Returning to Sports post Lockdown

Having been back in clinic at Complete Physio this week, as well as continuing online consultations, I have noticed a few common themes cropping up. In this post I will highlight some of the issues I have seen and how to reduce the risk of this happening to you.

1. Doing too much too soon

   Whilst plenty of people have managed to stay active through the lockdown period with regular running, cycling and HIIT classes, one ‘trap’ I have noticed patients falling into is adding in lots of extra sessions in a short space of time especially in the nice weather. Whilst some will be able to cope with this for others this can lead to pain or injury.

2. Only having done body weight exercises for the last 3 months

   Whilst this is better than nothing, it is really important to try and exercise using some additional resistance before returning to sports or significantly increasing your exercise volume. Our muscles adapt both ways to loading. we use this to our advantage whilst training and during rehab to get stronger using progressive overload but to put it bluntly if you don’t use it you lose it! Whilst this is frustrating, it is important to acknowledge this, and look to create your own progressive overload at home - particularly whilst the gyms are closed.

   This point is also important to remember when gyms do re-open. It is unrealistic to think that you will be able to jump straight back in and use the same weights as three months ago.

3. Moving less

   Even with exercising on a daily basis, you are still probably doing less than you would do commuting to the office, walking out for lunch, moving meeting to meeting. Just take a look at the step counter on your phone or Fitbit and compare the numbers to earlier this year. As well as this incidental exercise, the new way of working means that the meeting come to you. It is very easy therefore to jump meeting to meeting and not move from your chair all morning. Patients with back and neck pain find this particularly problematic but it is important for our whole body - and brain - to move!

   Solutions

   Here are three simple solutions to help you stay injury free.

   1. Sometimes less is more

      Although the 10% rule is not set in stone it can give you a good guide to help increase your activity levels while mitigating the risk of injury. If you need more detailed guidance or you have tried this already and are still having issues get in touch.

   2. Get creative

      You can use a range of different things to make up for not having weights. Bottles of water, a backpack full of books, all that pasta you panic bought, small children! Obviously use your common sense and only use what is safe for that exercise but the list is almost endless.

   3. Move more

      It sounds obvious but its as simple as that. Get up and do a lap of your makeshift desk between every meeting. Set a hourly reminder on Outlook. Little and often is key with this kind of thing.

   I hope you find this post useful and don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you have any questions or want to discuss your injury to safe return to sport and exercise.