Injuries cause more than just physical damage. It’s not uncommon for serious sports injuries or accidents to lead to feelings of frustration, anxiety and even depression. Even once your body is fully recovered and ready to go back to action, you may suffer from the lingering effects of an injury on your mental wellbeing and emotional health.
Also, long-term recovery of muscles can sometimes leave people feeling somewhat out of tune and “hesitant”, with movements that were once instinctive and smooth now becoming laboured or clunky. All of this is natural, and a combination of the right treatment, patience and easing yourself gradually back into commission usually does the trick.
If you or a loved one has suffered an injury and wants to get back to full form, sooner rather than later, below are some useful tips.
Set Clear Recovery Goals
Recovery is sometimes slow and hoping to get back to full capacity too soon can lead to feelings of disappointment or shame when you’re not able to get back on your feet as quickly as you’d expected.
To avoid this, set clear milestones and recovery goals. While pushing yourself is good, try to not be too ambitious and let the body recover naturally at its own pace. Seek advice from a physio or health professional about practical timelines for recovery.
Leverage the Power of Visualization
Imagining yourself with all your abilities back can help signal to your body and mind what is to come. With a clear vision of how you’ll reach and even exceed your past performance capacity, you’ll be able to strive towards improvement.
Be optimistic
This is easy advice to dish out and hard advice to follow, but being optimistic is crucial to long-term recovery from serious injuries. With the mind having a huge influence over the body, recovery processes will be aided by a positive mentality. Negative thoughts and low motivation can also reduce the time spent working on recovery activities.
Be Aware of Your Feelings
It’s natural to feel sad, disappointed or even left out when you’re nursing an injury and others are out living their normal lives. Honouring this feeling can help you see it for what it is and not an overwhelming life-changing event that you can’t recover from. Try to be aware of what’s happening and move beyond it to new and more positive phases of your recovery journey.
Accept Support
Independent people find it hard to accept help, but recovery is best achieved with the help of others who can offer specialist knowledge and guidance. Having a guide, coach, bodywork practitioner, therapist, or another individual who can help with your motivation and recovery activities can keep you on track, always moving towards improvement and recovery.
Contact Us for Support
At Acubody, we offer a number of treatments that might be able to help you if you’ve been out of commission due to a sports injury in London, or another type of accident that has left you with reduced physical capacity for any significant period of time. This includes bodywork techniques, pilates, targeted exercise and acupuncture, which can be combined to create a holistic recovery strategy.
