Started off too hard, too fast and injured yourself, didn’t you?
I have done this before. I have also been mad and worked out too hard, too fast one day causing a really bad injury that took months to heal.
So don’t ever feel you’re the only one who has done this.
It’s easy to be motivated in the beginning to start working out. You pick out some great workout clothes, vowing that they will be too big for you to wear in a month.
You then fall for that slick infomercial about how this special, scientifically studied, made just for you, exercise routine will be different than all the rest and you will finally be able to see the fat just literally melt off your body before your very eyes!
So you download that series, or you decide to jog that mile, never having jogged since high school, when all of a sudden after 2 days, Wham! You’re sidelined with a pulled muscle, a severe back ache, or a swollen knee.
Now you are lying on the couch with that ice pack as you dive head first into a sleeve of Girl Scout cookies.
Ugh. Did that happen to you?
If it did, the first thing I want you to do is to put down the cookies and back away slowly. It’s OK. We’ve all been there. We’ve all done it. This can be fixed. It’s not hopeless. I promise.
You can start exercising again once you are healed. For now go see the chiropractor, get the rest you need and do simple, easy stretches to keep your muscles limber. Then you can start back in slowly.
Your body has an amazing ability to heal if you give it what it needs. What it needs now is time to heal the injury.
It also needs specific nutrients to provide the materials to rebuild the injured areas. Nutrients like lean protein, calcium, glucosamine, B vitamins (all of them) Vit. C, Vit. E, carotenoids, Omega 3’s. (See our website - https://pws.shaklee.com/tobehealthy for the very best of these.)
Don’t forget to drink lots of filtered water, too.
Look, we’re not as young and fit as we used to be, let’s just admit that. But that doesn’t mean we have to resign ourselves to being fat and out of shape for the rest of our lives. We just need to ease into the exercise a bit more slowly than some others maybe. But we can do this!
While you are off and resting try coming up with a sensible plan this time to ease into exercising.
Figure out what your goal is, write that goal down and then list some things you can do to ease back into activity.
Walking is still the best form of exercise for most everyone to start with. Invest in good shoes that fit and come up with an easy plan to build on that.
After you’ve been walking for a week or so with no pain your plan needs to incorporate…slowly…more intense walking, light weight lifting, a little cardio, and good amount of stretching to help prevent future injuries.
I could spend the next 30 minutes explaining all the different exercises you could do and listing all the benefits, but there are so many articles about that, do you really need to read another one?
You know what to do and if you aren’t sure, ask.
Ask me, ask a trusted friend who has been where you are now, ask the Internet.
Just don’t fall for the go hard or go home attitude. That doesn’t always work and often hurts most people who have not been very active lately.
Take stock of where you are right now and where you want to be. Then like planning a trip, map out how you are going to get there.
Do your research and then give yourself a little grace. Stop beating yourself up for the shape you are in.
Own it. Right here. Right now. Then get to work.
Be smart, make a plan and go at it methodically, not like some crazed do or die person. Start slowly back into exercise and think about how you want to proceed.
When you go about easing into exercising instead of going at ramming speed it might surprise you how fast your body loves it and how quickly it responds.
Trust me, when you go about it sensibly your body is going to love you for it. It will show it’s gratitude by better sleep, your skin will glow, your mood will be better and clothes will be getting looser...slowly.
Soon you’ll be able to up the weight, walk further, jog faster and it will be exhilarating because you’ll be actually enjoying your exercise instead of dreading it or worse, not be able to do it all because you injured yourself.
Trust the process. You didn’t get this way overnight, you aren’t going to get fit overnight either. In this case slow and steady does win the race.
Be well my friends,
Julie
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