Coping with Fear

Sometimes in fitness we do things that scare us.  The first workout back after an injury, for example, can be anxiety-provoking for many reasons, including the fear that we will reinjure ourselves or that we have lost too much ground while we’ve been recovering or that we’ll never be the same again.

Or maybe we are going along happily doing our skiing or climbing or boxing and a Bad Thing happens, whether that’s a fall or an injury or a crash or a blow or something else.  We have to deal with the thing itself, but also with the wave of emotion that comes with it.

Or maybe we’ve never tried a particular class or activity before and we just don’t know how it is going to work for us.  Maybe we won’t be good at it or the instructor could be mean or the regulars won’t make space for us.

Whatever it is, there are ways to cope.  The most basic is to focus on breathing.  As long as we keep doing that, it’s going to be all right.  We can also collect information ahead of time about warm-ups or preparatory drills or stretches, about the instructor, about what kind of moves are potentially risky for whatever condition we are dealing with and deploy that knowledge to keep ourselves safe.  We can recruit a team or a buddy to go with us, whether that’s a coach or a therapist or a trainer or just a willing friend who will support us when the going gets tough.

Fitness is about getting more powerful, but not always in the ways we expect.