Funny things happen in the health and wellness industry. Sometimes funny (like HA-HA) and sometimes funny (like puzzling and bizarre). One constant that seems to keep popping up is the rampant trend of individuals not knowing when to put the brakes on a given behavior/exercise/action.
Perhaps you've heard the old joke that goes something like this:
Man walks into his doctor's office and says "Doc, it hurts when I go like this."
The doctor, very matter-of-factly, says "Then don't do that".
So, what's the problem exactly?
We tend to fall into certain traps when it comes to behaviors we hope will make our body look and feel the way we want it to. I wish I could attribute it to one particular activity but it isn't that easy. So, I'll give you some examples I hope can illustrate my point.
I'd like to affectionately recall a conversation I had with a client of mine just last week. This individual is always in a fantastic mood. Always smiling, always upbeat. Never an unkind word drops from her mouth. She also is more active than any other person I currently know. Yoga, tennis, golf, personal training. She literally never stops. To her credit I'll say, she's in great shape. But she has recently recovered from a fairly nasty injury and has been trying to regain full mobility of that joint again. While we continue to work in efforts to give her full strength back, I ask her how she's doing. She remarks the joint is pretty sore. When we target the issue directly, what we find is that she never stops moving. Every day contains an activity. I ask her if she's ever considered taking a day of recovery and that's when "the look" strikes. That look which innocently asks "What do you mean, recovery?"
You see, as someone who people pay their hard-earned money to in efforts to get and keep them moving, you have to learn when...to.....just.....rest.
Elite athletes have to do it. And it isn't just because they push their bodies to the limits so often. We all have limits. We all have thresholds. Your body needs a break sometimes. Me personally, I take two days off each week. Usually Saturdays and Sundays. However, everyone is different. It has to be a trial and error experiment for you.
If you find you're not getting as strong as you'd like, your soreness lingers for days on end, or your endurance/stamina capacity isn't improving your body may be screaming at you to give it a rest.
It's not just about taking a day off though.
It's amazing to me how many people I meet and work with who continue to perform an activity that their body clearly is not equipped to handle. So they injure and re-injure themselves and are never firing on all cylinders. I know this may come as a shock to some people but there are actually people out there who really have no business running. Or doing yoga. Or competitive cycling. Blame genetics. Blame biomechanics. Or maybe you need to get a more qualified coach to make sure your body is performing the way it should be on any given exercise. I'll be the first to say, I'm not the expert if you need a coach on proper running mechanics. That's something I would reach out to far more experienced people than myself for.
Take a personal inventory and be honest with yourself about what's working and what isn't. Know when your body is telling you to back off a bit and rest or abandon a form of exercise altogether. You're not going to be perfect at every occupation and your body is not going to be amazing at every style of athletic movement.
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