When you are recovering from an illness, injury or surgery and you want to get fit again don’t go all ‘gung ho’ and full pelt as if you have to re-gain full fitness in one day.  Give yourself time.

We have many students in our classes who are on the road to recovery and we always tell them to take things easy to begin in, there is no rush.  So many people train until it begins to hurt then set themselves back by a week or so as they are recovering from this over strain.  Your system doesn’t need this extra stress at this time. 

Don’t get on the merry go round of over exertion, causing your system pain and strain, and there by setting yourself back a week while you recover.  It will just frustrate you.  Train to the point where you body is just starting to feel a bit strained, just slightly pressured and then stop.  This will mean that you can come back tomorrow and do the same again and feel good.

Your Ego is your worst enemy here.  You will feel frustrated and want to train as hard as you can, but keep your end goal in site and you will recover much more quickly, without all the set back weeks you will have to take if you over do it.

One of my senior instructors always drags students out of the class and makes them sit on the bench on the week they return to class after an injury.  They watch the class together and the student is given a lesson in how people move, good technique, how to improve, how to avoid straining joints etc.  This gives their body the extra week to recover, a very important week, and keeps their mind sharp and focused on what they need to be doing the following week.

Ask yourself who are you racing against here?  Just your ego.