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!

Functional Fitness – forget the machines and train properly!

When I sat down to write this article, it dawned on me that it will be challenging to put into words how much shifting to this method of training can change your life. I can only suggest you give it a go for yourself and leave all your old ideas at the door. I did! I’ve been heavily into weightlifting and fitness since the age of 14 (I am 29 at the time of writing). I’ve had decent results in strength and muscle development from traditional training utilising a mixture of machine weights, dumbells and bodyweight exercises. Recently I’ve moved into fully functional exercise following the Crossfit (http://www.crossfit.com) methodology/workouts and have comitted to never touching another machine again. The results I have achieved are nothing short of amazing. I should state I’m not affiliated with Crossfit and am not being paid to write this article. My personal improvement and success is my motivation to share this with my readers.

Crossfit training can be summed up as follows:

World-Class Fitness in 100 Words:

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

-CrossFit founder, Greg Glassman

While you will get results from traditional gym exercise, you can get faster, more overall results from a truly functional fitness program. Your typical gym consists of a majority cable machines, perhaps some dumbells, a squat rack, crosstrainers, treadmills, step machines, aerobics classes. A typical crossfit gym will be filled with pull up bars, plyometric boxes, sandbags, olympic bars, kettlebells, ropes, gymnastic rings and the like. Concentrate your training on moving your BODY, rather than a machine, you are doing what comes naturally. If you are jumping, lifting, climbing, throwing and running, these natural movements are compound and multi joint which ensures extensive muscle fibre recuitment overall. There are 10 domains of fitness – cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination and accuracy. Crossfit ensures you are across all of these. The workouts change daily and can be scaled to any fitness level. The variety of training goes a long way to ensuring motivation and there is something exciting (and slightly sadistic) about checking the website each morning to see what torture has been prescribed for the day.

If it’s not working – do something different!

I have watched with interest some of the people training at my local gym over the 2 months since I started. They come in and do the same workouts, day in day out. 4 sets of 10 reps on each machine down the line while chatting to their friend on the next machine. They haven’t had any results. They don’t look like they are having fun and I know from my experience working in gyms, they will join the long list of inactive members before too long. I used to prescribe a mixture of machine and free weights with some separate cardio. Those days are over. You don’t need to do long sessions, or separate cardio and weights sessions. 20 minutes of push ups, un-weighted squats and burpees can do wonders! I’m not talking typical circuit training, it is far more intense, simple and effective than that.

I’ve personally been plagued with injuries over the years such as dodgy knees, a severe lower back problem, arthritic pain in many joints. I’ve been doing Crossfit for about 2 months and I am pain free, have put on a significant amount of lean muscle (which SHOULD be your goal even if you are female!), reduced my bodyfat level and imortantly achieved extreme improvements in cardio fitness, strength, agility and power. I was only able to complete 6 pull ups (chin ups) in a day prior to starting. Last week I did a session that lasted 20 minutes with 3 exercises. I completed 75 unassisted pull ups as part of this session! It doesn’t matter what your goal with training is – this truly is a one size fits all way of training. I have no experience with Olympic lifting, however am learning from the videos and all you need is a broomstick to start practicing. It doesn’t cost you a cent to go to the website and watch the exercise demos and view the workout of the day. If you want instruction you can attend seminars in your area, or join your local crossfit gym to train under the watchful eye of accredited Crossfit trainers. There are scaled versions of the workouts at the Crossfit BrandX forums and some very helpful people there to assist you.

The reason I wanted to share this is simply because it works. I know my body well. I know how long it takes to go up a notch on any typical gym machine, I know how much improvement I get in muscle tone week in week out using the machines. Changing to olympic lifts, bodyweight exercises and kettlebell exercises, with short, highly intense workouts that change on a daily basis has blown away all my previous notions of how much I can improve over a week or a month. Being the mother of an 18 month old toddler means I don’t have a lot of down time to get to the gym. The fact that these workouts average between 10 and 25 minutes make it appealing too. I don’t dread going to the gym, I burst through the door, power through the short workout and get home in under 30 minutes.

I apologise for the way this article promotes so strongly a commercial venture/branch. I don’t know of any other training system that is as functional and effective as this and I feel it is worth sharing. As mentioned, you can access it all for free, there is a great support network online and I am truly passionate about this method of training. The programming is done for you, you never get bored and anyone can do it. Once you Crossfit – you will never go back.