Sustaining an injury when playing sports or working can mean you have to put your fitness on the back burner while allowing your body to heal. This is easier said than done; however, resuming training before your body is ready or your injury is fully healed can lead to further complications and potentially extending the recovery longer than it was originally.
Allowing your body to heal is just as important as making sure it is in the best condition possible. Excess strain or overdoing things are two things to avoid when recovering from injury. But what exactly should you be doing to allow your body to regain full fitness?
Sleep
Sleep is important for everyone but especially when you are recovering from injury or illness. Our bodies repair themselves when we are asleep and go through many different, essential processes. For this reason, many experts tell you to rest to allow your body the time it needs, and sleep is part of your prescription to rest.
Eat Well
Maintaining a healthy diet plays an important part in your recovery process. Ensuring you get adequate vitamins and minerals and east a sustainable balanced diet will give your body everything it needs to aid your recovery and keep you physically healthy aside from your injury. It will also help you avoid falling into bad habits while you cannot take part in any physical activities.
Omega-3, water, protein, Vitamin C and calcium-rich foods will also boost your body’s ability to heal quicker.
Stay Occupied.
Depending on your illness or injury, you may find it hard to adapt to a more inactive lifestyle as you work on your recovery. While you may be able to do much physically, you want to keep yourself occupied to help you keep a positive mindset ready for when you can get back to working out and playing sports.
Taking up a new hobby, playing memory-boosting games, connecting with others, and reading are great ways to occupy your time. Finding something that works for you to keep your mind busy will boost your mental health, which is important for a quick recovery time to get back to doing what you enjoy faster.
Pain Relief.
Taking pain relief to help you recover from your injury can be beneficial to your recovery. Living in pain due to an injury is avoidable, and excess pain levels have been shown to contribute to a decline in mental health and motivation. Use pain relief as a temporary route to allow you to start your healing process and reduce the pain you are feeling.
It may also be helpful to find aids to support your joints or body parts such as kinesio tape original for extra help in getting moving again.
Rehabilitation
Whether this is undergoing a complete rehab physical programme or seeing a physiotherapist regularly, making sure you take heed of recovery advice to ease your regain movement and strength will help you build up muscle and stamina. Undertaken at the right time in your recovery period, following medical advice regarding getting you physically able to start working out and training will help you prepare without jumping and potentially causing more damage than good.
