I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to write a blog about how I keep up running fitness while injured, but here I am. The good news is that the injury is a very minor one. Still, it’s enough to stop me from being able to run for a few days – maybe as long as a week – and I have come too far to want to sacrifice my progress to my injury.  So, I dug into research and talked with my doctor (while I was there, I haven’t made dozens of appointments or anything). I have a plan.

Maintaining Running Fitness While Injured

I feel that it’s important to tell you that this post is meant to tell my story of keeping up my running fitness while injured. Every runner and every injury involve a different strategy. As a result, what is working for me and that I’m discussing in this blog might not be appropriate, practical or even safe for you. It could make your issue worse. Don’t let my story do that to you. If you’re not sure about what you should be doing while you’re injured so that you don’t lose your progress, talk to a doctor or a physical trainer who has experience in this sort of thing.

Here are the different types of workouts I discussed with my doctor to maintain my running fitness while injured.

Strength Training

The nature of my injury doesn’t stop me from sitting on my butt and working the rest of my muscles using weights. So, I’ve been working on those.  I’ve scheduled three of this type of workout into my week, with rest days between. My goal has been dynamic moves that work more than one major muscle group at a time. I don’t usually like this type of exercise, but if will help me to keep my runs where they were before I hurt myself, I will have no problem keeping up my motivation.

Water Running

I’m lucky the weather is getting nicer because water running was actually the top option my doctor recommended. Essentially, it helps me to go through all the same motions, but with less strain on my injury. I love the resistance of the water and how it adds challenge to the movements.  Having done it once already, I can definitely see why it was recommended. I had to use a flotation belt (a purchase I didn’t want to make but it was only about $30, so I considered it an investment into keeping up my running fitness while injured). I felt a bit dumb at first, running in slow motion like that, but once I got over myself, it was a good workout.

Walking

As my injury heals – I’m not there yet, but almost – I’ll start walking again, then I’ll jog, to ease back into my runs.  I’m not going to push things and only worsen my injury, but once my body can handle it, I’ll do as much of a lower-intensity version of a run as I can until I can handle the upgrade. I can’t wait.