So you’ve recently been making leaps and bounds in your sport or in the gym and have been getting close to achieving one of your goals, but disaster strikes and you pick up an injury. Whether the injury is minor or major it is far from ideal and naturally disappointing, however how you see this injury and react to it will determine how much it affects you both physically and mentally. Ideally try and see the injury as a hurdle or a side step on the path you’ve been on and not a setback. Mindset is huge in this instance and you may find reading about sportspeople who have overcome a similar injury or worse may motivate you. This time away from training can also give you a chance to reflect on your own personal experience with regards training over the previous few months, were you enjoying it and giving it 100% or was there anything you could improve on to come back stronger?
Type One’s 3 Top Tips
1. When you become injured, the time you were spending training or playing sport is now free time, which may allow you to channel that time into a new hobby or spending more time outside or reading a bit more on nutrition and training!
2. If your injury is a particular body part it may also be an option to train around it. For example, if you injure your knee to keep things ‘ticking over’ you can still do all exercises you normally do in a seated position, dumbbells presses, upper body resistance machines, etc. If you’ve injured your arm you can still bodyweight squat or lunge and use resistance machines or resistance bands for your legs. Don’t get us wrong, you won’t be busting out a 1RM on your squat with a sore shoulder but just train smart and keep moving and keep burning calories.
3. Another important point is to refrain from emotional eating, if you aren’t moving as much on a daily basis because of your injury then you’ll not be burning the same amount of calories daily which means to counterbalance that you need to eat less food daily.
Remember injuries occur in life no matter what, it’s how you bounce back from these that’s important!