A few workouts you can do when you have a foot or ankle injury.
Foot injuries are very common. Unfortunately, when someone suffers from a foot injury, they can have a lot of trouble getting around. They may even find it difficult to put any portion of their body weight on the injured foot at all. This typically requires multiple changes to a person’s daily life until his or her foot heals.
Many people believe that when you have a foot injury, such as a sprained or broken foot, you must forsake your lower body entirely. In other words, whenever you work out, you can only work out your upper body. This actually isn’t true. Today, we’re going to take a look at a few lower body workouts that you can do with a foot injury and how a personal trainer can assist you.
Lower Body Workout with a Foot Injury
It can take several weeks or even months to completely heal from a foot injury, depending on its severity. Although you might not be able to do all the exercises that you love, you can definitely get a good lower body workout with your foot injury. The best strategy is to work with a personal trainer, but here are a few exercises you can do on your own:
- Seated Knee Extension — This exercise will target your quadriceps. It’s commonly used to strengthen a person’s knee and can reduce the pain felt from arthritis.
- Tabletop Kickback Over/Under — Tabletop kickbacks are a great way to build strength and size in the glutes. This is commonly used by personal trainers and is a simple exercise for beginners and experts.
- Seated Hamstring Curls — This exercise is very easy to do and involves a resistance band being placed around the lower part of your legs. It’s a very simple yet effective workout for your hamstrings.
- Flutter Kicks — Flutter kicks improve posture, stability, balance, and endurance. They’re also effective in preventing injuries and giving you more defined ab muscles.
How to Exercise Safely with a Foot Injury
Trying to work out when you have a foot injury can be difficult, but it can definitely be done. However, you don’t want to irritate your injury, make things worse, or delay the healing process.
Here are a few tips on how to exercise safely with a foot injury:
Start Working Out Slowly
Even if you’re an old pro at working out, you need to start things off very slowly. You don’t want to risk making your injury worse, which is quite easy to do if you’re not careful. If you’re using weights, start off with a lower weight than usual. You might also want to do fewer reps until you get things going again.
Don’t Overdo the Workout
It’s common for a person to start off slowly when working out with a foot injury but then quickly get into their old routine. Even if you start feeling better as you work out, you need to make sure that you don’t overdo it with high-intensity exercises. If you do too many reps, work out too often, or use too much weight before your foot has ample time to heal, you could re-injure it.
Work With a Personal Trainer
Whether or not you’re suffering from any kind of injury, you should consider getting a personal trainer. A holistic fitness trainer can help you develop a workout routine that targets the right areas for whatever you’d like to achieve. A personal trainer will also guide you through a lower body workout with a foot injury and make sure that your injury doesn’t get any worse.
Work Out Your Upper Body, Too
While it’s true that you shouldn’t target only your upper body when you have a foot injury, you also don’t want to ignore it. It’s always important to maintain the proper balance. If you sign up with a personal trainer, they’ll develop an exercise routine that involves exercises for both your upper and lower body, including strength training and cardio exercise.
Contact Dunedin Fitness and Movement for a Lower Body Workout with a Foot Injury
Dunedin Fitness and Movement will help you get a lower body workout with a foot injury that will keep your heart rate up and maintain your strength level. If you’d like to know how a holistic personal trainer in Dunedin can help you achieve your goals or are ready to set up an appointment, contact us today.
