your light exercises, the muscles began to atrophy. This means that maybe we’re not quite at the same physical level we were three weeks ago. So make sure to take a moment and remind yourself to have an open mind about your current level. “It doesn’t matter if I lift the same amount of weight or do the same amount of reps. I don’t want to get injured again. I must listen to my body and follow what it is telling me to do.” Feel free to write that phrase out and tape it to the mirror at your gym when you go back if you need a visual reminder.
If you go right back to it at the same level, even if you got injured doing something unrelated to working out, you’re going to get hurt and be out resting again. Doing too much weight too soon or too much exercise too fast, can cause the body to re-injure itself. It is still in the healing process.
Remember that if you get hurt:
– Check in with your doctor. Make sure you get their recommendations for what you should and should not be doing. Follow their orders no matter how frustrating.
-Check in with your nutrition. Get the right amount, the right balance at the right time, so you’re not overdoing things. You don’t want to have to regret your choices over last few weeks. This will keep you track for your goal.
– Check in with your exercise. If the doc says that it’s okay for you to exercise some, then do some light activities to start. Gentle stretching, walking, squeezing the core, improving your posture, etc. As soon as the doctor clears you to go back to the gym, listen to your body. I cannot stress this point enough. As a personal trainer in Amarillo for almost two decades I have seen tons of overachievers rush back to the gym, push too hard in the paint, and have to take more time off due to another injury. Give yourself the time it needs to heal properly. Figure out your new routine for the level you are at now. You will get back to where you were, I promise. It typically requires about half the time, sometimes even less, to get back to where you were before your injury. If you maintain your balanced nutrition and follow your docs orders, you won’t have strayed too far from progress. That said, if you’re sitting on the couch for 3 weeks eating bon-bons and Cheetos then you’re probably going to have a little trouble getting back in the habit of eating well and working out regularly..
If you are interested in more tips and help from people who know their stuff and genuinely care about you, we would love to help. Reach out to our team at 806-322-3188 or info@customfitness.biz. We will set you up with a consultation where you can come in and see what it is we’re all about and see if we’re good fit for you. If you want to make a lasting change and start to find a way to do this in a simplified and efficient way, we would love to work with you. Downsize only has 3 spots left and we start the program August 28th. Our office can hook you up with an application if you or someone you know is ready to shed some serious inches with real food, customized personal training, and real accountability. That’s all for today. At Custom Fitness we are YOUR personal trainers in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great day everybody.