How to Safely Build Muscles After Personal Injury

Building muscles can be a very challenging process, and this could be more difficult for people recovering from a personal injury. Pain and injury can certainly make your training regimen more difficult and stressful. There is always the chance of aggravating the injury further. However, this is not impossible and could be achieved by following these simple tips.

Rehabilitation

The first thing you should do to ensure safety when you’re building muscles after injury is to undergo rehabilitation. A rehabilitation program does not to be monitored by a professional gym instructor, physical therapist, or expensive to be effective.  All you need is to follow your doctor’s recommendations.

Rehabilitation programs can take the form of isolation exercises or simple exercises that you can perform in a sitting position. Work first with your lower body, primarily your legs and feet. Feet and ankle rotations are ideal, mainly when injuries are located in your lower body.

These types of rehabilitation exercises will apply pressure directly to your bones and will make your calf muscles a lot stronger.

Warm-Up Exercises

In addition to rehabilitation programs, you should also make it a habit to do warm-ups and cool-downs before and after your training regimen. Warm-up exercises like jumping jacks and pull-ups are highly recommended.

You can also do some stretching routines or work on the treadmill for a couple of minutes. Cooldown exercises, on the other hand, are also essential when you are training after injury. Some ideal cool-down exercises include light joggings and stretching routines.

After you’ve finished warming up, the next phase should be weight training. Of course, to build muscles, you need to work on the weights. There are so many different approaches to working with weights.

A good rule of thumb, though, is to know your body’s limits and not push yourself too much. The worst-case scenario is that your injury might be aggravated. Being overzealous could do more harm than good.

Weight training should be a step by step process and should not be done all at once. Start with light dumbbells, use 2lbs weights, or even less. The good thing about those light dumbbells is that you can work with them while sitting.

After you are finished with light dumbbells, try adding some weight. Try 5lbs Olympic barbells and add more weight accordingly. But do not do everything in a single day. You can setup a weekly weight training program that involves dumbbells and barbells. Increase the weight steadily as you get accustomed to a particular dumbbell or barbell weight level.

Proper Diet

Training alone won’t build your muscles. Take special attention to your diet. Make sure that you are getting the right vitamins and minerals needed to help you build muscles.

Calories are essential – when you are doing weight training, make sure that your daily calorie intake is over 2,500 or even 3,000. Eating a healthy diet also helps you recover from personal injury more quickly.