Suffering from an injury can be devastating. You are no longer free to do the physical activities you normally do, including going to work, lifting heavy items, and exercising regularly. Distancing yourself from these activities is often needed to help with the recovery process.

After being away due to an injury, getting back on track is the next challenge to overcome. Exercising after a serious injury or illness isn’t always straightforward. You have to ease into your usual exercise routine instead of immediately jumping in.

Worry not because there are things you can do to get back on track. If you are in the process of returning to your usual exercise regime after a serious injury, here are some of the tips you can follow.

Add Safeguards

Since you are still recovering from a serious injury or illness, one of the first things you need to do before going back to your usual exercise routine is adding some safety measures for your personal protection. You want to be able to reach family members or the emergency services should you injure yourself again as you ease back into exercising regularly.

There are plenty of safeguards you can add too. You can, for example, make sure that your phone is always within reach. You can use a fitness band and other gadgets to help maintain access to your phone. You can also go a step further and easily install a medical alert system at home. Companies like GetSafe offer medical alert systems designed specifically for this.

Check with Your Doctor

Before rushing into a strict exercise regime, you also want to get in touch with your doctor. For example, if you just completed treatment for concussion in sports, you have to be extra certain that you can return to heavier activities before trying even the mildest exercises. You have to be extra certain that you can return to heavier activities before trying even the mildest exercises. As with all medical conditions, you can never be too careful when it comes to exercising after a serious injury or illness.

Checking with your doctor has another benefit: you can determine the right exercises and activities to try as you ease into regularly exercising again. This minimizes the risk of injuring yourself again. Besides, you will enjoy the process of going back to regular workouts when the exercises you try are suitable for you based on your injuries.

Prepare Yourself Mentally

We’ve discussed how returning to regular exercise is a challenge. Aside from preparing your environment and consulting with your doctor, you also want to prepare yourself mentally. With the doctor’s recommendations in mind, you need to feel comfortable with the challenges that come with exercising again.

Yes, things will be difficult, and there may be side effects to anticipate. After weeks of not working out, you may experience muscle soreness and other common symptoms again. You may even lose some of your ability to maintain balance or lift weights. Don’t worry, this is all part of the process. You don’t need to push your body past its current limit but understand that some pushing is needed.

Start Slow

Always begin with light exercises. Building an exercise regime that you can stick with isn’t as easy as it seems but starting with exercises that you can handle is the best way to go. This way, creating a pattern and exercising regularly is much easier to do, which is great when you have other challenges to overcome.

Once you are used to the new exercise schedule, you can begin increasing the intensity of your routines gradually; “gradually” is the keyword here. Build your body strength up and learn to know your limit at different points. The more your body recovers from the illness, the higher the intensity of your exercises can be.

With these tips and tricks in mind, returning to your usual exercise regime will be less of a challenge. Don’t give up, ease into it, and you’ll be back to working out regularly in no time.