Dealing with Chronic or Serious Injuries

It happens to all of us – thanks to old age, overwork, poor form and just plain clumsiness. The worst thing for your fat burner program - by far – is an injury. And the worst are the ones that never seem to heal.

Almost everyone has a weak spot and hard exercise is sure to discover it. Ironically, many injuries come from doing casual things like lifting a box or even just walking. Exercise – especially extreme exercise – is probably more often the cause, however.

Whatever the cause and effect, don’t let it get you down. The hard part to getting lean is the mental game, so don’t let it affect you. Lasting depression about your injury is far more likely to do damage to your fat burner program than the injury itself.

Normally, injuries only change the exercise part of our programs. Compensate by re-evaluating your dietary regime. If you can’t exercise or are forced to exercise less, a gradual reduction in caloric intake makes sense.

For example; if you were walking 3 to 4 times per week and burning 300 calories per session and are forced to lay off, you should probably reduce your weekly caloric intake by 3-4 x 300 plus another 300 to be on the safe side and account for your slower metabolism. That’s only about 1500 calories per week – skip the weekly trip to a fast food joint and eat one less piece of bread a day and you’ve got it. If you are only going to be off for a week or two, this change probably won’t be necessary since it will take some time for your metabolism to slow.

Note that the healing process itself needs extra calories, so don’t restrict too much.

One bad mistake people make is to watch the scale for signs of weight gain during their lay off: NEVER do this. You may not gain weight but are sure to gain fat and lose muscle – this means you may actually weight LESS, not more, and end up being fatter.

Muscle shrinks quickly if not exercised and since it’s denser than fat, you may not notice. You will notice the fat that replaces it, however, if you continue to eat the same amount of calories.

Another problem with chronic injuries is the refusal to lay off. Exercise is addictive and fun – once you start it will be painful both emotionally and physically to stop. If you can work around an injury do so – but don’t go against your doctor’s orders or you may never heal.

Avoid the tendency to “work through the pain.” You are not a professional athlete and don’t need to destroy your body to make a living. A few months off are not going to change your life – or your fat burner program.

Often, you may get advice from well meaning friends and gym pals on how to deal with your injury, but stick to what the doctor tells you – heal first, then go back to exercise. Going back too early will just prolong the pain – maybe permanently.

Unfortunately for most, exercise injury is usually located in the lower part of the body – the legs – which prevents you from getting in aerobic workouts. These cannot easily be compensated by using the upper body and may require you to lay off completely. You can possibly lift some weights, but should take great care in not stressing the affected area – even indirectly. The small gains you might make are not worth the possibility of slowing the healing process.

Injuries can take a long time to heal. There are distinct stages to healing that are helpful to understand.

Damage to muscles, tendons and ligaments will heal by growing new tissue. This restores continuity, but the new tissue will be scar tissue and sometimes not as flexible or resistant. Greater damage requires longer healing time.

These stages can overlap and the time needed varies from person to person.

Stage one is the acute phase. This is when the injury first occurs and can last several days. Healing is initiated during this period. Redness, swelling and heat are present due to vascular reconstruction. The swelling is due to fluid caused by histamine, the chemical mediator of inflammation.

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