Life is fun until you can no longer do what you want. When recovering from an injury, everything can be frustrating and demoralizing. You can’t run, jump and workout as much as you wish. However, the key to getting back to your regular routine and good health is to focus on slow but progressive recovery.
Always remember that it is important that you stay on top of your exercises even when recovering from injuries. This helps in improving your blood circulation, cardio health and physical attributes for a strengthened immune system. A good method to stay in shape and to facilitate faster recovery is through exercises using the elliptical.
Elliptical workouts are low impact so it allows you to get your workout goals while lessening the risk of impact injuries and straining. These exercises resemble the motion of running so you still get to work out the same muscle groups as you do when you run. The elliptical aligns the body properly and facilitates safe ranges of leg and hip extension.
You may be tempted to use all the other fitness machines that you previously used before your injury. However, there are a lot of machines that may cause more harm than good. So stick with the elliptical and use it to condition your body into going back to your regular fitness programming.
If you are clueless about how to start using the elliptical for your recovery workouts, there is no need to fret. We have prepared a couple of elliptical workouts that you can follow. You can move one level higher as your body recovers over time.
Effective Elliptical Workouts for Recovery and Rehabilitation
The elliptical is a fairly common equipment that you can see in the gym. It is also sold in a lot of fitness stores. This equipment is easily accessible and available, so make sure to include this in your fitness program.
Before performing any of the workouts that are to be discussed later, make sure to start with a 10 minute warm-up program. This gets your muscles and joints ready for the movements you are to do on your exercises.
Workout: Easy
Equivalent to an easy run, this type of exercise will be focused on keeping you fit and not necessarily on making gains. This does not include an incline as this type of workout is supposed to be the simplest and most basic.
Stride at around 90 RPM while keeping your heart rate anywhere between 65-75% and do this for about 45-50 minutes. These exercises are to be done on your recovery days.
Workout: Medium
This is a notch higher than your easy workouts as you are to go through different intervals as you exercise. Keeping your RPM at 90, you can start working at medium intensity for three minutes. Allocate a recovery state for a minute and then continue to repeat the cycle 5 or 6 times. This is if you want to have steady intervals.
If you want to go for pyramid intervals, you can do the following while still keeping your RPM at 90. Start working at medium intensity intervals for 1 minute then recover for 2 minutes.
From there, you can increase the medium intensity intervals by increments of 1 minute until you are able to perform a 6-minute interval. From there, you finish the routine with a 1-minute interval. These exercises are to be done on your maintenance days.
Read Also About Elliptical Benefits: 13 Benefits Of Using An Elliptical Machine.
Workout: Hard
When you reach this level, it just means that you are effectively recovering. Just keep it at a limit of having not more than two sessions of hard workouts in a week to make sure your muscles are not strained and torn. For all these exercises, make sure to maintain an RPM of 90.
Starting with medium resistance for 20 minutes, you can progress to starting your intervals. 3 minutes of hard intensity followed by a recovery phase of 90 seconds. Continue the cycle until you finish three times. After this, you can wrap it up with a cool down of 5 minutes.
If you want to challenge yourself and do an up-hill workout, you can start at a resistance of level 1 while keeping your RPM at 90. From there, you can increase the resistance every 4 minutes as you finish the 35-40 minute workout period.
Worried about your pregnancy exercise! check out: I Want To Use My Elliptical, But I’m Pregnant.
Conclusion
Those are just some of the exercises that you can do as you progress to full recovery. The main goal is to keep you fit and prepare you to get back in full shape. Elliptical workouts are the best especially when executed properly. However, we cannot deny the fact that a poorly made elliptical may hinder you from getting the results you want.
So apart from knowing the type of exercises you need to do, make sure to start by getting the right kind of elliptical for you. Go for one that has everything you need, and most especially, get one that features an ergonomic design. This is important as it promotes proper body alignment while you do the series of workouts mentioned above.
Recovering from injury can really be a daunting task. It can make you feel helpless and frustrated. Amidst these feelings, do remember that optimal health can be recovered as long as you put efforts into recovering. Start with small wins such as doing these exercises regularly. The next thing you know, you’re back in shape in no time.