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Low Impact Workouts for Injury Recovery

Did you know that exercising can actually help to heal an injury faster? If you’re recovering from an injury and feeling frustrated that you can’t do the sport or exercise that you love, there’s hope for you yet. And if you never really exercised in the first place but want to speed up recovery, it may be time to hit the gym.

Low impact workouts avoid stressing and putting pressure on your joints and muscles while providing cardio and strength benefits. You can exercise while staying safe and helping your body to recover.

Check out these low impact workouts that are excellent for injury recovery and get your body moving!

Low Impact Workouts for Injury Recovery

Cycling

Cycling is one of the best cardio low-impact workouts and you can do it outdoors, indoors, or at the gym. It’s important that you work on finding a good level of resistance so that you don’t put too much pressure on your knees.

The repetitive motion of cycling is not only great for getting your heart rate up but it also works to strengthen your hamstrings and quadriceps without putting your muscles and joints under strain.

When using cycling as part of your injury management routine, it’s best to stick to indoor cycling where you can manage resistance difficulty levels.

Swimming

For a fantastic aerobic resistance workout, dive into swimming. It’s such a good option as a low-impact workout that it is recommended to people who suffer from knee pain, arthritis. fibromyalgia and osteoporosis.

Water exercises aren’t limited to traditional swimming either. You can run, jump and walk in water as you would on land — without the strain on your body. You can even add weights to these exercises. But remember to train with someone to ensure safety in the water.

Swimming works your entire body while the water provides resistance to make it challenging and buoyancy to make it safe. If you swim regularly while recovering from an injury you will massively improve your cardiovascular fitness levels.

Yoga

Yoga is a great low-impact workout to turn to during injury recovery. While it lacks the cardiovascular benefits of other workouts, it is a total body strength exercise that will improve your strength, mobility, and flexibility.

Stretching your muscles — especially the injured areas — increases blood flow which supports muscle regeneration. You’ll be working to recover as well as stay strong.

The practice also gives you an opportunity to take part in moving meditation, helping you to relax and practice mindfulness. Recovering from an injury can be stressful and frustrating and yoga helps to provide mental relief as well as a physical release.

Walking

For many athletes walking is a function of getting around and not a worthy exercise. However, it’s a brilliant post-injury exercise to assist you in your recovery. Walking actually uses almost every muscle in the body without putting too much pressure on any muscle or joint.

Walking is also a good place to start your recovery journey and as you begin to build up strength you can move on to more intense exercises. It’s a great way to stay moving and active.

You can make your walking routine more challenging by using dumbells or ankle weights. You can also wear protective gear such as a volleyball ankle brace for added support and stability during your exercise. Additionally, you could choose a route peppered with hills to get your heart rate up.

If you’re struggling to deal with pain and simple exercises, such as walking, prove difficult then consider Complete Injury Management to get you back on track.

Elliptical

Do you usually head straight to the treadmill as soon as you arrive at the gym? While recovering from an injury the treadmill won’t be an option, but the elliptical machine is a good temporary substitute.

The sweeping motion of the ellipticals is much better for your body than the hard-hitting motion of the treadmill. As your legs ‘sweep’ there is almost no impact on your knees or any lower leg joints.

Many elliptical machines include an add-on that allows you to work your upper body by pumping your arms so you get a safe, full-body workout.

You can play around with the settings of the machine to add a lot of resistance if you want to make it more challenging. But if you’re wondering how to work out with an injury, always start slow and work your way up to tougher exercises.

Strength Training

Maybe you’re not into cardio exercises or you like to incorporate strength training to build muscle and strength. The good news is that you don’t have to give up Wednesday chest day as strength training is low impact and lifting doesn’t need to be avoided completely.

You just need to be mindful about what exercises to avoid according to your injury. You shouldn’t do squats or leg training with a pulled hamstring, for instance.

Weights and Kettlebells

Using weights or a kettlebell is a great way to incorporate cardiovascular exercise into your strength routine. Adapt your usual routine around your injury. If you have a lower-body injury, focus on upper body exercises and vice versa.

If you’re getting into strength training as a way to exercise through recovery, take it slow, start with lighter weights, and get advice from someone with experience to avoid further injury.

Resistance Bands 

Again, this is a strength workout that adds in a bit of cardiovascular benefit by getting that heart rate up. It’s a cheap and accessible way to strengthen your muscles and you can do it anywhere!

As with the weights, modify your workout around your injury and start with low resistance bands, moving to heavier resistance as you become stronger.

Incorporate Low Impact Workouts Into a Recovery Plan

By strengthening your body and increasing mobility and flexibility you’ll be helping to heal your injury and stay active while you recover. Choose the low impact workout, or workouts, that you enjoy most and incorporate them into your post-injury recovery plan.

If you found this article helpful then keep exploring our site for more health and wellness tips.


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