Veteran’s Guide to Civilian Fitness & Injury Prevention

Photo by Edgar Chaparro on Unsplash

As a Veteran, you have led a pretty disciplined life that focused on duty, fitness, and reaction. 

Now that you’re out of the environment daily, suddenly you are responsible for your training schedule, your fitness level, and your well-being. Now you are concentrating more on your wellness journey, your goals for the future, and reducing stress. 

Some might find changing the mindset from reaction and retaliation to internal conversations about the fitness level you want to keep, and how to keep your military fitness up to par. 

You don’t have the same tools in your civilian life as you did at Bot amp. You were all about the body, strength, and endurance; now you need to think about that differently. Crawling in mud on your belly and climbing tall walls in the forest can be done, but done differently. 

Different equipment and coordination.

The joy of the gym membership is the benefit of hot tubs, saunas, and steam rooms to clean out your spirit, keep you in a good head space, and make changes you would like in order to switch the mindset from soldier to individual, and you can create a plan that serves the kind of life and future you want to live in.

Redefining The Mission

A veterans club might have facilities at your disposal for training or getting a trainer who can recreate the fitness regimen you had in Basic Training. 

But maybe you prefer a more solo mission and you want to take some pleasure from the endorphins being released during a cross-country run, breathe in the fresh air, see beautiful places, give yourself the gift of listening to your body, and get a whole mind and body fitness experience:

• Find a gorgeous place that is candy for the eyes. You can even go to a virtual reality (VR Gaming) place and experience running through exotic places, down country roads, and they can offer running AI partners and quell loneliness as well. Good for mental health.
• If you have kids, involve them in warm-ups, mini boot camps, and do your heart good with cardio and sharing the experience with your kids or family. That will warm the cockles of your heart.
• Please get involved in games you enjoy, like football, hockey, field hockey, or pickleball (yes, you heard me). Pickleball is the hot new trend, and this too can give you some competition if you seek that, as well as socialization and great biceps strength.

Managing PTSD and Maintaining Mental Health

When you were always forced into pushing yourself further and further, sometimes through injuries and trauma, you didn’t make a habit of listening to your body, and sometimes you had nowhere to put feelings or work through the energies and trauma situations you dealt with while on active duty. 

Now is your opportunity to work through the PTSD and work on some coping skills when a bout of this shakes you:

• There have been studies that show aerobic exercise is an excellent way to combat symptoms of PTSD.
• Gameplay like TETRIS. Puzzle games or even adult coloring books can also help distract the mind so invasive thoughts don’t dig their heels in. SODUKO is a favorite of mine.
• Yoga can be a great addition to your routine. It has been shown to calm the excitable natures of PTSD and align your somatic rhythm.

Also, help can be CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), meditation, and EMDR (Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing). 

Check with a local Doctor about these and other therapies that can help you in recovery.

Shifting Focus

Your focus will change a little, and you will start thinking more about functional strength, mobility, joint pain, and often managing old injuries. 

You also need to bear in mind that new equipment and facilities may pose their own hazards, and injuries can happen.

You will need to take the precautions of using spotters when doing weights, learning from it if you are having a leg day, and be aware of any wet floors, broken equipment, or other hazards around the workout spaces or near the pool.

At this point in your career, you don’t want to deal with the complexities of a lawsuit due to an injury at your Gym!

However, accidents do happen, and if you find yourself in a situation where a premises liability lawyer is needed, you should seek justice and learn about the specific laws governing your state, how long you have to make a claim, and what your burden of proof might be.

Here’s a quick comparison example to emphasise why it’s important to go with a local lawyer:

A premises liability lawyer Illinois residents would use will know that there’s modified comparative fault (50% bar). This means that you cannot recover damages if you’re found to be 50% (or more) at fault. Also, in Illinois, you’ve got 2 years from the date of injury to file a lawsuit. When it comes to property owners, they’re required to exercise reasonable care to keep the premises safe.

In the State of Florida, since the law’s different, lawyers will work a different strategy. 

Instead of a modified comparative fault, in Florida, you’ve got a pure comparative fault, which means that you can recover damages regardless of fault percentage. The ‘catch’ is that your recovery is reduced by your share of fault (so it does matter). The statute of limitations is 2 years for personal injury. But for negligence claims, it’s 4 years. 

When it comes to keeping premises safe, Florida property owners are mandated to warn of (or fix) concealed dangers they know of (or should know about).

Conclusion

When you leave your post as commander of the MASH 4077, or retire as a Staff Sargent, you become the commander of your own health. 

Let’s say your final call to action is to take care of yourself, and no matter how long you serve, you can make your life whatever you want to make of it. 

Continued fitness for your body, mindfulness for mental health, and dealing with things when they come with wise advice and experts in the fields of building the body, calming the mind, and knowing your rights will make for a new chapter in your life that can really help you be all that you can be.