How to avoid losing fitness when injured or away from the gym.

As any of my clients know I don’t believe in excuses to get out of exercise. It is so crucial, especially in this generation where everything can be done from a computer desk or car to maintain an active lifestyle. Most of us know the basic benefits of exercise are increased cardiovascular health, fitness and weight control. Here is a list of 60 benefits of regular exercise that you should also consider. If it isn’t a priority to you, it should be!

www.busywomensfitness.com/exercise-benefits.html

Obesity rates are increasing all the time and a proportion of that can be attributed to the lack of exercise performed by a large percentage of the population in western countries like Australia and the U.S. So, here are two ways to continue training when injured or away from a gym, which are two of the most common excuses for taking time off.

Training when injured:

If you have suffered an injury from training, sport or an accident, it is important to understand that it is not necessary to cease training until you recover. You can lose fitness and strength very quickly if you decide to take a month or 6 weeks off training altogether. It is better to continue training, avoiding use of the affected area, until appropriate to begin using it again. For example, if you broke your ankle playing netball, you can still do upper body and core conditioning. If you have torn a muscle or ligament in your shoulder, you can still do kicking on your back in the pool holding a board, lunges, squats and so on. Don’t use an injury as an excuse to give up for a while, you will lose so much ground and find it very hard to start up again.

Injuries can range from strains and sprains to fractures and tears. It is imperative that any unusual soreness, or obvious injury is examined by a medical professional and perhaps a physiotherapist to ensure the extent of the damage is diagnosed, which will give you a starting point for rehabilitation also.

A recent example of training around an injury. My husband is an elite 100m sprinter, and has had some swelling and possible fractures in one foot. He was supposed to do deadlifts and some other leg/whole body exercises today. We decided to rejig the session to an upper body and swim session instead. Managing training like this is simple and ensures you don’t lose fitness and all your improvements because of an injury. Each injury varies however there is always a way to work around it.

If I have really sore muscles in a particular area, I often change my plan when I walk into the gym, depending on how I feel. If my chest or shoulders are really sore, my plans for a workout containing push ups and pull ups might be changed to some plyometric box jumps and some walking lunges. Be flexible, and be focussed on doing something because it is always BETTER THAN NOTHING!

Learn to listen to your body. Injuries are not common in the general population who are exercising for fitness or weight loss, however those who tend to push a little harder and have more serious goals in mind experience mild to moderate injuries and need to manage them effectively. Your physiotherapist can show you effective rehabilitation exercise to get range of movement and strength back into the injured area when appropriate. Always seek professional advice when training around or rehabilitating an injury.

If you are ill from a virus or other condition, this is different to an injury and it is best to get medical advice as sometimes exercise can exasturbate a short term illness. Some people believe in training when sick and "sweating it out", however I’d advise against this as your body is under enough strain fighting the illness for you.

Ways to train without a gym or when traveling:

If you think you can’t make a difference to your health because you don’t have money for a gym or trainer, or are away from home frequently, this one is for you. If you normally go to a gym, but can’t get there for some reason sometimes, please read on, planning ahead prevents failure!

If you are committed to improving your health, you need consistency with your training. Unless it is a scheduled day off, you need to plan to be able to train. I suggest organising a display folder with a list of exercises (some resources below) to have on hand. You are less likely to skip a day if you have a backup plan at the ready. So, pop that on this week’s shopping list right now. If you think you will do it later, you won’t. Literally get up now and write it down!

Exercise should be integrated into your daily life, rather than seen as a chore. Look forward to your session, and plan ahead.

The following exercises are but a brief list of excellent functional exercises that can be performed in varied formats to provide a short yet challenging and effective workout without any special equipment. I can guarantee from personal experience when one, some or all are performed in a timely fashion, you WILL get a challenging workout!

Burpees
Squats
Lunges
Push Ups
Sit ups
Dips (chair/bench/table/step required)
Running
Walking
Step ups
Jumps
Bear Crawl

You can look up demonstration videos for these exercises at the following link:

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.htm

The link below contains workout suggestions utilising many of these exercises. You can try 20 minute workouts with 3 different exercises, clocking up as many rounds as you can in the time, or you could set a number of rounds i.e. 5 and see how fast you can get through them. My favourite (when I say favourite I mean loathed) home workout is to do 50 or 100 burpees as fast as I can and to record the time. I usually break it down into sets of 10 with a 15 second breather between the sets. Burpees are cardio, strength, power. They work arms, legs, core, everything! The key to doing workouts at home or on the go is to ensure you keep the intensity high and plan short sessions with only 3 or 4 exercises (including sprints/runs if you like).

The following link provides 3 different lists of exercises you can print out to keep handy for any situation. The top 3 threads in the forum contain the lists. http://www.crossfitbrandx.com/index.php/forums/viewforum/20/ Don’t be overwhelmed, you can pick and choose what suits you and your training level. You can modify sessions to a difficulty that is appropriate. Have a read through them and print out or copy any that you feel are appropriate for your training.

Plan ahead or you are setting yourself up for failure. Playing catch ups after time off is dangerous because you have diminished fitness and strength, then you go to train at the same level where you left off, compounded by the fact you might push out more training per session to catch up. Be smart about your planning and have something ready as a backup plan that you can do in the lounge room, motel room, local park etc. No more excuses!

Avoiding Self Sabotage – 7 steps to Permanent Positive Change

Self Sabotage is something we are all guilty of at times, however those who engage in constant negative self talk find this cycle of initial motivation to complete failure is a regular occurrence in one or more areas of their life. People can and do change! Do not, under any circumstances assume you are “just like that” and cannot legitimately transform your actions, behavior or circumstances. I’ve done it and seen plenty of other people do it too. If you have taken the time to come here and read this, you are already on the way to achieving it! I believe self sabotage stems from people not believing that deep down they deserve what they want. Life doesn’t have to be depressing, hard, sad and pointless.
Life should be abundant, happy, exciting, educational and emotional, don’t settle for anything less.

My personal experience

I’ve noticed the people most affected by this tend to be very selfless and generous. Always doing things to please other people. They get immense pleasure from helping and supporting everyone around them, to the extend that they are uncomfortable if the favour is returned and feel awkward asking for help when they need it.

If there is one point I want you to take away from this article, it would be:

If you notice you are in a cycle of self sabotage, become more selfish.

Learn to become comfortable with doing things for your own benefit. Take time to consider how your intended behavior or action might affect YOU in the near or distant future. Will it be a good day at work tomorrow if you yell at a colleague because they are late on a task? Will you be fitter next week if you skip today’s training session? I believe just as we can have physical imbalances in our bloodstream/body, our emotional levels can be out of balance. If you self sabotage in any area of your life, it might just be that you need to be more selfish and realise that if YOU are happier and healthier, it will resonate with everyone and everything you deal with on a daily basis. If you enjoy making other people happy, you should know by now how to do it, so give a little of that medicine to yourself.

What do I mean when I say for your own benefit?

• Being comfortable handling highly stressful situations
• Being assertive at work without being aggressive
• Eating wholesome food to support your body (your life’s vehicle!)
• Avoiding conflict by calming down before responding to accusations/arguments
• Using spare time to educate yourself on something you need to be better at
• Telling people you love, that you love them!
• Celebrating achievements no matter how small

Do any of these things “benefit” you?

• Flying off the handle during arguments
• Admitting defeat before you begin
• Unwillingness to increase demands during training
• Make excuses for not eating nutritionally dense, healthy food
• Blame someone, something for anything that you perceive as going “wrong”
• Procrastinating instead of taking immediate action
• Taking on too much at once
• Being disorganised

Everyone has the resources and ability to initiate a true change in their behavior to stop the cycle of self sabotage. The positiveness can and will snowball to the point where you have no choice but to accept it! You need to get momentum with that initial drive and goal, and then change into a comfortable gear to get through the journey in a reasonable time frame.

Are you lazy by nature? If so, it will strongly affect any long term change. Be prepared for this and do whatever it takes to remind yourself daily that this really matters to you. I’ve said before – a bad day shouldn’t create a bad week. Accept you didn’t get it right this time and pick up where you left off, immediately. Celebrate improvements and ignore failures. Focus the energy on what you want, not what you are doing wrong.

Be realistic with goals, expectations, time frames when planning anything in your life. Keep in mind that other people will do their best to bring you down, not even consciously a lot of the time. Jealousy can cause people to say and do things they wouldn’t do if they were conscious of it. Don’t rely on other peoples compliments or comments to uplift you. Beating self sabotage is a deeply personal, internal experience that must be driven by you, for you.

Ready to stop self sabotage? Get a pen and paper and continue on:

• Allow yourself to accept praise. You need to be comfortable feeling proud of any change and achievements. Give yourself permission to shine! What has happened in your life to make you think you do not deserve long term success? Write it down.
• IDENTIFY Take the time to write down what it is you are “failing” at. What areas of your life do you continually self sabotage? Next to each one, write how you can combat it. You might plan to count to 10 before responding to an email, or packing your training gear into the car so you can get changed at work and go right to the gym. Plan simple strategies to combat the individual circumstances so you have a failsafe in place to keep you on track.
• What is the PATTERN? Get detailed here and really express on paper what goes through your mind before, during and after a cycle of self sabotage.
• How long does it take from motivation to failure? (hours, days, weeks, months?)
• Barriers to success – List anything or anyone who presents a challenge to your success? (e.g. work hours, family member, lack of information) Present solutions to each of your barriers.
• What should the priorities in your life be? (For me they are fitness, health, education, happy relationships, time for rest/play, helping others.) Can you combine priorities to ensure success?
• Seal the deal. If you train yourself to have immediate awareness when initiating your pattern of behavior that results in self sabotage you can stop it before it gets any momentum, and redirect your energy.

Thankyou again for reading, I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to check out my articles. I love writing and hope I have helped someone today!