Exercise is one of the best things anybody can do for the long-term health of their mind, body, and soul. Exercise is essential in keeping your heart healthy, as well as hundreds of other health benefits that are too numerous to list. Still, exercise isn’t without its risks. Those who train too hard or with improper technique risk injuring themselves, not to mention there are some times when you can do everything right and still end up with an injury. There’s no need to fret as long as you have a proper plan in place for dealing with the injury.

Education on what proper recovery plans look like is still lacking, so this article was recreated to help those with an injury get back in the saddle as quickly as possible:

Isolate the area

Depending on where you’ve been hurt, it’s important to locate the source of the pain and begin dedicating resources to aid in your recovery. For a sprain or other soreness causing injury, a protocol is to be followed. The first thing to do is to stop putting pressure on the area with use. If it’s an upper-body injury, don’t pick up anything heavy, while lower-body injuries are best dealt with by sitting down and keeping your weight off it. The area should also be iced to promote tissue healing as well as stop swelling. While regular ice or frozen produce is a staple solution for this, custom-made gel packs such as those offered by https://gelpax.com are often a better choice for long-term athletes. After icing the area, the body part should be elevated, and a compression garment should be applied to help aid circulation.

Take it easy, but not too easy

Exercising and physical fitness can take a lot out of someone’s daily schedule. Because of this, it’s easy to erroneously believe that a day off due to injury is a free day, where someone is free to do however they please. Alcohol is still to be avoided since it diverts valuable resources away from your body’s repair efforts and has negative effects on overall fitness as a whole. If you don’t know whether or not you should engage in a certain activity while recovering from your injury, consider what your doctor would say if you asked their opinion on it. If you’re fairly certain they’d caution you away from the said activity, that’s a good sign it isn’t for you at this moment.

Hydrate

The signals your body is giving you in response to your sports injury seldom come in the form of increased thirst. However, without water, your body will be under even more stress. No matter how difficult or inconvenient it might be to get a big jug of water at the moment, know it’s wholly essential. Without proper hydration, your body will have to begin prioritizing certain parts of the body above others. Even if your injury gets lucky enough to receive the bulk of your body’s resources, you’ll be suffering in some other way, whether it be in comfort or mental health. Drinking eight cups of water is the daily recommended intake. It’s worth noting that foods like bananas are high in water and count toward your water intake. Don’t focus on eight literal glasses of water.

Conclusion

On your way to the aesthetic body, exercise recovery is just as an active process as the exercise itself, despite what the term ‘rest’ might imply. It’s during this time that you should be restructuring your thoughts with regards to your physical needs toward giving your body the fuel it needs to have you return to your previous unhurt state. Without proper planning, your recovery time can be excessively long and not nearly as effective as it could be.