"From myperspective as both an athlete and a sports medicine physician, the worst thing you can do is totally stopexercising,” says [Dr. Jordan Metzl] (http://www.DrJordanMetzl.com), a sports medicine physicianat New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery and author of five books including TheAthlete's Book of Home Remedies.“Let's say you're training for aTough Mudder and you hurt your wrist. By taking time totally off, your wristmight feel better—but you end up losing so much fitness and general muscle massthat, by the time the race comes, you're in terrible shape so you have todefer.”

Tohelp keep you off the sidelines, we called up some other top-notch sportsdoctors for advice on how to stay fit when you’re dealing with five commoninjuries.

WHENYOU HAVE A SORE SHOULDER

“Concentrateon upper back and scapula exercises,” says Edmond Cleeman, a surgeon atManhattan Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Group who specializes in knees andshoulders. “Most concentrate on just chest and arms. Upper back muscles arecritical as they control the scapula—which is part of the shoulder! So: Do machinerows, single arm dumbbell rows, reverse flys, TRX, and avoid pull-ups—they can aggravate the shoulder.”

SOREBACK

First,Metzl says, get a diagnosis so you know whether you have, say, a herniated discor a pulled muscle. Then, “swim or ride the exercise bike, or do whatever youcan that doesn't make your back hurt worse while it’s healing,” he says. “I alsouse yoga for my patients with back injuries all the time; that's a common onein my office.”

BUMWRIST

“Withalmost every wrist injury,” Metzl says, “you can still run, you can stationarybike, and you can work your lower body while the injury heals."

BALKYKNEE

“Concentrateon core, hip, quad, hamstring,” Cleeman says. “Imbalances and weakness in thesemuscle groups lead to altered mechanics that affect the knee and lead to pain.These muscle groups have an important biomechanics impact on the knee. Someguys in the gym have a tendency to concentrate on the upper body and chest tolook good. But it’s important not to neglect the core and lower extremities.”

TENDERANKLE

“Assumingyou canwalk on itwithout crutches, you're going to want to do things that are low-or-non-impactexercises with low resistance training,” says David McAllister, Director ofOrthoapedic Surgery at UCLA. “So: riding an exercise bike, getting on theelliptical. Maybe some low-resistance weight exercises you like. It's mostlygoing to be trial and error.” In sum, here’s a common-sense rule of advice: “Ifyou can do an exercise comfortably, it's probably OK to do.”