You are not broken!

During injury-recovery, you get seriously down about not being able to do what you want.

During off season, you get seriously serious about recovery.

I know what I’m getting excited about!

Off-season refers to the period when a specific sport or season is not in progress. And I most certainly am not ‘in progress’ at the moment. During off season, the focus is on maintaining fitness, building strength, and recovering from the previous season (pre-injury!) including: 

• Light Intensity Activities:

  I encourage all clients to keep up their walking kms! Love it when something comes back to you - I’ve really gotten into walking again and never thought I’d say that but when something’s taken from you thru injury, you go get that joy back with your everything! The fitness industry would talk about ‘maintaining fitness without overworking muscles’ here; for me it’s about owning my current base!

• Strength Training:

  as an exercise coach, I can’t help but keep encouraging strength training at every age and level, even injury. And again coming back to me at the moment, I quickly discovered that there are still things you can do with one leg! Workouts are not ‘all or nothing’ ventures to go hard or go home; training is time to work-it-out what you can do and go nearer and nearer what you can’t to bring the two together again one day and voila! Maintaining muscle mass amidst ‘inactivity’ is way easier to ‘get back’ too

• Movement experiments:

  Taking isolated strength exercises and trying to flow them can bring us closer to longer term functionality, rather than simply trying to strengthen a, let’s face it, pathetic knee omg. And it feels good to feel good, to move you, dare I say! See Fbn ‘Speriments’ (https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTgxNzk0ODE0ODE4NjYw?story_media_id=3145627698155278716&igsh=NThsbzZmdWY1bnRr ) for more info.

• Aerobic Capacity:
  aerobic capacity definitely cannot be forgotten amidst recovery, where we’ve to move all the old injured leftovers and welcome all the new nutrients and oxygen need to make your new you. Currently I’m loving skipping: it’s self-limiting, meaning it allows correction (like getting whipped by the rope) before shin splints kick in!

• Active Recovery:

  Walking Wednesday, Free Fit Friday and Sauna Saturday and Sunday are just alliteratively asking for it!

• Skill Development:

  no matter where you’re at in your fitness journey, skill development just means you’re always learning and gaining on your current capability. Sounds good to me! It doesn’t always have to be intense like ‘in-season’, but just the knowledge that you always can gain is a superpower! Personally I have kept up my hang time, grip strength and pull up progress for climbing and ninja warrior as my knee is down the other end of my body right?! Spine traction and upper body muscle mass have great carry over to whole body healing in the long run too

• Mind games.

  Leaning into what makes you feel empowered is where it’s all about when everything feels very un-empowered! I have added a daily gratitude diary, for what I can do still nearly 9 months later, reached for more creative outlets (read seated activities Aghhh) such as writing and drawing and still looking for more cos they feel amazing! How do you know you’re ‘winning’ when you’re the race setter? Set , learn from and meet your own standards, daily!

No matter what, this very long slow recovery journey has taught me that just like off season, I have gained this knowledge that I can keep getting stronger from wherever I’m at and in my mind I think that will continue into my 50s 60s 70s. Like pull ups, while something seems impossible (for so many of us), it suddenly becomes possible and your mind just explodes (in a good way haha!)! Try it, pull ups change you!

I so much want people to realise that whether you get injured or older you can get stronger from wherever you are. You have everything you need right now to just begin! YOU ARE NOT BROKEN. And if you've run out of hope about what you can do with your body, it's only because you don't know your options. If you don't know the answer, find someone that does. But promise me one thing, that you'll never give up. Because there's always a solution.