Getting Back into Outdoor Activities After an Injury

Brian Acton

The end of winter is in sight, and anybody who wasn’t already braving the elements can start to look forward to getting back outdoors. But if you recently suffered an injury, you need to be careful before you hop back into your favorite activity, whether it’s running, biking, hiking, or something else.

Here’s how to get back into outdoor activities after an injury.

1. Consult Your Doctor

Even if you think you’re ready to get back out there, you should check with your doctor, physical therapist, and anyone else who helped you recover from your injury. This is especially true if you’re dealing with a more serious injury like a broken bone or recovering from surgery.

If you don’t check with your doctor first, you might start exercising before you’re truly ready. Even for minor injuries, it helps to wait until the pain, swelling, and stiffness have subsided (you can use the RICE method to aid your recovery, and make sure you use ice packs to ice any aches or sprains you sustain during your workout).  

2. Take it Slow

After you’ve been out of action for a while, you may be tempted to exercise at high intensity to make up for lost time. This could be a mistake - while there’s a good chance you’ll eventually make it back to the level of fitness you were at before you got injured, you shouldn’t start at that level.

Exercising too hard too soon could cause you to reinjure yourself or draw out your recover, preventing you from reaching your best performance levels even longer. Instead, you should gradually work your way back up.

For example, if you used to run three miles every day, you can walk half that distance and run the other half. Each week, increase the time you spend running, and if you experience too much pain you should back off for a while.

Make sure to stretch, warm up, and cool down for each workout session.

3. Wear Support Gear

Still recovering from your injury? You may benefit from a support product for the injured area. For example, ankle supports provide compression, stability, and support to injured ankles so you can get back to athletic activity and avoid reinjury. Wearing the right support gear can help you get back on your feet, sometimes literally.

4. Practice Healthy Habits

The same habits that promote a healthy lifestyle and better athletic performance - such as eating a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, taking rest days, and hydrating - are just as important, if not more so, when you’re recovering from an injury. Make sure to take care of yourself in other areas of your life, because that will help you avoid injuries when you’re moving outside.

5. Pay Attention to Your Body

Being a little uncomfortable when you work out is normal, and it can actually mean you’re making progress on your physical fitness. But if you’re in real pain that continues after you stop working out, that’s a bad sign. You may need to scale back the intensity of your exercise, rest for a few days, or even visit the doctor before you get back out there.