Recently I’ve been recovering from an injury, which has prevented me from running since the middle of December last year. Having an injury can be very annoying, not just for our physical health but also for our mental health.

Exercise is a great way to positively boost our mental health and our overall well being. When an injury impacts our ability to exercise, this can have a negative impact.

For me exercise is a major part of my life. Not only is exercise a passion, but it is one of my main coping techniques in life. Having an injury to my foot has significantly impacted me recently. I do feel lucky that at least I have been able to comfortably walk on my injury which has helped its recovery. But I’m not yet in a position to go out running again.

I feel lucky and grateful that I have quite a lot of variety already in my exercise routine before this injury happened. This has helped me maintain my fitness level and my mental health despite this injury. Finding exercise that we enjoy is one of the best ways to stick with an exercise routine.

My foot is improving and I’ve still managed to exercise to an extent that it can still work as a major coping technique for me. Ask my recovery continues from this injury, I’ve tried to see this as an opportunity to try and diversify my workout even further. Having an injury is a major negative, but I tried to focus on positivity to make this an opportunity.

If you get an injury and this is holding you back, why not put a spin on this positively. Is there any other exercise that you could do? Anything that you could do to help you keep moving and to give you that mental boost. It doesn’t have to be intense, but you might find that keeping moving can help both physically and mentally.

I’ve decided against returning to running at this stage. I’m switching my focus to my other exercises and continuing my journey by trying new things. I will probably be talking about this more in future blogs.

 For now, happy exercise!