Because of my low blood pressure I have fainted, gotten light-headed, dizzy, nauseous and extremely bad headaches/migraines.

 

I guess you could say I neglected it, but I blame life. Life got in the way, Ava was sick, the weather has been terrible, I got sick, basically the winter happened. I finally got an appointment yesterday and It felt great to be tortured with massage and stretching.

Although going to Physical Therapy means you have an injury, I still love it because every time I leave I feel great. Basically my Physical Therapist told me that I have a hamstring strain, and my hamstring was crazy tight. I pretty much knew this going into our appointment because it started limiting me last week.

It wasn’t until last week (when I was sick) I was doing WAY less then I normally do and I started to feel my hamstring ache on and off. Funny right? You think with an injury the more active you are the more it hurts. Not with this one. Activity helped my hamstring feel better, it kept it loose.

So although a hamstring strain in some cases can be debilitating and super painful depending on the level strain, mine is only a mild strain and I am happy it won’t effect my job or anything else right now. All I need to do is stretch, massage, and perform my PT exercises!

I am SO TIGHT… and here are a few of my stretches that have been helping a ton:

The Mermaid Stretch:

Adductor Stretch:

The Figure 4:

One of my fears was having this injury sideline me, but GOOD NEWS it won’t! I can still squat, deadlift, and teach my classes. As long as nothing causes pain

As a trainer I have learned not to ignore injuries. They can be painful the longer you put them off and they will take away from your ability to progress your fitness! I am glad I got this appointment in before anything turned serious!

Have you ever had a minor injury before? 

Have you ever had an injury that was caused because you delayed seeing a doctor? 

We got about 10 inches of snow from Sunday night to late afternoon Monday.. and this snow was not light & fluffy it was heavy & wet! I literally spent an hour shoveling and felt like I got no where! I thought I was tired but I think the snow was just kicking my butt. My legs were tired, my arms were tired, and I got cold!

Thankfully Marc did the other half (the harder side)

Last night I was thinking about a post and immediately this trainer tip came to mind:

Trainer Tip Tuesday #11: Listen to your body

I find myself listening to my body for EVERYTHING! Our bodies are SO smart. They tell us when they are hungry, tired, energized, happy, sad, stressed, anxious, sore, injured, I think you get it.

When it comes to Health & Fitness, here are some ways I listen to my body:

1. When I am sick I rest unless I have a head cold. Sometimes exercising makes me feel better but I usually will know within the first few minutes and if my body says no I stop and I will make sure to “lay on the couch!”
2. When I have an injury I rest. There’s a difference between being sore or having aches and pains that don’t go away or nag at you day in and day out. Those signals should not be ignored. Over the course of the last 4 years I have had a torn hip labrum (I had surgery) and I broke my collarbone a year ago. Those injuries side lined me for a long time. Mentally it was a huge challenge (but that is another blog post). I did however, listen to my body and of course my doctor’s orders. I immediately took the amount of time that was necessary for my body to heal.
3. I make sleep a priority. Seriously guys I turn into a pumpkin at 10pm. I get up early for work so its crucial that I am asleep right around 10 that way I can get between 7-8 hrs. When I get 5 hours I get run down and I don’t function!! Luckily I’m not one to hit snooze but the days that I feel like I need more sleep are usually the nights when I don’t get to bed on time or Ava has a surprise for us in the middle of the night. Sleep is key for health & fitness success!!!
4. If you feel pain with anything you should STOP. Yesterday I started to get some pain in my shoulder while shoveling. I immediately stopped and came inside to ice. I was so frustrated and I can’t even begin to tell you how mad I get when I feel pain. Injuries are not fun and with my job they just can’t happen so I am glad I did the right thing. You should never push through pain and if you are taking a fitness class or working with a trainer you should always let them know if something doesn’t feel right.

I use these ice packs when I need to ice my shoulder or hip, I love that they have the velcro strap it makes it so much easier to keep the ice in place!

I could go on and on about how I listen to my body when it is hungry or thirsty or when it tells me not to do something but I know you can all relate in some way or another. The point is, if you listen to your bodies cues you can successfully live a healthy & happy fit life!!

For more tips, check out the links below!

Trainer Tip #10: Take your Warm-up Seriously!

Trainer Tip #9 Keep your muscles confused

Trainer Tip #8: Make time for yourself

Trainer Tip #7: Get more out of your Group Fitness Class

Trainer Tip #6  Choose exercise that you enjoy doing

Trainer Tip #5 Quality vs Quantity

Trainer Tip #4 Lift a little heavier

Trainer Tip #3 A short workout is better then no workout

Trainer Tip #2 Exercising outdoors

Trainer Tip Tuesday #1: If you don’t like an exercise, start doing it!

What are some ways you have or have not listened to your body?

Have you ever pushed through pain and did it lead to an injury?

Here are some quick rules to follow when attempting exercise with an injury:

1. First and foremost, make sure to get clearance from your doctor and follow his or her guidelines for exercise. They know what is best for you and can give you a plan of action!
2. Don’t do any exercise that will involve the injured body part. For example if you have a hand injury, do not perform any upper body exercises unless advised from your Doctor or Physical Therapist.
3. If your activity hurts your injury, DON’T DO IT! Listen to your body. The “No pain no gain” saying should not apply to injuries!!!!
4. Read up on your injury and how you can treat/prevent it. I love to educate myself about my injuries that way I know what to avoid and what stretches & exercises I can do to strengthen myself.

Growing up I played tons of sports, and every once in a while I would run into a minor set back from an injury. My senior year of high school I was playing in a big playoff softball game and took a huge lead from third base… I had to dive back and ended up fracturing a bone in my hand. (Yes I was safe in case you were wondering)

I was extremely bummed and thought my season was over, but I realized that they could still use me on the bases to run! I couldn’t hit or field but I still contributed on the bases. As you can see an upper body injury does not limit you from using your lower half. I just had to be aware of my injury and if anything irritated it then I didn’t continue!

As far as a lower body injury…. you may be a little more limited but you can still exercise! Depending on the injury the stationary bike may be an option or even the elliptical and light resistance settings. All seated upper body exercises should be okay too! When I had hip surgery a couple years ago, I took the time to strengthen my arms with light weights while doing my PT exercises for my hip!

Although injuries are mentally challenging, through my own experience I know that overcoming an injury is so rewarding!

Do you or have you had an injury before? Were you able to exercise around it??

***Always consult your Doctor or Physician before beginning any exercise program***

It has been about 3-4 months since I last did a plank (seems like an eternity) and I was definitely not as strong as I used to be.  It felt good to really feel my core working and also to have my arms shaking from fatigue at the end of my session.

Along with the planks I did rows using a resistance band, reverse shrugs using my body weight on a chair, and a lat exercise over head with a 3lb dumbbell. I will be practicing these exercises daily until my next PT visit on Monday.

Now onto the importance of Physical Therapy. Over the last few years I have had a couple of injuries and I have grown to LOVE PT. Of course I hate being injured but I have learned more about injury recovery through personal experience from my hip and shoulder.  This has made me a better personal trainer. One of the main things I learned were The phases of recovery:

1. Rest 2.Range of Motion 3. Strength

Obviously the strength phase is the most fun and motivating but the first 2 are so IMPORTANT. If you do not rest and recover in phase 1 you can risk re-injury or delayed recovery. As part of the treatment the second phase is to restore range of motion.  The 2nd Phase Range of motion is crucial so that the joint can move properly and in the future there is no injury because of a limited range of the joint. Phase 3 you get to exercise the shoulder either using bodyweight, bands, or weights! It’s the best part for me.

Although physical therapy can be painful because of massage and getting back the range of motion I know that as the weeks pass I am closer to having my strong shoulder back! It is awesome to see the progress. On my first PT session I could barely lift my arm up straight in front of me and now I can extend my arm fully over head using weights!

My advice for anyone that is going to physical therapy is be PATIENT. Recovery doesn’t happen over night but be diligent with the exercises you are given and you will see progress!

(this was Take 1 of my plank picture… as you can see Cooper was quite curious of the camera haha)

Happy First day of spring!!

With a broken collarbone I had to get creative with my workouts. I am still not permitted to do ANY arm exercises yet, so I was limited to lower body, cardio, & abs! I made a few modifications to create workouts tailored to my injury.

Here are some of the exercises that I did as a 20 minute Boot Camp Lower body, Abs, & Cardio circuit:

Warm-up for 5 minutes

CARDIO

Jog to back pedal

Side shuffle

Switch kicks

30 seconds each, Repeat 2x 3 minutes

CORE

In & out double heel Tap

V hold

Floor bridge march

30 seconds each, Repeat 2x 3 minutes

CARDIO –repeat cardio circuit (3 minutes)

LEGS

Moving squats

Side lunge with double front kick (each leg)

Pulsing squat

Pulsing lunge each leg

30 seconds each, Repeat 2x (6 minutes)

CORE-repeat core circuit (3 minutes)

This workout definitely gives you a nice sweat! I felt great afterwards and my heart rate was definitely up! I love that!

***Please consult with your doctor or physician before starting a new workout program***

Last Friday I had gone hiking and ever since then I had some pain in the top of my foot. It hurt when I was active and when I wasn’t it didn’t bother me as much. As the week went on it was bothering me more and I noticed it the most when walking bare foot around the house or just walking in general. At night I had some throbbing and pain so I decided I should be safe and get it checked out. I went to the orthopedic and they determined it is either a ligament strain or a stress fracture in one of my metatarsals. He refused to do an X-ray because I am pregnant and said it doesn’t matter if it’s a ligament strain or stress fracture the walking boot is the treatment either way.

I left feeling a little bummed and frustrated because everything was going so smoothly up until this point. The Dr did say that at this point in my pregnancy the hormones can really cause the ligaments and joints to loosen. He said that with my active job and the hormones relaxing my ligaments this probably caused part of the injury.

Cooper was bummed too but he let me kick up my feet to ice and napped next to me!

On a positive note, the boot makes my foot feel better because it doesn’t allow my toes to bend and keeps my foot straight. I am going to look at the boot as my healing tool!! I am confident that I will be better in no time.

can’t see the boot in this picture but you can see my rounder belly

the boot & belly

 Have you ever had an injury to the lower body? What creative workouts did you do?