Here’s what I know for sure. Exercising, moving my body, and being active on a regular basis is good for pretty much all that ails me. It’s a good way to decompress after a long stressful day at work. It lifts my mood when I’m down and feeling blue. It loosens my stiff achy body, and it’s just an overall mood booster.
As I challenge myself and as I begin working to get back on track with a regular and more consistent regimen, I’ve come up against an obstacle. For the past several months I’ve been dealing with back problems. Because I suffer with daily discomfort and pain on some days, it’s a mental struggle for me to get out there and to do my thing. My mind has finally accepted the fact that I gotta do this, but now my body is not playing fair.
The catch 22 is that, when my back is hurting I don’t feel like I can endure a workout, but when I push past those limiting thoughts and actually get out there and start walking, I find that my back feels better. Hmmm, could this be another benefit to working out?
I find the same holds true for my asthma. When I’m low on air capacity, it’s kind of difficult to wrap my head around walking or doing too much of anything. I mean, I’m already struggling to breathe, and now I’m considering exerting myself even further? Not my idea of fun! However, what I’ve come to experience is that exercise is good for my asthma too in that it helps to strengthen my lungs and I actually feel better. Imagine that! Wow, all those times I used my asthma as an excuse to get out of gym class…smh
I’ve finally come to the conclusion that if I want to feel better, I am going to have to workout. Plain and simple! At this point it’s not just for the sake of losing weight, but to feel better and to cure (or at least dull) my aches and pains. Now of course I’m not going to ignore severe or debilitating pain, nor am I talking about running a marathon in the middle of having an asthma attack. That’s insane! But what I am talking about is pushing through those uncomfortable moments to arrive on the other side of what appears to be a manageable problem.
Since I’ve been walking, and stretching in the mornings, before bed and before and after I workout, my back is feeling better. I’m not 100% cured but I’m feeling better and learning how to adjust to what needs to be done in order to be able to continue working out. I suspect my back issues will soon be a thing of the past once I drop the weight. At least that is my prayer.
I can say that my new-found attitude and respect for the power of movement has been working. Today I completed the third day of my walking challenge. My back feels wonderful. Don’t get me wrong the discomfort is ever-present, but I can definitely feel a difference in that the pain is not unbearable and at times undetectable. So to that point…I’m going to do the only logical thing to do…I’m gonna get to steppin
Monna says
I found out the same. I am a regular “gym-goer”. That means 5-6 days a week I work out. I tried CrossFit last week. I was nervous, but I said what the heck. I did the first 30 minutes and I was fine! It was a great work out and guess what, I was not tired, hungry or as sore as I thought I would be and it actually helped my back. Check out https://www.facebook.com/CrossFItBalaCynwyd. It is a great workout, but not for the faint of heart.
Stacey Strickler says
Hey Monna!!! I’ll have to check out that CrossFit workout. I’m glad to hear of all the benefits you received from it. You have me intrigued, especially about the part of it not being for the “faint of heart”…Yikes! But I love a challenge 😉