Getting back to exercise after a prolonged injury + illness?

kiela64

I've had a bad knee injury, and haven't worked out for about 2 months, but my physiotherapist finally cleared me for swimming! Yeah! No long walks or jogging yet, but the pool is mine again! ....except now I have a terrible head cold so I have to wait a little bit longer

That said, how have you found it going back to the gym after a prolonged absence?

I'm worried I'll have lost all of my progress (back in June I couldn't even do a single length without pausing to catch my breath, but by August I could do 2 laps without stopping) and that it will be discouraging.

How did you deal with the mental side of it? Did you have a tactic to get back into the swing of things faster?

I was also working on a small amount of bodyweight and weight-machine strength exercises. I know I've lost my progress there.

Even if we aren't doing the same things, I'd be interested in hearing your stories of how you got back into it.

nordlead2005

I doubt you lost all of your progress unless you put all the weight back on.

Anyways, I've taken a few breaks. Take it easy and slowly build up. It may seem like you are starting back at the beginning, but you'll build up to it a lot faster than you did the first time.

taco_inspector

The only real worry is to not over-work or re-injure anything...
As @nordlead2005 posts, your previous work should help you to regain some of your momentum and be ready as soon as your physio clears you for other exercises.

In these first days back at it, look at regaining your endurance strictly by the clock (how long you keep active), as soon as you're able to double (or some other value you're comfortable with) your "active" time, begin to measure total distance (laps) as a way to begin to challenge yourself to hit ever-increasing performance... At some point, you won't fail from fatigue, and you'll want to begin counting laps for a period of time (like 50-minutes or whatever), again shooting for a personal best each time you're at the pool -- this is also a great time to apply pressure to your physio to allow you to expand your exercises (while providing them your real-world exercise/improvement data, of course).

Avoiding injury should be key, remember to stretch warm-up and stretch/warm-down.

I've been through a few shoulders, knee, ankles, forearm, and other 'issues', and swimming is a great way to get your endurance back while working with moderate resistance (there are plenty of 'resistance enhancements' that can be part of your swim time, provided that your physio is OK with em too!).

fiddletime

When I went to swimming after an Achilles' tendon injury I was just so glad to be exercising again I was glad to start at zero. I eventually got back to running (I hate swimming).

kiela64

nordlead2005 wrote: »

I doubt you lost all of your progress unless you put all the weight back on.

Anyways, I've taken a few breaks. Take it easy and slowly build up. It may seem like you are starting back at the beginning, but you'll build up to it a lot faster than you did the first time.

Thanks! That's good to hear. For sure that hasn't happened

kiela64

standenvernet wrote: »

The only real worry is to not over-work or re-injure anything...
As @nordlead2005 posts, your previous work should help you to regain some of your momentum and be ready as soon as your physio clears you for other exercises.

In these first days back at it, look at regaining your endurance strictly by the clock (how long you keep active), as soon as you're able to double (or some other value you're comfortable with) your "active" time, begin to measure total distance (laps) as a way to begin to challenge yourself to hit ever-increasing performance... At some point, you won't fail from fatigue, and you'll want to begin counting laps for a period of time (like 50-minutes or whatever), again shooting for a personal best each time you're at the pool -- this is also a great time to apply pressure to your physio to allow you to expand your exercises (while providing them your real-world exercise/improvement data, of course).

Avoiding injury should be key, remember to stretch warm-up and stretch/warm-down.

I've been through a few shoulders, knee, ankles, forearm, and other 'issues', and swimming is a great way to get your endurance back while working with moderate resistance (there are plenty of 'resistance enhancements' that can be part of your swim time, provided that your physio is OK with em too!).

Great, thank you!

middlehaitch

I am just coming out of a really bad bout of the flu, and like you, was just getting into swimming. Went from 25m to 250m in a week.
Anyway, post flu ( 3 weeks off) I am finding I just cannot breath well enough yet to take up my swimming again. I don't want to upset all that I just learnt about breathing while swimming.
I am giving myself 2 weeks to be completely clear, doing aqua fit and the rowing machine until then.
Yes I do feel I have lost ground, but I am picking up slowly.
You could probably start back on the machines ( upper body) at the gym as soon as your cold has cleared.

I hate set backs, they just throw me off altogether and I lose the good focus I had.

Cheers, h.