Keeping fit while injured?

So, I strained both of my hamstrings while practicing for my soccer team, and the doctor says I'll be out for at least six weeks...he said no running or basically any physical activity with my legs...I really want to keep in shape while injured, so any ideas on how I could keep up my fitness?

thanks for the help!
 
Well, nothing that involves your legs. You could do weight lifting for your upper body. Unfortunately, cardio is more or less out of the question unless you have a specialized machine that only uses your arms. As hard as it is, the doctor is right. Hamstring strains cannot be exercised on until fully healed, because further injury is incredibly easy.
 
Not until you have full use of your hamstring again. If anything, wait a few weeks and begin biking with minimal resistance so that you can keep your legs moving without loading the muscle. But that's only after there's been significant healing already.
 
It’s really time to give pause. If you try to come back really hard then the result could be devastating. Good news is that there are couples of ways to recovery from hamstring injuries. So don’t frustrated and please read my advice carefully. To treat hamstring injuries, massage the area and do light stretching. The R.I.C.E. method—rest, ice (20 minutes on and off), compression, elevation—is useful as well. I would like to show you that proper method. Please follow it until your injury would properly heal:

• Use ice compresses to stop the internal bleeding immediately following the injury. Don’t apply heat right after the hamstring pull because it promotes bleeding to the injury site.

• Don’t take aspirin immediately after the injury for the same reason (it promotes additional bleeding to the affected area). EMS can be used above the injury site to promote blood flow.

• The day after the injury, you can begin one-legged work with cautious. Perform a one legged march and skipping with the uninjured leg. Other exercises can be used as long as the hamstring isn’t actively engaged.

• Depending on the rate of recovery of a mild strain, we begin using both legs after three days of total rest. Both legs are used for marching and in the A series (march and skip) for short distances. Speed work is also slowly introduced.

• The hamstring won’t act up until you really open up your stride so don’t increase the distance too quickly. Using this active recovery process instead of just resting completely helps alleviate the build-up of scar tissue.

• The limited accelerations help to maintain and maximize speed without putting too much strain on the hamstring by opening up the stride length.

Again I would like to say please give certain period of time don’t rush.
 
Back
Top