Can I Exercise with an Injury?

If you hurt yourself over the weekend, you may be asking yourself whether you need to cancel your personal training appointment or if you can still exercise with an injury. The answer, of course, depends on several different factors, but overall you may be surprised to find out how much you can still do with the guidance of a qualified personal trainer.

Folks’ perceptions of their own injuries can be skewed. Some may try to minimize or downplay an injury because they are afraid of losing ground to the effects of detraining. Others may make mountains out of molehills looking for a reason to skip the workout and get some of their time back into their week. Neither is a good approach to your health.

When Is It Time to See a Doctor?

Come see us to talk about your training plan to exercise with an injury. We can still work the rest of your body around the injured area. In most cases, there is much more uninjured area to work with than injured. We can help you avoid lengthy sideline times and the de-training that comes with it by continuing to work the unaffected areas in a safe, responsible way. Personal trainers are not doctors, and they cannot diagnose or treat any injury. What they are trained to do is work with and around an injury in a way that is safe and effective. If you are experiencing pain or swelling after an injury, skip the guesswork, log off WebMD and go see your doctor. This can prevent you from hurting yourself further by leaving an injury untreated. 

How We Can Help You Exercise with an Injury

We’ll sit down with you and discuss whether or not you’ve seen a doctor, what the diagnosis was, and what you did to injure yourself. Then, we’ll go over what movements make it hurt, and what range of motion aggravates the injury. From there, we come up with a personalized plan to train you while avoiding exacerbating any injury you might have, while still ensuring that your other muscles get the workout they need.

For example, if you hurt your bicep, we can still safely work your shoulder. In fact, keeping the surrounding area strong may be able to help with your recovery time.

The Takeaway

Some forums or blog posts may advise you to work through a slight or nagging pain, as long as it isn’t one that won’t go away. DO NOT do this. Without seeing a doctor and working with a qualified trainer, there is absolutely no way to know whether this is safe. You could be taking a minor injury and stressing it to the point of becoming a more serious injury. There is also no real way to know what qualifies as a “slight” or “nagging” pain–and just exactly when does a pain stick around long enough to be considered one that “won’t go away”? These are all subjective measures that get people more hurt.

It’s important to keep in mind that it is not normal to get injured while working out. If you work with a qualified trainer and go about your strength training regimen responsibly, there is no reason that you should ever get hurt during the course of working out. Discomfort and muscle fatigue are normal; injury and pain are not. With that said, if you do ever get hurt, we can help you keep your workout on track.

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