Should I Exercise With an Injury?

Injuries can be stressful - and scary!

The last thing you’d want to do is hurt it again - so exercises might be the last thing on your mind.

But you should know that movement during exercise isn’t anything to be afraid of - it’s very much encouraged to make sure you don’t allow it to happen again. But first - let’s look at why you have injured yourself.

Use this as an analogy:
Think of yourself as a cup of water. The cup represents your body and what you can intake - and the water represents the amount of movement, exercise and physical stress you put on your body (this includes your job if it’s physical!)

Injuries occur when the water overflows the cup and is greater than the amount that your body can withstand.

So what now?

To rehabilitate the injury we need to note of how much exercise we do, or how much water we are putting into our cup. This way we can always prevent the constant over flow or overloading and repetitive stress on your joints and body.

Strategic Exercise can also do something that will greatly benefit you - increase your capacity!
This is what we call Prehab or A Strength & Conditioning programme (it’s more than just big ooh’s and grunts in the gym, it’s actually to prevent injuries). A good programme that covers Prehab takes into consideration the individuals body, previous injuries and demands of their sport.

So what happens when we don’t exercise?
This actually takes our capacity into a smaller amount, to decrease our cup if we are still following the previously mentioned analogy. Individuals who might be in the situation may find themselves getting injured over small motions and loading that shouldn’t hurt them … maybe jogging, a missed step going upwards or even smaller than usual.

So make sure you know what you are doing to your body. Take into consideration the loading that you’re putting yourself under and ask yourself, are you overfilling your capacity?

If you prefer to watch and listen, check out our video on YouTube:

Sean Koh

Owner of Momentum Active Remedy
Exercise Physiologist, Exercise Scientist, Personal Trainer & Strength Coach

Post Graduate Diploma (Exercise Physiology) & B.Sc. (Exercise, Sports & Rehabilitation)