Personal trainer tips: Working out when you have an injury

Sometimes having to deal with tweaks, twinges and nagging injuries may become part of your exercise regime. Whether this is down to previous injuries, something that has occurred due to exercise, or something completely unrelated, there are several ways forward to recovery.

The first thing to do is get the all clear from a medical professional; if you are concerned about an injury, it is not worth risking making it worse. However, you also do not want to rest unnecessarily and go backwards with training.

Once you have been cleared, you can continue working out, you may just need to incorporate variations. There are a whole host of options for every exercise, so you can still work out and get a sweat on! If you are concerned, speak to your personal trainer and they can give you all the appropriate variations to suit your injury.

If you need to rest, you can always focus on the something else, e.g. if you have hurt your shoulder, you can focus on lower body and vice versa. This is not recommended long term as you can create imbalances, but to prevent a decline it may be the way forward for a short period of time.

If you have niggles due to poor form or mobility issues, there are plenty of strengthening/ stretching exercises you can do to rectify this, again, ask your personal trainer if you have any queries.

The best way to prevent injury is to complete a Functional Movement Screening Programme before you start exercising. It’s worth bearing in mind that this does not cover everything and you may still pick up injuries along the way, but it can highlight possible problems that may arise; it's a preventative strategy.

Injuries do not mean you have to stop training, but you do need to listen to your body. Get your injury checked out so you can create an action plan to carry on working out but stay safe at the same time!

If you need any further guidance, you can get in touch with our expert personal trainers in Bristol by calling 0117 403 7600, or email info@efitbristol.co.uk

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