How to Start Exercising with Pre-existing Injury
Goal setting when you have an injury or physical limitation is the same as when you are healthy. It is all about making a plan and sticking to it. First, you need to decide on what your goal is for the new Year. For many, this will be related to losing the “quarantine weight.” you just need to make an additional goal of working to treat an injury.
The perfect example I can think of is a client that started working with me when their knees were bothering them. They had injured their knees skiing when they were younger. When I started working with them they were in their late 60s. He is still skiing and attributes their knee health to my exercise prescription.
What I did different: made a plan total body approach based on Progressive building.
Whatever your goal is, it needs to contain the following:
Specific: Needs to be a stated goal, i.e. losing 10 lbs
Measurable: It has to be something that you can track (quantifiable).
Attainable: Something that is realistic for your to achieve with your schedule
Relevant : Will this make YOU happy? (ex: is this for your health or someone else’s approval?)
Time-bound - You need to set a deadline for your goal otherwise there is no pressure. I am pretty sure that's why weddings are popular goals. As adults we do not have any bigger deadline that is not work related.
These SMART Goals, as they are called, are the basis of most plans. The problem is they are a pain in the butt to put together. It is so much easier to just go forward with half of a plan. The, “I am going to lose 15 pounds in 3 weeks by losing 5 pounds each week. That is only 1.33 pounds every 2 days” plan that fails after day one.
Why? It has a goal with a measurable/quantifiable component, it is attainable (technically), and there is a timeline.
However, it is not realistic. While it technically CAN be done, it will not get the results you think it will. This is starvation and dehydration to the EXTREME. The first 2-3 pounds you lose your body’s sugar (glucose) stores, 8 pounds to water weight, and the rest to muscle wasting. These are not exact numbers (except the glucose stores), but you get the idea. I can go on a long tangent about fad diets. If you would like to see why I hate fad diets you can go to my blog about it you can click here.
Now that you know what to do and how NOT to do it, let’s take a look on how it is done properly.
Setting the goal is the easy part. Making a plan that you can be accountable and consistent with, that is the hard part.
What you need is a detailed plan. It should contain all of the following:
Realistic exercise plan for your SMART goal
Balanced healthy meal plan (I hate the term diet), also consistent with your goals
A realistic plan, i.e., for weight loss a healthy amount of weight to lose in a week is .5 lbs to 1 lbs.
Have multiple measures for success, i.e, weight, inches, and body fat percentage.
Plan for weeks where things will go wrong and/or plateaus (doing the same thing leads to stagnation)
If you are reading to this and thinking, that is too much work! Relax, because I have a FREE SMART goals worksheet when you sign up for my email list. I also have a One month beginner program complete with a meal plan for sale on my website HERE.
SMART Goals with Pre-existing Condition
When creating your SMART goals and preparing to exercise or change your diet, then you have to take a few extra precautions.
Consult your Physician
Consult a Registered Dietitian (if necessary)
Understand your body and limitations
Work your treatments into you plan
I am mainly going to talk about working treatments into the plan. With my Corrective Exercise and Cardiac Rehab background, I am a huge fan of warming up and cooling down.
The most common issues people deal with are shoulder pain, knee pain, and back pain. In all cases, work with a Physical Therapist should have been done to help alleviate pain and get you the exercises you need to correct the issue. The problem is that you stop Physical Therapy once insurance runs out. However, with some pre-hab exercises, proper exercise technique, and post-exercise inflammation control you can stay pain-free while following your goals.
My basic format is 5 minutes of foam rolling to remove knots. Then I do some traditional rehab exercises for a given joint issue. Finally, I would ice the affected joint. There is a lot of nuance, but this is the basis of working out and staying pain free with a pre-existing condition.