Re-building your endurance after an injury Part 0: Cross-Training for fitness
Following an endurance injury there are 3 phases I coach athletes through to expose them to more training.
Before beginning that process it’s key to figure out a cross-training routine that you can handle while rehabbing your injury.
Here’s how I build a cross-training plan with a runner:
If you’re currently dealing with an injury the best thing you can do is figure out how to train some endurance without ticking off the injury.
This will let you maintain as much fitness as possible without impacting your rehab.
The goal is to maintain as much training as you can.
Some endurance options we could use during a running injury:
- Swim
- Bike
- Walk
- Hike
- Water run
- Elliptical
You might need different options depending on what structure or area is impacted.
We can test a few different modes before settling on a plan.
Rehab is a good time to try some new avenues and not just stick to your usual training plan.
Some examples of what to swap in:
If a calf muscle injury: you could try swimming, cycling and water running.
If a hamstring muscle injury: you could try walking, swimming, and hiking.
The goal is to find something that off-loads the site enough to recover but still maintains your fitness during rehab.
The key is this fitness should be relatively pain-free to the site.
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Don't lose your mind or waste time doing the wrong things when you get an injury. Use this simple 5-step checklist to get back to triathlon training as soon as possible.
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Setting your program: match the duration (not the distance)
The final thing to consider is how much of it you should be doing in your week.
A good starting point is to match your current volume with different sports.
If you had a 60 min run on the schedule go for a 60 min hike.
Forget about distance during your rehab process.
Simply focus on getting in the time.
Here’s an example of a rehab week I have used:
That’s all for today.
We will build on this in part 2 on Wednesday.
Chandler