Monday starts off with a few of you struggling with aches and pains of different kinds, the big question is can you still have a successful week? The big answer must be of course you can!!!
For example, if you have a bad knee, theres a million other things you can do APART from running, which is guaranteed to put further stress on an already bad situation!! You have to work around it!
I like to totally go against the “no pain no gain” saying, in fact whoever made it up needs to be shot!!
If you have a bad knee, you should pick activities that WILL NOT put any strain on your knee at all.
Options include working on the bike on flat surfaces, or working on a stationery bike, the rowing machine MAY be okay if you can pull more with your upper body rather than your lower body.
You can do lots of weight training exercises that DO NOT put any strain on your knees whatsoever, this can be quite easy to do, and still means you can have a very intense workout, which will be highly beneficial to you of course. I have been in this situation many times and the ability to “work around” injuries will be one of the most valuable things you can have.
If you have a bad back, this tends to be tougher because your back is involved in everything you do. I would recommend some swiss ball work, which can help your back a lot and there are numerous options on this ball. If you can cycle again on a flat surface, AND you have no pain whatsoever, i would work at a moderate intensity and you WILL again get some seriously good benefits from this. I would avoid any weight training with a bad back.
The bottom line is that are numerous alternatives of training even if you have injuries, you just have to be more selective and train smarter. We all have aches and pains from time to time, but they are definitely not a reason to give up on yourself as many do.
Its not about whether you get knocked down, its whether you get up again so your choice entirely!!!
Keri, what is the Swiss ball technique please?
If I just had a “bad knee” Keri I would be in the Gym as you well know, I was back in the Gym after my last op before the stitches were out or the bandages off. I am ALWAYS in pain with my knee and have been since my op, varing degrees of pain and swelling is normal for me, and if I hadnt chosen to ignore it over the years I would not have trained since my op in 2001. But this is pain on a different level, on a scale of 1 to 10 it is an 8, you always say to get a good nights sleep before training the next day, well this is keeping me up most of the weekend, so the last thing on my mind is training at the moment. Seen in A & E this afternoon and have an appointment in Fracture Clinic in the morning, I will ask again about training to see what THEY say, the doctor in A & E told me to rest it for the rest of the week, and then I could go to the Gym as long as it did not involve using my legs. I suppose if you had monkey bars I could swing from them. I though I was doing a good thing going for a walk up the Presili Mountains, there was a bunch of us and I strayed from the path to get a better view, and before I knew it I was in Peat, it was like jelly and I couldn’t get my footing and twisted my knee trying to get out of it. Anyway, nothing I can do about it, my weight doesnt help the situation.
didnt want or mean to talk down your knee pain jean so apologies, and i was telling debs earlier that nobody gives 100% commitment more than you do, so it must be REALLY, REALLY bad and the situation you describe must be horrible to say the least. I was just giving more of a general comment for those people who have a bad knee or hip or back, obviously there are several different degrees of pain
Let me know how it goes this week and how i can help!!
swiss ball technique in truth are several different exercises on the big ball you blow up and most people dont know what to do with.
Will post pictures of suggested exercises at a later date.
They are vitally important for your core, i would google exercises on the swiss ball and you will get a whole range of stuff come up. Start off slow and build up from there.