Recovering from an injury

I’ll be honest, I’m quite the clutz. Therefore, I get injured a lot. I know how annoying injuries can be and how they can mess with your usual routine. Here are a few lessons that I have learned from the many times I’ve had to deal with an injury.

Remember to be patient with yourself. It’s a given: you will be weaker than you were pre-injury. You might be slower. And worst of all, with certain injures or if you have to have surgery, you might have to re-teach yourself how to do some pretty basic things. I know, it’s a bummer. If you’re injured right now, I bet you just want to hurry up and get better so that you can go back to the way you lived your life pre-injury. However, it’s not the smartest thing to do. I remember when I’ve acquired injuries in the past and I just wanted to rush and get better. However, our bodies don’t work that way—we need time to recover. Unfortunately, as we age, recovery becomes more challenging and can even take longer. This is when you want to remind yourself that being patient with yourself is of the utmost importance.

Not being able to follow your usual exercise routine is not the end of the world. Yes, it might be a setback, but it’s better to give yourself a chance to fully recover rather than pushing through the pain and ending up with a worse injury than you started with. If fitness is a big part of your life, then I’m sure this will be very difficult, but in the end, the time you spent recovering will be well worth it.

If you’re dealing with an injury that requires you to seek physical therapy, then I’m sure you have some exercises to keep up with. I know it can be really annoying to do the exercises, but making time for them is a must. It is the key to recovery. Physical therapy exercises exist to help strengthen week or tight muscles or correct muscle imbalances. Injuries often happen when our muscles are imbalanced as we must overcompensate.