How to Work With a Trainer to Recover From an Injury

Sustaining an injury can be a devastating experience, particularly if the injury is serious. However, exercise can go a long way toward helping you recover from an injury and is essential to recovery in some cases. When you have an injury, you should work with a trainer to recover from that injury as quickly as possible. Follow these steps to learn more.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Work With a Trainer to Recover From an Injury

1. Learn cardiovascular exercises to keep your heart and lungs in peak condition. Having an injury often means being immobile for a period of time. However, your trainer can show you low impact exercises you can perform from a sitting position that will help you maintain cardiovascular fitness until you are able to get up and move around.
2. Keep limber through stretching exercises. Limber muscles will help make it easier for you to recover. If you are very immobile, your trainer may move your arms and legs for you to stretch the muscles. Once you can move more on your own, you will learn simple stretches you can perform yourself.
3. Strengthen the area around your injury with targeted stretching. Loosening muscles around your injured area will help keep the area strong for when you add more strenuous exercises later. Your trainer will help you learn specific stretches for the area around your injury.
4. Avoid stiffness with repetitive motion. This is particularly important after joint surgery or a broken bone. Repetitive motion exercises will keep your tendons and ligaments limber during the recovery period, which will prevent them from freezing up on you (a danger when a joint is at rest for prolonged periods).
5. Avoid future injuries by increasing strength around the injured area. Once you are well enough, your trainer will likely add muscle-building exercises to your routine. These exercises will specifically build muscle mass and strength around the injured area. The stronger you become there, the less likely you are to re-injure yourself in that place.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't expect too much too soon. You are going to have to work hard to properly recover from your injury and this is going to take time. Have patience and don't push yourself beyond your limits or you'll risk making the injury worse and prolonging your recovery.
• Expect to feel some pain as you work the injured area. However, you should not experience any pain that is excruciating. If you feel anything that is too painful, stop what you are doing immediately and have your trainer or a doctor check you out to make sure you have not re-injured yourself.