Bumps

While I prefer to focus on the positives, we all have negatives and obstacles to deal with when we show up to work out.  Sometimes those things are heavier than the weights we came to lift.  Here are a few ideas for coping:

• If you are afraid to fail:  My new favorite band has a song that explains that fighters never quit because quitters never win.  Doing something is better than doing nothing.  When we set our initial goals, we need to set them with success in mind.  That might mean the first few goals are incredibly easy to check off, like walking through the gym door, remembering to bring a water bottle, or learning how to work the exercise bike.

• If you are afraid to succeed:  This one is a little trickier because it’s harder to recognize.  We get comfy in our problems.  We are used to them.  When all of a sudden we are handling stuff we didn’t know we could, it can be scary because we realize that we have the power to do all kinds of cool stuff.  Some people won’t like our new, more powerful selves.  We will outgrow old patterns. Things will change, and change is scary.  Own it.  We all deserve to be our best selves and to be surrounded by people who support us in that process.

• If you are tired:  Get started.  Even if we do one rep, we are doing what we need to do to increase our energy in the long term.  We’ll sleep better.  We’ll feel better about ourselves.

• If you don’t have time:  I don’t know a single person who does not waste at least five minutes a day, and I know some seriously dedicated and efficient humans.  Five minutes of working out is better than no minutes.  Heck, it counts if we do body weight squats while the coffee is in the microwave or if we balance on one foot while we brush our teeth.  We can be the boss of our time.

• If you just don’t want to:  Seriously?  How many things do we do in a day that we don’t want to do?  Working out is at least good for us and likely to make things better, unlike, say, commuting or trying to get our kids to eat vegetables.  We can bribe ourselves, use our big brains to figure out how to make the workout least bad, or just suck it up.  We have choices.

We can do this.

Every time...

Almost all of the Pilates sessions I do myself or do with clients start with the same handful of exercises.  There are a few reasons for this.

Possibly the most obvious is that those exercises serve as a warm-up.  When I was younger, I was skeptical of the whole concept of warming up.  Reality has set in and I now understand that we don’t go zero to sixty instantly.  The later exercises really do go better when we take the time to ease into them properly.

I tend to put the straight core exercises in that early batch of exercises because then they definitely get done.  When they happen first, they don’t get forgotten.  Our balance and posture and healthy backs thank us when we ensure that the core work gets done.

A more subtle reason for the routine is that it becomes almost a ritual.  When we perform the same motions in the same order, it helps to get our mind in the right space for what comes next.  We get to arrive gradually, shedding the outside world and moving into the Pilates space as we progress down the familiar path.  Mind-body work requires both a mind and a body (no kidding!) and ritual helps both get to the right place.

Let’s do what we need to do to make our workouts go well!

Uncomfortably Not Numb...

Sometimes workouts leave us uncomfortable.  We get achy or sore.  Most of the time, that’s a good sign that we have done enough work to promote growth.  That still doesn’t make it fun when we have to haul our sore behinds up stairs or back to the gym.  Assuming we are not dealing with actual injury (in which case, go to the doctor and follow her or his instructions), here are some things that help.

• Ibuprofen.  It reduces swelling and relieves pain.  Taking it (not on an empty stomach) can make us feel lots better unless we have a condition or take other medications that mean we should avoid ibuprofen.  Dealing with the pain without OTC medication does not confer moral superiority.  There is enough suffering in the world already; we can save our stoicism for the things we actually have to bear that aren’t helped by pills.

• Ice.  Again, it reduces swelling.  It also pretty much makes us hold still while we have it on us, which gives us a bit of a break.

• Heat.  Heat does not reduce swelling, but it can soothe us and help us relax overly tense muscles.

• Rest.  None of us should be working out All The Time.  We all need to rest to give our muscles some time to rebuild themselves stronger.  Weight training soreness should peak by the second day and should subside after that.  If it doesn’t, that’s a good sign that we might want to tone the workout down just a smidge.

Work hard and also recover hard!