Active recovery: Lindsey Vonn shows us how to stay slim while injured
December 6, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments
Ughhh…You were doing so well on your newfound weight-loss path.
You had a routine and everything.
But then, it happened…
You sprained your ankle. You broke your arm. Your wrenched a tendon.
Whatever it is, I feel your pain. Especially when the doctor walks back in the room, chart in hand, and says you’ve got to recover before you can go back to your routine full speed. Suddenly, all your weight loss goals seem to be obliterated. Total bummer, right? Well… not completely. Because, while he’s not wrong about halting your HAM mode, what is wrong is the belief system many have about recovery. It doesn’t have to be sedentary. It needn’t be spent sat on a sofa, binge watching that amazing new show about a hitman who falls in love with a junkie. (Anyone else enjoying “Good Behavior”?) No, sirs and madams. There’s a time and a place for rest or downtime (or Juan Diego Botto). Of course. And you definitely should be scaling back on the activity – especially if it aggravates your injury. But there’s a halfway happy medium. This doesn’t mean that you have to initiate an entire somatic freeze when it comes to your fitness path. In fact, if you ask your doctor, there’s such a thing as “active recovery”. And he should be able to offer you a workaround as you heal.
One beautiful (literally, she’s gorgeous) example of this?
Olympian ski queen, Lindsey Vonn.
An absolute pro at the art of active recovery, this chick’s got the right mindset (and a stellar Instagram fitspo photo montage to prove it). After landing herself and upper limb injury last month, Vonn had to take it down a notch – but didn’t stop altogether. What she did do was initiate a few modifications to help her stay on track, sans backtracking. For example, performing regular therapy in the pool helped her get the resistance that she needed – minus any extra strain.
Then, modifications to her typical exercises helped serve as a halfway happy medium in strength training.
By adding a stool under her rump when she does her squats, she can effectively take a little bit of weight off the injured area that’s hoisting that bar up. Sure, it may not be exactly the level at which she was functioning prior to her arm trauma. But, in what world does doing nothing trump maintaining some of what you’ve got? By talking with a doc, you can find out just exactly what your limits are, and work within those.
Then, finally, it may seem like common sense – but Lindsey’s also aware that her whole body isn’t injured just because one bit of it is. (Sounds like a the-more-you-know bit of sarcastic info, but you’d be surprised what a go-to excuse this is to give up on the gym altogether.) Remembering that can be a lifesaver when it comes to active recovery. Thus, Vonn just props up her arm on her abdomen, sits back, and blasts her gams on the leg press- saying that just ’cause her arm is broken doesn’t mean she can’t keep working her legs.
What it all boils down to is self-talk and subsequent mindset. From the start, when Vonn was freshly stitched (in that image at the top of this article), she already was insisting she wasn’t gonna let this get her down. And, as her constant updates have beautifully proven – she’s made better than good on that promise. Sure, she’s an Olympian and that’s her job. But she’s not a god. She doesn’t have superpowers. She still could fail – but she chooses not to. She chooses to persevere. And whether that’s for your career or heart health or looking good in skinny jeans, is irrelevant. Where there’s a will, there’s a way to make maintaining your health a priority.
So, as you sit in the E.R., agonizing (literally and figuratively) about gaining back all that weight – worry not.
Because, sure, you’ll have to scale back.
But, with some work, you’ll still see that scale number make like a skiing Vonn – and drop down.