If you’re an injured athlete getting back into the swing of things with your sport can be difficult. Emalee Tunney, an offensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Passion in the Women’s Football Alliance, knows this first hand. 

“I’ve been struggling since last season. I came off some injuries, so getting back into the whole working out thing was really, really difficult. And I got married [last year], so I got into that lull of things.” 

Following the wedding, Emalee and her wife decided to focus on their health and fitness. But instead of just weight loss, Emalee wanted to focus on body composition and recomposition — both for her mental health and the sake of her sport. 

“I get kind of obsessive about the scale when I do get into my fitness mindset because I do things either a hundred percent or zero percent,” she said. “It’s not always a healthy mindset or indicator of your fitness level.” 

Getting Back to Fitness After Injury

Emalee has made fitness a focus for most of her adult life. 

“I started with CrossFit when I was in college and I had just come off a big injury, so that was my foray back into things [and] I started distance running… I followed that throughout my life.” 

She also knows firsthand how hard it can be for injured athletes to return to fitness, especially when they are unable to perform at the level they were before injury. For Emalee, taking it slow has been of utmost importance, especially because she said she usually jumps right in. 

“I’m reeling myself back to build up to my previous fitness levels instead of going full force immediately, which then gets me hurt,” she said. “It is a vicious cycle of doing too much too soon, being hurt, [and then] not being able to do anything for a long time.” 

When coming off of injury, athletes have to listen to their bodies and understand that it may take time to return to peak performance. 

Often, athletes aren’t just facing a decrease in their fitness, but they also have to contend with weight gain after injury. Whether food is a coping mechanism or the amount of calories burned throughout the day has decreased immensely, often we see a lifestyle change in injured athletes. 

Emalee has made the conscious decision to keep a consistent exercise routine and healthy diet to help manage her weight; she said she gained 20-25 pounds in the six months after football season ended. 

Now, she is concentrating not on just losing weight, but also building muscle. 

“I wanted to be able to [lose weight] in a way this year that not only was I losing the weight in order to be quicker where I needed to be, but also I was putting on muscle,” she said. 

Reframing her health journey into losing fat while building muscle means her body composition has changed — for the better. 

Using ZOZOFIT After Injury to Monitor Fitness Progress 

Emalee has been using ZOZOFIT to monitor her fitness progress. Since getting a ZOZOSUIT six months ago, she has scanned once a month and has seen how her body composition improved to align with her goals. Before ZOZOFIT, she had taken body measurements, but wanted something more accurate. 

“[ZOZOFIT] is worth the small investment… I am an engineer in my career, so I like the actual numbers. I like to be able to look from an analytical perspective.” 

She often uses the side-by-side comparison feature in the ZOZOFIT app to track her progress in body recomposition over time. This is especially helpful when compared to the traditional scale; since the scale doesn’t account for muscle mass, weight might actually increase when focusing on building muscle. 

Since she has accurate information via ZOZOFIT, it’s been easier for Emalee to set and reach goals — but also understand her body. 

“[Seeing] the first [scan] was not a great feeling, but I think it was motivating. I was able to say, okay, these are the actual measurements. It’s just improving those [because] we’re already as bad as it’s going to get. Everything’s an improvement from here. It’s like being faced with a mirror.” 

Now, Emalee uses ZOZOFIT to motivate her to keep going, even when she doesn’t want to. 

“Something is better than nothing,” she said. “We’ll thank ourselves tomorrow when we get a good night’s sleep because we’re tired from the gym. You always feel a little better after a workout.”