Recovery - On Coming Back From Being Sick

Getting back into things after being ill can be challenging. Let’s talk about the recovery process.

Getting Back Into It

If you have ever been sick enough that you couldn’t work out or even move around much for an extended period of time, then you know you don’t just suddenly wake up one day ready to jump back into everything. Your body has spent time being mostly inactive, fighting your disease. Your muscles and heart are out of practice, and may even have weakened.

First of all, continue to carefully monitor your nutrition, especially your hydration. Just because you feel a bit better, do not assume your body is not still healing. Continue to drink plenty of water, and continue to focus on taking in extremely clean food.

When it comes to your workouts, take it slow and ease back into things. You do yourself no good by trying to go back in full blast and either injuring yourself or relapsing into your illness because you overworked your body before it was ready. By all means, work out. Get your strength and endurance back. Just don’t go in assuming you will be at the same level you were when you stopped. Be patient with your body, and help it recover.

Onward and Upward

No two people recover the same way or at the same pace. Monitor your progress, and note any irregularities. It is normal to lose a few pounds on a lift, or some time on a run. It is not normal to feel pain in your chest, or in a joint.

Be honest with yourself about where you are in your recovery. If you need to slow down more, do it. If you need to stop, do it. Most importantly, do not hesitate to seek additional medical attention if something does not seem right. Your ego will not do you any good if you have to spend time in a hospital bed because you ignored the signals you were body was sending you.

Unless something is severely medically wrong with you, your strength will come back in due time, your body just needs to recovery properly. A bit of patience and caution will save you an extended recovery period.

How Are You Recovering?

As always, I want to hear from all of you. If you have been sick or injured, what did you do to recover? Did it go smoothly, or did something go wrong? What did you do to deal with it?