ROSIE - Injuries... grrr!

This is a seemingly obvious piece... and has come from speaking to Zar over the past couple of weeks You may have noticed from her blogs (!) that she has an injury at present and my heart goes out to her on that! So, let's ask the basic question - what do you do if you have an injury? Simple; rest it. Yes, very simple, unless it happens to be YOU that's carrying that injury. It's only when exercise becomes an important part of your life that having an injury becomes an issue. If going to the gym is a struggle rather than a part of your day, an injury is a great excuse not to have that workout!

On the other side of the coin, I know how desperate it feels to have a great exercise regime that you simply cannot live without when injury strikes. You feel like your whole world has shifted and life as you know it is not the same. It sounds crazy and over the top but it's true. Over and over I've had clients who are injured and still push themselves to the limit. I spend two sessions per week with them trying to give them exercises to recuperate and strengthen an injured area and BAM, the next week they're even worse because they've pushed themselves too hard in between our sessions.

So... my advice? Take a step back. Don't make your injury worse. It's hideous and frustrating and you want to scream but look at the maths. It's better to take 2, 3, even 6 weeks doing exercise at a lower intensity than pushing your injury too far. If you do, you could be back in business and better than ever. If you DO push your injury then you will, WITHOUT DOUBT, make it worse and have longer off exercise and could cause permanent damage. Try and think outside the box and don't panic. Take up swimming, pilates, just something different and lower intensity that won't damage you even further. 2-3 weeks won't make a big difference. Your fitness may drop a little, hell, you may even put on 4 or 5 lbs. But you can pick up your fitness and lose those pounds.

On this note, if you do exercise regularly it's probably very rare that you take a "week off". We exercise to feel good and why should we take a week off feeling good? But it's so SO important for your body to have a break. If you go on holiday, leave your trainers behind. Don't panic if you have a busy week at work and can't make it to the gym. Don't worry if you oversleep on Sunday morning and don't have time for your workout. If you feel guilty about missing exercise then it's often a sign that it's controlling you. Hard as it is, give yourself a week off. You can get back to it after a week feeling rested, refreshed with your energy stores replenished and feeling better than ever!