Category: Fitness

It is a common thought that when we are injured, we need to rest. We are usually advised to stay away from workouts. But, in some situations, exercise can prove to be beneficial for people who have an injury. For example, if you have a fracture or have partial paralysis, doctors suggest you should maintain your workouts without an injury for faster recovery.  

For athletes, the frustration of not working out is worse than the pain of an injury. In this article, we will suggest ways how you can workout with an injury.

Advantages of doing a workout with an Injury

Surprisingly if you are who have recently recovered from an injury, exercising can be advantageous for you. Even though doctors suggest that for a particular time, people who are injured should forego their workout sessions, getting back on the treadmill can be a tremendous confidence booster for the injured patients. Some of the advantages of doing a workout with an injury have been listed below.

• Exercising boosts self-confidence – An accident can shake a person to the core. For example, if you are a sports person by profession like a footballer or weight–lifter, you may get injured doing your favorite sport. It develops a trauma in people. They get scared of playing the sport again, even if it is their favorite sport. In this situation, developing a mindset of re-exercising helps in boosting self-confidence. It is obvious that when a person is injured, he or she cannot do rigorous exercises. But even if they hit the ground after a massive injury, moving even 10% seems like an achievement to them immediately after the accident.

• It strengthens muscles, resulting in faster recovery – The reason why most doctors suggest that their patients should undergo strength workout sessions immediately after their injury because these exercises help them re-strengthen their muscles. If the bones are strong and the person has the required immunity, workout can help you overcome the injury faster. Regular exercises also increase flexibility.

• Decreases pain and anxiety – If the injury is causing continuous pain. Exercising can decrease the pain with regulated movements. And, as the pain decreases with it goes away, the anxiety.

Exercises that can be done alongside an injury

By this time, you must be wondering what exercises you can do when injured and how much are they?

Exercises indeed do help in fast recovery, but overdoing anything is not good. Listed below are a few popular exercises that help you maintain your workouts with an injury.

Aqua- Jogging

It is popularly known as pool running, for people who are runners. It helps them get back on track. This exercise focuses on the muscles that are required to run. Athletes are made to move around in the flowing pool water. Because of the water, the movement is slowed down, and the water current keeps you focused.

Anti-gravity treadmill

This anti-gravity treadmill is space-shaped. It has been specially designed for patients who have an injury. The specialty of this treadmill is its unweighting technology. This allows athletes who have been injured to get back on the racing track. This machine reduces the gravitational impact reduces the stress of running in athletes, because of which the muscle bones that are injured do not get strained.

Stair walking

In some cases, stair-walking helps people regain their strength and get back to running. Stair walking involves people moving in polymeric motion. It further helps to strengthen the lunges and squats. It also helps people improve on their balance.

Walk and run

People who have stopped going for long runs that last more than 30 minutes because of an injury can try stepping out of their house for a short walk and run session. Here people are advised to jog for 5 minutes and then walk for the next 20 minutes. Well, there is no foundation on how long you would be walking and how long you would be running through. It greatly depends on the severity of the injury. If you feel you are recovering fast, you can increase the time of jogging and decrease walking as per your convenience.

Opt for some other sport

If you are a swimmer and are injured, we suggest you should move to cycle or walking for the time being till your wounds get completely healed. Or, if you are athletes who have been living by the racing track, we suggest you can try hitting the pool for a nice swim till you feel your legs are ready to take the jolt of the racing track again. It might be difficult for you to let go of your one true love, but it would get easier with time only if you realize it’s just a temporary phase. You would soon be doing what you love doing.

Final Takeaway

If you wish to recover faster, you must monitor the pain and take steps after listening to what your body says. It is good to be determined, But you should not be impatient and do things before your time. We advise start by doing exercises that do not strain you, and eventually, as the pain decreases, you can increase the training and move towards complicated workouts. We also suggest consulting a coach who is basically a healthcare practitioner. They can show you the correct movements to avoid further injuries trying to do things your way.

The main objective is to maintain your workouts without an injury. Take measures while you are at it so that you can stop injuries before they happen. If you have stepped into the gym for the first time, we suggest you should always consult a professional trainer before you touch the machines kept there, no matter how luring they are. It is always good to be on the safer ground while working out and control the curiosity that creeps in every time we look around us while we continue with our sessions.

Most of us complain that we don’t have time for workouts. However, this is no reason to skip workouts. No matter how busy we are, if we can take out time to eat and sleep, we can surely take time for workouts. You must be wondering why we equate workouts with our daily meals or our quota of sleep? The reason is that working out regularly is as important as sleeping or having your daily meals. To stay fit and keep working without getting stressed, we must have meals at regular intervals of the day. And sleep for at least 4 to 6 hours a day. Similarly, if we do not want our body to become the house for diseases, we must work out regularly. In this article, we will tell you 5 easy ways to introduce exercise to your weekly schedule.

How can you introduce exercise to your weekly schedule?

You would be surprised to know that we do a workout while doing our daily chores knowingly or unknowingly. If you really do not have adequate time to hit the gym, all you need to do is emphasize your daily chores. This will help you work out without having to take extra time for your gym sessions. We have mentioned below five easy ways to introduce exercise to your weekly schedule.

Embrace running while commuting

Whether you work for an organization or teach in a school, you need to leave for work every morning. Have you ever thought of running to the bus stop instead of going there on your bike? If you are serious about exercising, make sure to embrace running while commuting. For instance, run down to the nearest bust stop where you go to board your office bus every day, Even if your bust stop is just a mile away.

Keep your workout clothes handy

There are a lot of people who are moody by nature. When they think of going to the gym, they need everything available in front of them. The pain of finding things can spoil their moods completely. So if you have been thinking of working out lately, make sure you keep your clothes handy. It will save you from hankering for clothes when you are really late for the gym.  

Give priority to your exercise

Doing exercise is as important as conducting a meeting in your workplace. Meetings are an analyzer that monitors the progress of your work. Similarly, exercise is a tool that monitors your health. It is important that when you fix your workout routine, make sure you stick to it. Like you stick to your work schedule. Please don’t skip the time for working out unless it is necessary.

Play with your kids

Do you have kids at home? 

Running around with your kids or toddling with them can be a great exercise. It refreshes your mind and rejuvenates your body. Make sure you spend at least two hours a day with your kids. It is going to fulfill your daily quota of exercise.

Start waking up early

If you have tried every trick but still failed to introduce exercise in your weekly schedule, we guess changing your sleep cycle is going to work wonders. It is quite simple if you have a high-pressing job and by the time you come back home you are completely exhausted, don’t try exercising at the end of the day. Instead, save the mornings for your daily workouts. Researchers say it is the best time for a workout, but this is when you are fresh, and your body is relaxed. If you cannot make time for your workout, try doing it early in the mornings. Make it the first thing you do after you wake up. If you have been waking up at 7 in the morning, try getting up a little early. Start your day at 6 instead of 7. This is definitely going to solve your problem.

Exercising will be easy, and you will be able to make time for it from your busy schedule if you understand its importance. You also need to enjoy working out. Because a human tendency is that we always make time for things we love to do; therefore, if we start taking an interest in exercise, we will definitely be able to make time for it.

Final Takeaway

Exercising is as important as is food for the human body. To ensure the human body is working fine, we need to ensure that we exercise regularly. And to do that, we need to introduce exercise in our weekly schedule. If we do not have a gym nearby or can’t make time for exercise, we can alter the workout sessions with daily activities. For instance, you can choose t run while commuting to work or play with your little toddler at home. Every movement that you make is an exercise in itself. If you really want to introduce exercise to your weekly schedule, you need to start enjoying your daily workout sessions. Once you start liking exercises, you will definitely make time for it no matter how busy you are. And, if all else fails, you can choose to wake up earlier than you used to before you start working out. For instance, before today, if you were starting your day at 7, it is time to start getting up at 6 in the morning. We guess this is going to help you make time for your body. The key to remaining fit is giving yourself a priority. Once you have a healthy body, half of your physical problems will be erased. And a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. It increases longevity and decreases stress and anxiety. It also keeps your weight in check and increases your productivity. The next time you find you are not exercising, make sure to be involved in one of these activities. It will definitely be advantageous for your mental and physical health.

Most people who are short of time during working out tend to skip the warm-up and directly jump into the workout. Have you ever tried to skip the warm-up and landed up with a sprain in your ankle? Warm-up might sound lame, but there are a lot of advantages. In this article today, we will talk about the best warm-up exercises that will help you prevent injuries during your workout sessions.

Advantages of Warm-Up

Before we get into the best warm-up exercises, you should know the advantages of warm-up exercises. Some key advantages of warm-up exercises have been listed for your convenience.

Warm Up helps in increasing flexibility

The biggest advantage of a warm-up is it helps in increasing flexibility. The more flexible you are, the more convenient it becomes for you to exercise.

Lowers the risk of getting injured

As stated earlier, if we do not warm up before we get into our regular workout sessions, we might risk getting injured. Because when you step inside the gym, the body is stiff. It is only after the warm-up that it becomes ready for exercise. Warm-up increases blood flow the which helps the muscles get the required nourishment.

Lessens muscle tension and pain

Warm-up exercises also help lessen pain and muscle tension by reducing fatigue. Just after warm-up, muscles feel warm and relaxed. And you can move around freely. This is precisely why the pain caused by the movement of muscles is reduced to a great extent.

5 Best Warm-Up Exercises

There are numerous warm-up exercises that can help you ease your muscles. We have listed the best five warm-up exercises for you below.

Squats

Squats are one of the best warm-up exercises because of their versatility. It targets multiple muscles of the lower body, including the hamstrings, quads, and glutes. To overcome the initial difficulties because of the stiffness in the body, we can start doing warm-ups by doing half squads and then move onto full squads. It releases the muscles and makes it easier to move.

Process

• It would be best if you stood straight with your hips apart and your toes either facing forward or slightly away from the sight.
• It would help if you lowered your hip till you find your thighs are parallel to the floor.
• It would help if you paused briefly with your knees bending halfway but not beyond your toes. Make sure you are inhaling while you bend.
• Exhale while you stand back.
• It would be best to repeat this exercise 10 to 15 times in each rep and complete at least 1 to 3 sets in the warm-up.

Planks

Planks are one of the best warm-up exercises, especially for people who suffer from back pain and wish to develop their back muscles. Doing this warm-up exercise regularly helps in improving the posture and balance of an individual.

Process

• It would help if you lay down in a push-up position. Or else you can also do plank on your knees when you are warming up. Planks can also be done resting on your forearms or by fully extending your arms.
• Your toes and palms need to be firmly planted on the ground before you start doing your warm-up. Make sure your core muscles remain tight, and your back is straight.
• You need to hold your plank for a minimum of 30 seconds before you hop onto the second set.

Side Lunges

Side lunges are an exercise effective for your lower body. It helps strengthen your hips, glutes, and legs. Even in this case, if you find your body is too stiff, you can start warming up, making half lunges, and then as the tension in the body releases, you can move towards making full Lunges.

Process

• It would help if you stood tall with your hips wide apart along with your feet.
• Simultaneously you need to press into your right foot and then move on to the left foot.
• While you are pressing your right foot, you need to bend your left leg down, keeping the right leg straight.
• You need to stand up then and perform the same movements for your right leg. Initiate this warm-up exercise for both the right and left lunges.

Push-ups

Push-ups are a classic exercise for the upper body. But most of us find difficulties in doing push-ups when we are doing a warm-up. For a start, if you really want to do push-ups, you can start by doing push-ups on your knees.

Process

• It would help if you sat on a plank kneeling on your knees.
• Place your hands wide apart on the plank, with your shoulders straight.
• Then you need to lower your body down towards the floor. Make sure your torso and back do not sag while you bend down.
• Keep bending towards the ground till your chin and chest touch the ground. Then stretch your hands to avoid any hyperextension.
• You can repeat this exercise eight to twelve times.

Triceps Warm-up

This is one of the best warm-up exercises for the triceps. It helps in loosening the triceps muscles.

Process

• It would be best if you stretched your arms sideways so that they are parallel to the floor. Your palms should be facing down.
• The arms should be rotated in a backward cycle keeping it straight.
• After 30 seconds, you need to rotate your arms in the forward cycle.
• You can repeat the movement in sets of 3 to ensure the tricep muscles is free.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be said that no matter how late you are for your workout sessions, you should never miss doing warm-ups before you plunge into a workout if you really wish to avoid accidents or getting injured. We should remember that when we hit the gym, the body remains stiff, and only after doing a few rounds of workouts, the body becomes ready for intense exercises. Usually, people slow jog to ease out their bodies, but apart from slow jogging, some of the best warm-up exercises are squats, planks, side lunges, push-ups, and triceps warm up. 

These exercises are the most popular warm-up exercise. They are considered to be the best warm-up exercise worldwide because of the following reasons:

Firstly, they help in improving blood circulation. Secondly, these exercises reduce the risk of injuries by loosening the muscles. Thirdly, they increase muscle flexibility, and finally, these warm-up exercises help lessens muscle tension and pain.

Exercising is all about discipline, commitment, and hard work. Even though it is not magic. It is in fact the result of a constant effort that you observe a visible difference in your physique, whether you wish to put on weight, or reduce weight. Here are some popular fun exercises that will make your workout sessions interesting.

There are various reasons why most people do not find exercise interesting.

Firstly, it is not something that gives you immediate results. It requires time and consistency to reap the benefits of exercise.

Secondly, the whole concept of working out following the same sets of exercise becomes boring and monotonous for people, and the most important reason is it requires a typical mind-frame that helps people overcome the physical strain they face when they step inside their jogging shoes for the first time or step inside a gym. The process of building muscles or melting fat is harrowing. Without the proper mindset, people tend to step down from their commitment soon after their body starts aching after a few stretch ups.

This is precisely why people must convert the habit of exercising into fun exercises so that following the regimen of daily workouts doesn’t become strenuous.

Today, we will share some tips with you that will help you convert your rigorous workout sessions into fun activities.

Fidgeting can be a good, fun exercise

Most people have a habit of fidgeting, but they do not realize that fidgeting can be a good exercise. Fidgeting involves random finger movements. That helps in improving blood circulation. So, if you have the habit of fidgeting, then don’t let go of it. Instead, make sure you fidget knowingly for at least 10 minutes if you sit for long hours in a day.   

Turn your hobby into fun exercises

Exercise does not necessarily mean doing exercises by following a particular routine. Anything that involves body movements counts as exercise. So, if you were fond of yoga or dancing, but do not have the time to practice, now is the time when you can invest your free time into pursuing your long-forgotten hobbies like yoga and dancing. Dance is an excellent exercise, and so is yoga.

Go hiking with your friends 

Very few people know that trekking and hiking are excellent exercises. So if you are someone who enjoys traveling, make sure you go hiking with your friends. Pick up a place nearby, pack your bags, tie your shoelaces and move out. This way you will definitely enjoy the exercise but will also get an opportunity to see the world.

Turn Walking into fun exercises

Even though you have a high-pressure job, have no time for traveling and trekking, you can surely find 10 to 15 minutes in a day to go for a walk. Brisk walking is one of the most effective exercises. The only thing you should keep in mind while going on a walk is maintaining a proper speed while walking. Leisure walks are not really effective.

Crawl with your toddler

If you have an active kid at home who is a toddler, he can surely involve you in many fun activities to keep him accompanied. These activities also work as exercises for grown-up adults because it involves rigorous movement of muscles. One such fun activity that keeps your baby accompanied is crawling. Strange but true, crawling is an excellent exercise and is also practiced by people when they decide to take a day off from the rigorous workout sessions. Crawling helps in active recovery.

Have an active meeting

 If you are into a job where you are supposed to sit all day long and meet people on several agendas, you may change the routine a bit and tie up meetings with people out in the open doing physical activity.

For example, going on a long walk with your client, or involving your client in an outdoor sport that may interest both. For example, you can involve them in playing golf. This way, the work won’t bore you, and you can also make time for physical exercise.

Convert cleaning into fun exercises

Cleaning our room is a task that none of us can avoid. Did you know that cleaning not just helps you be organized, but it also works as an exercise? Cleaning can turn into fun exercises by simply turning on some loud music or playing games while cleaning to avoid boredom.

Take fun resolutions while playing video games

 Most of us are gaming freaks and spend most of our time playing video games. This is why we find very little time for exercising. And mostly avoid exercise because we want to spend our time gaming. We can change this habit by involving fun exercises like taking small resolutions while gaming. For example, we will do 15 pushups every time we die. It makes exercising fun and helps us overcome our lethargy.

Play any musical instrument

Playing a musical instrument also works as a fun exercise. Be it a violin, guitar, piano, or any other instrument. The hand movements that are involved in playing the instrument also become a good exercise.

Join your kids in the playground or take your dog out on the run

If you have a dog at home or have kids who love going to the playground, make sure you take some time out to play with them in the playground. Whether you run with your dog or climb the monkey ladder with your kid to give him company, every small movement you make while you are in the playground turns into a physical exercise for you.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be said that if you are not much of a physical person and are not fond of exercise, you need not have to force yourself to go to the gym. Instead, you can turn these exercises into fun exercises by getting into the habit of fidgeting, which is otherwise a great finger exercise. You can also spend time dancing, plan a hiking trip with your friends, go for an evening walk, and crawl on the floor with your toddler to give him company, take fun resolutions.

In contrast, gaming, for example, doing 15 pushups every time you die.  You can also learn to play a musical instrument, take your dog on the run, or play with your kid in the playground. These activities will help you turn your exercise into fun activities that will not just take the boredom out of your workout sessions but also help you stay fit. So, in case you spend too much time sitting at your desk we suggest you should involve yourself in some of these fun activities.