A few months ago one of my patients Keith, fractured his leg for the first time…
He was out on a bike ride, cycling down a hill, lost control, fell off and then…yep! Keith fractured his leg!
Fortunately the break wasn’t anything too ‘major’, but breaking any bone is going to take some time to heal before you can get back into your usual routine…
And Keith was definitely disappointed when he found out he wouldn’t be back on his bike in a hurry.
A similar thing happened to Manchester United defender, Luke Shaw last week. Luke suffered a double fracture in his right leg whilst playing in the Champion League.
The entire football world was in complete shock. Shaw’s injury wasn’t a pretty sight to see, and if having a leg snapped in half wasn’t bad enough, the Manchester player was told he’d be out of training for a whole 6 months…
And just like my patient Keith, Luke was in tears when he discovered it would be a while until he could return to the pitch again.
Luckily for Keith it wasn’t going to be an entire 6 months until he could return to his regular exercise routine (you could imagine how painful that would be!).
So, if you’ve suffered a nasty break, or injury that’s pressed pause on your exercise regime, you’ll be relieved to hear that you don’t have to stop completely…
The thing with these types of injuries is, is that getting your strength back is crucial during recovery.
To get back to your exercise routine quickly in the safest way possible, let me tell you the three things that I tell my patients to do… (Keith followed these steps, and he’s already back on the bike in the gym!)
1.) Make Sure You Rest The Right Way
When healing from a fracture, or any type of injury, the best thing that you can do is to take your time.
This could take several weeks depending on your injury, and as tedious as this may feel, just remind yourself that you only get one chance to heal after your injury. If you do it the right way, you’ll return to exercise sooner, than if you try to go back too soon.
Don’t do anything that could aggravate your injury even more, and give your body a chance to relax.
2.) Nourish Your Body
Obviously nourishing your body with healthy foods should be common sense – but it’s even more important if you’ve fractured a bone.
Iron rich foods, protein and carbohydrates are essential.
Some examples of iron-rich foods that you could eat include:
– Chicken and turkey (the darker cuts of meat contain more iron than the light meat)
– Greens such as kale and spinach
– Salmon, tuna and shrimp
Also be sure to consume plenty of calcium. Your body will absorb these nutrients like a sponge and the recovery process will be quicker when you give your body what it needs.
3.) Move Your Joints
A fracture, or painful injury may mean that your joint has been immobilised during the initial recovery process, (especially if it has been in a cast).
Getting your joints functioning again will help to get your body back to it’s full strength quickly.
The exercises for getting your joints back to normal will vary depending on what your injury is, however one way to build your strength is to go for gentle walks.
Don’t walk in a rush, take your time, even if you just go walking for 5 minutes at a time, you will eventually build this up and return to exercise as soon as possible.
If you need more recovery tips like this, click the link and you can collect your free report which include recovery strategies that professional athletes use: www.paulgoughphysio.com/sports-injury-clinic
You might know Paul as an expert Columnist who writes weekly health articles for TWO of the North East's biggest daily Newspapers, The Northern Echo And The Hartlepool Mail, he is a regular Speaker at Industry Seminars around the globe and a Radio Personality, often heard on the BBC. Paul has been an expert guest on dozens of Radio shows and regularly interviewed in newspapers, magazines and trade journals all over the world, including the Guardian.
Paul’s background included working extensively in the Premier League with a Top Professional Football Team, and since quitting his job in Professional Football in 2007, his Physio Practice has become the fastest growing in the UK and biggest in the North East. So successful, that companies like BUPA, ASDA, The Vela Group And Coast & Country, repeatedly retain his Physio company's services to keep healthy their own staff and workforce. Paul Gough Physio Rooms is now a large multi-physio, multi clinic speciality practice in Darlington, Durham, Guisborough and Hartlepool.
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