I want to workout but I have an injury..What should I do 2 look better even when injured or restricted from some exercises

When Houston Personal Trainer Melissa had a roller blading accident that put her out of commission for eight weeks, she knew she was going to have to be creative to maintain her fitness and workout routine in her Houston home. Before she fell, The sexy personal trainer workout at the gym included one hour of Weight training on a five day split routine, plus an hour of cardio every day. She was eating more protein(about 1500 Calories a day) to help build muscle and was keeping the cross training workouts with cardio to keep body fat low. The Orthopedic Doctor in Tomball, Texas who gave her the arm brace told her to start moving it after about two weeks and that was the only push she needed to get back in the gym to exercise. "It was good to take time off and I got a lot of organizing and continuing education credits done while incapacitated" Houston in home personal Trainer Melissa said, "but getting back my full fitness level is also important to me and I do not want to go too long because I feel it will limit my potential". She is an expert at designing workout and weight loss programs for OTHER people with injuries in the past so it has been a cinch to attack her own exercise routine for a similar re-vamping. Her plan was to increase the cardio slightly and decrease the weight training a lot to allow her arm time to heal. To correct the workout she started more weight loss routines without sacrificing muscle. She  cut back on her calories to 1000 calories a day since her activity level decreased due to injury and upped her cardio doing kick boxing twice a week, Spinning twice a week, machine weights on the lightest level twice a week and walking every night for a half hour, because she could do these activities without straining her arm. Personal Trainer Melissa saw fast results and lost about four pounds. She feels tighter and her abs are getting more cut with the reased cardio, plus the cardio kick boxing really focus's on abs. "It was is hard to punch with the one arm but other than that I can do most of the workout", Melissa said. I enjoy the classes so much plus the other participants really motivate me which is a plus because I need more incentive when it is harder because the arm is awkward." Here are some tips for how to workout around an upper body injury, specifically the rotator cuff or shoulder. Drop the weight dramatically. If the workout normally is for 30 pounds, go down to ten pounds. Avoid all shoulder workouts with heavy weight for several weeks to allow for some healing. Instead, focus on the legs, quads and hamstrings and calves.  Take 50 to 250 mg of magnesium just in case the pain in the shoulder is from a calcium buildup on the bony prominances. Magnesium will help facilitate the correct reabsorbtion of calcium deposits on the bone which can cause pain when the muscles rub over the calcium bone spurs. Or take a magnesium bath periodically with epsom salts. Shoulder problems seem to occur most often in people who do repetitive movements such as volleyball players, golfers, baseball players and softball players. These athletes need to strengthen their shoulders with stretch bands doing inner and outer deltoids with the bands held by or tied to a door. and try to build shoulder strength gradually and avoid using poor form in overarm swings because it damages the shoulder. (such as swinging at the volleyball for a spike without fully extending the arm upwards before the snap) Weight workouts should do chest and back, not just chest and not just shoulders, to make sure the muscles are balanced. To strengthen supportive muscles for the shoulder girdle, lie on the floor holding one ten pound weight in each hand and have arms extended over chest perpendicular to the flor as if to do a chest press. Do not actually bend the arms however to do a chest press. Instead, with arms straight and elbows locked, arch back so only shoulder blades are touching floor and squeeze shoulder blades together...then round back so that it feels like you are squeezing chest muscles togethre and back is flat on the floor. Alternate between arching and rounding the back for ten repetitions and do five sets of these. The light weight will not strain the injured area and the movement with strengthen supportive muscles.

Last Updated on Thursday, 08 September 2011 01:19