What did you do to stay on track when you've been injured?

ahavoc

I woke up today and my knee was killing me. Could be the weather, as there's a front moving in by the name of Irene, but yesterday while stretching out I had a big hamstring cramp on the back of my thigh running hip to knee. I know it's my hamstrings, and that's actually caused by a pelvic/hip injury from years ago. DRAT!

So although I was going to work out today, I'm going to do heat/ice, gentle stretching and rest, taking it day by day. But BOY am I missing my workout, and I'm a bit antsy about how this will effect my weight loss, because for me, Diet AND Exercise are key.

I'd like to hear from those of you who've had an injury or had to stop working out for a bit. Any tips? Suggestions? How did you get through it?

catwrangler

I'm still nursing my pinched nerve, haven't been to the gym since August 7! I've been on vacation and kind of eating what I want some days but I've managed to maintain by just keeping to the diet part.

I think it's good to keep the body guessing as to what you will eat and how much you will exercise. It may help things along to take a few days off.

tropikanagirl

I once hurt my back (recently and a few weeks ago). Something I did was sit in a chair and work out with light weights and did more reps. This way I was still doing strength training for my upper body and I was doing some kind of movement! Its better than nothing!

fteale

You probably realised from my knee pain post, I kind of ignore it and run anyway, which I know is baaaaaaad. But I am stupid.

bprague

I worked on my strength training when I hurt my ankle. It was nice because it made me focus on it rather than doing it as an after thought. Good luck!

sc1572

A few weeks ago I sprained my ankle and was on crutches for 2 weeks. I thought I was going to go crazy. However, I still did weights and conditioning, walked a lot on my crutches, and cut down my calories about 200 a day. I still lost weight.

Katie1015

i am still recovering from a lower back injury (that will likely turn chronic because my family has a history of bad/weak backs). anyway - I found it very beneficial to go to a physical therapist to a) find ways to improve my injured area and b) learn of how to prevent this type of pain in the future and come back stronger. I've been going for 3 weeks and have felt a HUGE improvement.

a couple things that are necessary in this process though: taking it easy and cutting back for a few days, your body NEEDS rest, especially when you're in pain. If you can, try some light walking for 15-20 minutes at a time. i took it easy for a week and a half (and i know your pain, it's VERY hard to do this especially when you enjoy working out and feeling good), but i ended up just doing walking and stretches/exercises that my physical therapist recommended. they didn't recommend that i go back out and exercise intensely or else it would have just made my injury worse.

on the flipside, when i took a week of rest i also made sure to be more conscious of what i ate. more fruits/veggies and less of the bad stuff that i allow myself to eat. i would say i eat well 80% of the time when i'm very active, but i was even more conscious when i wasn't active to eat well almost 90% of the time. it helped me mentally.

i also spent more time cleaning/picking up around the house so i wasn't as sedentary

ahavoc

Wow, great tips! Keep 'em coming!

brenda_allport

I take 1 or 2 days a week to strickly focus on stretching my injured area as part of my weekly workout routine. This has helped me strengthen it as well as continue with my regular exercise without the feeling that I was missing my workout for the day. You can reserach exercises for that certain area and figure out what works for you. I hope you feel better soon.

Sa2ah

i have bad knees (tore my MCL and ACL in my right knee in 09, and i have a small benign bone tumor on my left knee that strains the tendons) and when they are acting up i walk on the treadmill instead of running or hiking like i normally do. i also take joint supplements and those have seemed to speed my healing i guess u could call it. i take it easy, but i try to keep moving.

sc1572

even try yoga!