Help! Staying fit after injury

eclenden01

Hey guys,

I have been using this app since April. I am a 5'10" 26 year old man. Since starting I have went from 185 pounds to 150 pounds. I then started to try to build muscle lifting weights 4x a week for about a month and a half now. I have definitely noticed some improvements and weight about 156. This past weekend I was in a pretty serious car accident and I have a number of stitched wounds all over my body as well as a lot of back pain...needless to say I am going to have to take it easy in the gym for awhile. At this point I can't even jog without back pain but I hope to do so soon. Do you guys have any advice when it comes to what I should do with my diet? I don't want to lose progress or gain fat. Should I be trying to maintain? More importantly, any advice on what physical activity I should start out doing as soon as possible to prevent muscle loss? I guess I'm feeling pretty desperate about how to move forward.

Thanks

pinggolfer96

I'd worry about allowing your body to heal before you do any type of physically demanding activity. You can't rush something like this. In terms of diet, your body needs to recover from the injuries and you want to maintain muscle. I wouldn't drop your calories, but rather find your maintenance. And for physical activity, I'd wait to hear from your physician as they are the one who will know better than anyone on here.

daniwilford

If I were you, I would aim to maintain for the first few weeks of your recovery. The body needs protein and micros to heal. Carbs can help in pain management. If your Doctor recommends physical therapy for the back pain, they can help you ease back into your regular work outs. Pain is not a good sign when healing from traumatic injury. By adding exercise back in too soon you could make the recovery process even longer.

tomatoey

Eat at maintenance for now, your body needs calories to heal and it also needs all the nutrition it can get. Take a break from exercise until you're healed, and follow all instructions from medical providers.

I think you are probably ok to do small isometric exercises, by which I mean contracting your muscles in place without any huge movements (i.e. squeeze your e.g. glutes or quads and hold for a few seconds), if that is not painful (but check)

pug11

I was in a bad car accident 5 years ago so I feel for you, I had neck, back and foot injuries, went from being very active to....nothing, it drove me 1/2 mad! but....I cannot stress enough to you that you must take the time to heal, I started trying to exercise too soon and paid for it.

Eat at maintenance right now, get enough protein, you won't gain weight, don't know if you'll be going to physical therapy but you can ask them questions too.

You've got to be so careful with injuries, a back injury can get much worse as time goes by, not saying yours will but your accident was very recent and other symptoms can start showing, again this is from experience.

Look after yourself!

pgm012197

DO NOT attempt exercise until your doctor advises you you can. I was in a very serious accident 2 years ago and tried to walk my usual 45 minutes.... BAD IDEA I caused myself harm. Eat maintenance and be good to your body as it takes more energy than you think to heal!!!

AskTracyAnnK28

Did your doctor recommend physical therapy for your back? It might help get your strength back.