Injuries can happen to the best of us and can range from minor to severe pain. They’re never ideal and can leave you out of commission for quite some time causing you to miss out on things you enjoy. A common concern is that injuries prevent you from working out because it can disrupt recovery. While healing is a process, there are ways to safely work out during your recovery to ensure safety and gains. Follow along with us as we discuss ways that you can keep up with your fitness while recovering from injuries.

Yoga 

Yoga is an excellent way to work on your mind, body, and spirit. There are several poses you can do to both stretch and strengthen the body and discipline your mind. 

It’s a great workout to do while recovering from an injury because it works on your breathing and balance which is also needed in strenuous workouts. If your injury is more on the severe side, you can practice yoga safely while healing by doing chair yoga. Chair yoga incorporates modified traditional poses that keep your muscles working. 

You can practice daily during your recovery to make for an easy re-entry into your normal workouts once you’re healed. 

Swimming 

Swimming is a great low impact, yet effective workout you can do during your recovery. It still offers the same benefits as more intense work but is much safer on the joints. In fact, you actually feel weightless underwater which allows you to do more work than you could do on land. 

It’s popular for injured runners to still train by doing pool running. This workout allows you to keep up with your fitness level and increase mileage and strength. 

Elliptical 

Another low to no-impact workout you can do is elliptical training. It allows you to increase mileage and strength during the recovery process. There are also several types of elliptical workouts you can do to ensure that you don’t plateau. 

A great feature of the elliptical is the ability to increase resistance. This is important because it helps improve stamina, balance, and works both the upper and lower body which is great for recovering from injuries.

Biking 

You can also try biking while recovering. There are several ways to complete this workout which include biking outdoors, using a stationary bike, or a spinning bike. A spinning bike mimics more of an outdoor bike and allows for more resistance to be added.  

Depending on the type of injuries you have, it may be best to start out on a stationary bike and work your way up to spinning or outdoor biking. Stationary bikes are low impact while the other options have more risk associated with them to aggravate or create other injuries. 

Overall, biking is a great way to build your leg muscles and reap the same cardiovascular benefits as running. 

Lift Less

Lastly, you can safely work out by lifting less weight. Just because you’re injured doesn’t mean you have to give up lifting. You can simply decrease the amount of weight you use and increase the reps. 

This method will help you increase muscle endurance and also help you become leaner. It may be different from your preferred way of lifting, but it can unlock another level of strength and fitness that you didn’t even know you had. 

Safely Work Out Your Injury

While injuries are painful setbacks, they don’t have to deteriorate your fitness. There are several ways to remain healthy and strong throughout the recovery process and we hope our examples were helpful. 

With countless options for cardio and by following a healthy diet and exercise schedule, you can even speed up your recovery process. 

If you’re recovering from injuries, just know that there are ways to safely work out and with patience and discipline you can maintain and see gains! 

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