Training Safely with an Injury

May 2025 Edition

In This Issue

• Understanding the " Injury Mindset "
• Smart modifications for common injuries
• How to approach cross-training with different alternatives
• Recovery strategies to boost the healing process

Are you dealing with an injury or have experienced a recent injury that put you out for quite some time? We have to understand that injuries are an unwelcome but often inevitable part of an active lifestyle. The good news? An injury doesn't have to mean putting your fitness goals on hold completely. With this week's newsletter, we will explore how to train intelligently while healing, maintaining our fitness levels, and coming back stronger than before.

Understanding the Injury Mindset

The first challenge of training with an injury is often psychological. The frustration of modifying your routine can be as difficult as the physical limitations themselves. We have to remember;

• View this as a temporary adaptation, not a setback
• Focus on what you can do, not what you can't
• Use this time to address imbalances or weaknesses and
• Set appropriate goals that respect your current condition

Once we address our mindset, then we can address our modifications to our training.

Here are some suggested modifications:

For lower body injuries, let's replace any high impact based activity like running to lower/no impact based activity such as swimming, rowing, or biking to keep your cardiorespiratory endurance. Additionally, if you were following a resistance based training plan, it would be best to maintain your upper body strength exercises and approach any lower body exercises by assessing it first with a certified or licensed professional so that they can address what you are capable of.

With upper body injuries, this can be tricky but I usually recommend clients to utilize machines if a lower body requires support from your upper body. For example, if you're back squatting and you have some sort of shoulder injury, the shoulder joint and musculature surrounding that joint is being used to help keep the bar in place.

In this case, that is why accessory exercises would be the alternative. Again, kicking rocks and doing nothing won't make you stronger so might as well do something that you can use your time wisely. Fortunately, this is the perfect time to address imbalances and eventually, your body will be stronger once it has its chance to fully heal. (If you want to read more on accessory exercises from my newsletter last week, read here)

Some Recovery Strategies That May Help

And to top those modifications off, adding in these recovery strategies will play a major positive impact to getting you back and better. They include:

• Active recovery like gentle movement promotes blood flow and circulation
• Appropriate nutrition which can look like including various protein sources, anti-inflammatory foods, and adequate hydration
• Quality sleep in which your body does its best repair work
• Stress management since mental tension can delay physical recovery

Takeaways

If you are dealing with an injury, there are ways to manage it and doing nothing won't make it any better. Best thing to do is approach it with a better plan and along with the right guidance.

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