Physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle are lifelong goals that can be temporarily derailed when you have an injury that keeps you away from your active life. Whether you’re sidelined for a few days or a few months, you don’t have to stop pursuing your health goals while you take the time away that your body needs to recover.
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Mentally prepare yourself for the recovery. While your body rests and repairs, your mental health may also need your attention. You may find that you are envious of your healthy friends that are able to maintain a consistent workout schedule. You may even feel fearful that you will lose muscle mass or gain weight. Experiencing these feelings while you take the time to recover is not unusual. Instead of giving into the unwanted emotions, you can use this time to learn to meditate or find ways that you can stay healthy without vigorous workouts. FitClub has meditation classes that will help you strengthen your mental fitness and prevent an unhealthy mindset from facilitating a speedy physical recovery.
Clean up your diet. While your body recovers, you can take advantage of more time at home to prepare healthier meals and fuel your body, enabling a quicker, more successful physical recovery. This is also an excellent way to continue your healthy lifestyle and ward off unwanted weight gain while you’re unable to work out. Not being able to work out is not a pass to eat unhealthy treats. A healthy lifestyle requires a long-term, balanced and multi-faceted approach. When one area suffers, you need to work harder in the areas where you currently have control.
Do what you can. If your physical recovery allows you to do some, but not all exercise, try something new and take advantage of what you can accomplish. If strenuous strength training is on hold, try a FitClub yoga class or recover aching muscles in the pool. Before you hit the couch for the long-term, talk to your medical providers about what exercises you might be able to do while you recuperate. You might find that a different form of exercise might accelerate healing while also helping you preserve your physical fitness.
Expand your hobbies. Exercise and living a healthy lifestyle are the most rewarding hobbies, but recovery can be a time of expanding your lifestyle to include a balanced approach to better health. Allow yourself time to catch up on books that you’ve wanted to read or any other number of hobbies that will keep you from feeling depressed or filling up your time with unhealthy snacks.
Respect your limits. It can be tempting to push yourself to get back to working out more quickly than your body can handle. Taking the time for a full recovery will benefit you in the long run and ensure that when you are able to come back, it will be permanent and at full strength.
