Fitness routines after illness, injury, or disability -

[Baklava]

In brief: chronically ill, used to be super into weight lifting, but that's off the table for a long while yet. Curious to know what other kiwis who were/are ill, injured, etc. did as they got back into exercise. What worked for you as you got better? What are your preferred ways to get a workout in now?

 

[Coconut Gun]

I've heard several times that DDP Yoga is basically magic if you're looking for a way to get in shape but are injured/sick/old.

 

[YourMommasBackstory]

I know a great fitness trainer, who works with chronically ill people. She attends variour courses about fitness, health and medicine and she creates personal programms for each person she works with+she gives diet\nutrition advices. I started to work with her after i had a diagnosed chronical illness and i still follow her programms.

 

[break these cuffs]

I generally start with vinyasa yoga since it includes strength building as well as stretching and then move into calisthenics and bodyweight stuff because I am very familiar with it from the military. At least I was until I got old because I gave myself wicked tendinitis in my elbows the last time I did my push up routine. Listen to your body and take it slow. I don't have a chronic illness, but I got beat up in the military pretty good and historically have pushed myself too hard, so I get a variety of soft tissue injuries.

 

[Lemmingwise]

I think of exercise simply as:

-Cardio
-Muscle
-Skill

And to facilitate good exercise:

-Nutrition
-Sleep

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Cardio is simple. Everything that elevates your breathing and heart rate is good. Swimming and cycling are probably the least accident prone ways of doing so. Running is the most accessible way of doing so, but the repetitive stress on ankles, knees and potentially, back, makes it not always the best tool, especially for overweight or non-healthy people. I still like running a lot though.

Muscle is more intricate, but it all comes down to just breaking down your muscles and giving them enough time to recover. There is infinite ways to improve, but in the end it's all variations of moving weight around. Higher intensity tends to result in better results per time. But when recovering and getting into it, just focus on going through things lightly. When you think you have the right weight to exercise with, go one lower. Do that three times in a week. See how it feels then. From there just progress slowly and don't get greedy / impatient.

Skill is important. If you don't know how to prevent injuries, get assistance, watch youtube videos, get a personal trainer once a week or once every two weeks. Learn how to do things without injuring yourself. It's not necessarily simple to do so. Good exercise can feel exactly like injurious exercise. And if you're unused to excercising, you might not be aware of how your exercise high can mask the feeling of how an activity is injuring you (in martial arts I learned to take a break after something that looked like it could cause an injury. 5 or 10 minutes that rotated shoulder might start to hurt a lot, or it might be completely fine. You can't always tell in the moment.)

After injuries and sickness, I find it best to keep exercise as simple as possible. The more complex, the more things that can distract me and make me less aware of how something feels for my body. So less group sports and games and more something like cycling.

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Nutrition and sleep you'll have to look up for yourself, but they're significantly important.

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Oh and one final thing: Don't stress over how much you're achieving with exercise. The first goal should be the habit of turning up for exercise. For example:

John wants to exercise. He plans on running.
The first goal is to three times a week, get dressed in exercise gear, have a drink of water. Whether you go running or not is OPTIONAL. How far you go is optional. By training into that habit, he develops the healthy habit to eventually go running frequently.
That might also instead be showing up at the gym. By focusing the habit on taking care of the requirements, you're building a situation where you're making it easy to have healthy lifestyle.

If you just get ready for exercise three times this week and don't overdo it (injure yourself), it's great progress.

The two greatest threats are impatience/wanting to do too much and laziness/not getting started. So take the challenge and try to get started and then not do too much.

 

[Idiotron]

Work out beneath your capabilities.
For example, if you're able to do 10 push ups, do 7. Same with other exercises.
You won't get really tired and you'll be able to train more often.
Yoga and Tai Chi are good as well.
Take the safe approach to exercise. It might take longer but nobody is chasing you.
Nothing will happen if you get your abs back a year later than you want.

Take a lot of supplements. Your body needs the bricks to rebuild itself.

Sleep enough (7 hours per day at least) and on your back, not on the side or stomach.

 

[The Fifth Waltz]

My relative was lost in the mountains and came back with a fucked up leggy. She did the routine excercises that physio teaches and swam laps with a kickboard.

 

[Backs my Walls]

After I stopped being able to walk a whole lot (weak leg muscles, can't put pressure on my hips), I found swimming to be great for cardio. Deliberately working at 50-60% of my max heart rate helped me build up while I was still experiencing fatigue; Huawei do an inexpensive fitness band that can be used to track heart rate while swimming.

 

[Ellesse_warrior]

Had shoulder surgery just over a year ago and had a six month lifting restriction. Couldn't push or pull with that arm or lift anything heavier than a bag of sugar. After finishing up with the physio I started swimming and doing aqua aerobics to help build up the strength I lost in my arm from not using it for so long. I eventually moved onto hiit and yoga and now do hiit, boxercise and yoga 5 days a week. I think the main thing is to find something you enjoy though until you can get back to lifting because otherwise you won't stick to it. I know I should be lifting now myself but I really didn't enjoy it at all and there's definitely a bit of fear that I'll injure myself again

 

[JosephStalin]

Had some major-league surgery just over seven years ago. Had been walking four miles a day just before the surgery. Was only in the hospital four days but came home feeling tired and a little weak - impossible to sleep well in the hospital without being sedated. Got home, put bag away, went out and started walking. Made it about a quarter-mile before turning back. Walked every day, gradually increasing length of the walks. Also did stuff around the house, taking frequent breaks. Was back to four miles daily in a month.

 

[Dumb Bitch Smoothie]

Really as long as you adequately stretch before and after, take enough vitamins and supplements to make up for the damage and have strong aftercare you can push yourself as much as you feel comfortable doing.

If you're able to get bloodwork done, get your doctor to take a look at what your vitamin levels and absorption is like. They'll be able to give you an idea of whether or not you're pushing too hard or can push a little more. Keep them in the loop if you can because their oversight is the most valuable thing when getting back into shape.

Also, diet changes too. Support yourself with a protein rich diet once you get started and make sure not to ignore balanced eating even if you're taking vitamins. Just listen to your body, keep an eye on your bloodwork if you can and get rolling.

 

[Bassomatic]

My dude, sorry about the hard times. But what exactly are your held back by? What's your wounds?

I've been under the knife a few times and it doesn't get easier or better, esp as my old ass gets older. Both goals and what happened are the plan to rebuild.

Also... d bol is fucking lovely, so I read in a book <_<

 

[Baklava]

My dude, sorry about the hard times. But what exactly are your held back by? What's your wounds?

I've been under the knife a few times and it doesn't get easier or better, esp as my old ass gets older. Both goals and what happened are the plan to rebuild.

Also... d bol is fucking lovely, so I read in a book <_<

Thanks man. Malabsorption and cerebellar ataxia from celiac disease are the biggest obstacles atm. It took years to get a correct dx and things are improving at a good pace, especially the neurological stuff, but it's two steps forward, one step back sometimes. Thanks for the book knowledge!