♥ What are the most common injuries, and how to workout with an injury?

Hi Loves!

Previous time we’ve talked about why stretching, warming-up and cooling down is so important. Today I wanted to highlight some of the most common injuries –actually caused by not doing warming-ups, cooling-downs and stretchings ánd the answer to the question: “How to workout with an injury”?

Chafing your skin

This can occur when your skin’s rubbing against clothing or another body part. It can be super painful and irritating, but won’t necessarily hinder your from working out. You can prevent chafing by wearing clothes with soft material and seams. If you wear clothes that are made for sporting specifically you won’t have this problem. If you have certain areas that are chafed a lot, you could use some petroleum jelly (Vaseline) for instance.

Sore muscles

Really normal when you’re working out frequently (or not frequently). You can prevent sore muscles by doing a proper warming up and stretching before and after your workout.

Muscle Cramps

Super annoying when you’re really willing to go for it, but your body beholds you from it. You’ll experience these cramps when you lose salt and fluids from your body. This can happen when you sweat a lot and not drink enough water. However, if you’ve never exercised before, you can also experience cramps when you’re muscles get tired. You can treat muscle cramps by eating eggs with table-salt before or after (contains sodium).

Pain in your lower back

I think we’ve all had this before: lower back pain during and after our exercise. Either you have weak abdominal and back muscles, you’re overdoing an exercise or doing it wrong. Really important is to stretch afterwards and let it rest for a while until it doesn’t hurt anymore. Also: ask a trainer at the gym if he can tell you if you’re doing it the right way or not.

Knee Pain

There are lots of thing that can cause pain in your knee. Usually this occurs by doing repetitive high intensity activities, such as stair climbing, running, and jumping. You can avoid this by changing exercises and to include a mix of low and high impact activities. “Ouch! Still hurt my knee, what to do?” Stop what you’re doing: take some ice, compress, rest and raise your knee. If you the pain is persistent you should definitely consult your doctor.

Shin Splints

An injury that refers to the pain in front or behind your lower leg. It can be caused by tight calves, weak shins, and doing exercises the wrong way. You can prevent shin splints by warming up and stretching the calf muscles before and after a workout. Best way to prevent future injuries is to strengthen your shins. Also really important; is to wear the right shoes for the type of exercising you’re doing.

However… Don’t let your injuries hold you from achieving your fitness and weight loss goals. Just listen to your body carefully and quit while you’re starting to feel pain. Yes, having an injury sucks, especially when you’re striving certain goals, or because you’re a little addicted to working out. Whether you currently have an injury or you’ve dealt with one in the past, here’s what you could do to still work out!

Talk to Your Doctor

It’s super important to ask your doctor about what you should and shouldn’t do when exercising. You don’t want to make it worse now would you? Even though you know best what feels right and what wrong, you could still do an exercise that feels okay but causes long-term damage to your body.

Rule out ALL Possibilities

Maybe you’ve injured your knee and you’ve been told to slow down and do “some other exercises”. Always ask a second opinion, because an X-ray might discover something that hasn’t been seen before. You don’t want to worsen your injury without knowing it! Make sure you’ve ruled out all injury possibilities if your doctors can’t point out what is exactly wrong with you!

Follow your doctor’s advice
If the doctor tells you to avoid a certain area, even if it’s small, you might blow off his/her advice because you’re not in a lot of pain. WRONG! Éven if the pain is bearable, don’t strain it even more. I’ve warned ya 😉

YouTube Tutorials

There is só much on youtube, you can’t even think off yourself. There are lots and lots of fitness gurus out there, who’ve made super handy youtube tutorials for exercises while having an injury.

Ask your / a trainer
Trainers are qualified and know best what exercises are best when having an injury. Ask someone to help you out, make a scheme that works best for you and work out on your own time. It might take a little while before you’re ‘back in track’, but that’s okay! Don’t stress out about it and go with your own flow.

Have you ever dealt with an injury and still have been working out? How did you deal with it?