Staying Active With An Injury

We all know that staying active is an important part of leading a well-balanced, healthy lifestyle and getting the best results after WLS, but what happens when we sustain a sudden injury or an old injury comes back to bite us?

Understandably, this can make it challenging for you to get in the amount of physical activity that you'd like to. It can also break any routines that you've set in place.  But it doesn’t have to be that way!

With a little bit of planning and expert guidance, there's almost always some form of alternative movement or modification that can be made so that staying active can be done safely without causing further harm to the injured area. This means that you can then stay on track and keep working towards the new healthier future that you want.

The Importance Of Staying Active

While rest is an important part of the initial rehabilitation of any injury, staying active in whatever way you can will help you to maintain the progress you've made on your journey so far, and it will also help you mentally to deal with the injury and to better transition back to your full routine.

Not only is it important to stay active while injured to manage and maintain weight, it also prevents physical deconditioning. Research shows that even short periods of bed rest causes changes to soft tissue and bone such as the weakening of muscles, decreased flexibility, stiffness within joints and a reduction in bone mineral density.

In the initial stages of an injury, it's important to prevent further damage to an area of injury and at the same time it's often possible, under the guidance of a trained professional, to work on moving the body parts above and/or below the injured area. This could include flexibility exercises, aerobic exercise or even resistance training, as long as the injured area is not being placed under any stress causing pain and discomfort.

Once the injured area begins to settle, usually within a few days depending on the injury, it's important then to focus on restoring pain free movement to the area using gentle exercise and stretching.

How To Stay Active With An Injury

Here are some tips on what to do when an injury occurs:

1.     Always seek advice and treatment from a qualified rehabilitation professional such as a Physiotherapist or Exercise Physiologist. Often people push through their injuries because they're afraid of ruining the progress they've made and they end up with a chronic injury that can last for months and even years which can have a detrimental effect to their physical and mental wellbeing. So seek advice early to get on top of it! These professionals will also be able to provide you with a comprehensive plan to manage and treat your injury using strategies tailored to your circumstances.

2.     Always listen to your body – if it hurts it probably isn’t doing your body any good.

3.     See this process as a chance to focus on the areas of the body that are not injured. For example, if you have injured your neck or shoulder, use the extra time you now have to go for a walk or to work on that lower limb flexibility you talked about working on but never got around to doing. Or if you've injured your ankle, use your movement time to focus on developing your abdominal muscles and posture.

4.     During the initial stages of an injury when periods of rest are required, work on other aspects of your physical and mental wellbeing:

• Focus on your nutritional planning such as developing a meal plan for the week or month.
• Focus on your activity plan for how you're going to gradually progress back to your full routine.
• Give meditation a try and see if you can build this healthy habit into your daily routine.

5.     Remember to start back slowly and gradually progress towards your normal movement routine. For example, if you like to run/walk and you're recovering from a muscle strain, plan to progress the distance/speed that you walk by 10% each week to ensure that the muscles can adapt and recover.

So as you can see, staying active even when an injury occurs is vitally important. It will help you maintain those fantastic gains you've made already and will keep you on track to reach your health and fitness goals!