meme: Dealing with injury?

[untonuggan]

Sickness and injury are inevitable in everyone's life, and it really sucks when it messes with your exercise routine. (Broken leg? No running for you!) I was wondering if anyone wanted to start a conversation on such topics as...

How do you avoid injury?
For myself, one of my key techniques lately has been to make sure I'm wearing the right kind of shoes...there's nothing like twisting an ankle while hiking in sandles to make you kick yourself. It's also important to have enough arch support.

What kinds of physical activities do you do when you're injured? (i.e. low-impact things that will keep you somewhat conditioned while your body heals)
I've been told over and over again that I should try swimming more regularly, but I really don't enjoy getting water in my face. I'm trying some "water jogging" and the like, but unfortunately the pool isn't always fun for me. I'm working on doing stretching/yoga type things every day. Does anyone else have ideas for exercises to do when you have foot issues?

What kinds of mental/emotional/spiritual activities do you do to stay sane while you're unable to do more vigorous activities?
I've meditated in the past, and I've been meaning to do it more regularly. (Isn't that always the way?) Reading is also a great escape for me.

Comments

[devildoll]

When my leg was broken I sat on a stability ball and did arm work with weights. It worked my core and my upper body, and if you get punches going with hand weights at a steady speed, you'll get a bit of cardio, too.

[smackshack]

For avoiding injury I think the main thing is to avoid too much repetition of the same routines. Now that I do more bike riding and interval training, I discover that I'm much happier, and a bit faster, when I go for a longer run. In the past I was just jogging three times a week, and my joints complained a lot more.

As for what to do while injured, I suppose it depends on the injury and one's preferred activity. When I was younger I did a lot of karate, and in that time I had a broken hand once, and another time a broken toe. While the hand was broken I practiced stances and kicks; when the toe was broken I just sort of grinned and bore it and tried not to kick any more shins. You just experiment and see what you get away with.

The mental/emotional/spiritual activity question is interesting. Reading is great any time, but I think meditation (or journaling, which can have similar benefits) is a good idea whether you're injured or not, especially if you do any kind of exercise that involves assimilating new skills and taking occasional blows to the ego when the assimilation doesn't happen as planned. Just spending some time paying attention to your emotions, thinking about how to solve problems, etc., pays great dividends. It helps prevent some of the more anxiety-ridden "WTF am I doing?" moments.