Getting Back Out There

by Laurel Reckert — November 16, 2008

Once you start feeling better you're going to want to race out the door to your old fitness routine. Wait! Depending on how long you've been on the sidelines is going to dictate how soon you can really get back to normal.

Start slow. Whether it's a skinned knee or a sprained ankle, it's advised to go easy on yourself. Try going for a short walk. If that goes ok, try going for a longer one. As Bill Murray would say, "Baby steps." Go slowly and surely because the last thing you want to do is re-injure yourself and have a recovery that's twice as long.

Your doctor or trainer may advise you do to strengthening exercises to get the injury back up to par. When I sprained my ankle my doctor gave me a list of exercises and tension band routines to do to strengthen the muscles around it. When I ran too much my doctor gave me stretches I could do to help the injured area. For my bike accident I really just had to wait for it to heal. But even then, I eased back into my fitness routines one day at a time and took extra precautions to avoid re-injury.

Regardless of your sport or fitness level injuries are no fun. I hope these anecdotes will help you keep on doing what you're doing injury free!