Hi all,
This week started very well; I trained well on Monday and was pretty much very happy with myself about that … until Tuesday came and my muscle soreness was so bad I could hardly walk! This was not very wise of me. After taking it easy the week before, I went into my training session too hard and too heavy, which resulted in 3 days worth of DOMS that have now set me back even further. T
o make matters worse (and as positive as I usually am these days, this has really hit home for me) my back/SI/hip issues have got way worse too and I have enforced a almost complete training ban! Following the advice of a friend, who I highly respect, I must step back from high load training for at least a month. This is such a pain for me to have to admit, but I guess I need to remember I only have one back and one life, and I want to live it pain free! So what if I am not as strong, or look as defined … I want to be active, able to enjoy life and able to work … these are the things I need to remind myself of.
When training is such a big part of life, it can be a bigger challenge to step back and get TRUE rest. And even more of a challenge to hold back from restarting things by doing too much. When I was “taking it easy” last week, I was still deadlifting, squatting and bridging with heavy loads, just not AS heavy as usual or as often as usual. I made excuses about why I “needed” to keep doing these exercises. The point is, that I still thought I could have it both ways … recover without rest! While sometimes this MAY be true (depending on the type of injury and training you do), I have to admit that this time I was wrong – continuing to train the way I normally do is not helping. When I am pain free, I do too much and then it flares up again – so a ban is the only way I can hold myself back. I’m often an “all or nothing” kind of person, but I need to start applying more wisdom … even if it’s borrowed from other people!
Now the problem is, what about my home workouts, and what about my other project etc etc?? Well, I will resort to demonstrating the exercises for a while and I will come up with other ways to continue blogging. I won’t bore you with my sadness over this, but I will use this as the perfect opportunity to practice all my positivity and faith lessons from this last few months. After all, it’s easy to be happy and have faith when everything is fine and dandy; a lot more testing when something so challenging is set before you.
When have I ever passed up a challenge? 😉
Anyway, this will test me on a whole load of levels, but mostly mentally and emotionally. Fear of getting fat, being weak, feeling useless, unattractive (in a “who wants to be with a cripple” pity-party kind of way) are just some of the irrational worries that are flashing through my head right now. But these are only fleeting and natural thoughts, and I know I can rise above these fears – it just takes determination and setting my mind to a place of calm. It will all be okay.
It’s not ALL bad; when I am ready I can still do non-impact cardio (maybe swimming), upper body training, bodybuilding-style routines (maybe even use resistance machines for a while), and body weight stuff. And, of course, I will be doing mobility work and having soft-tissue therapy. I just can’t go heavy. I will keep you all informed about my progress and I hope that once this passes, I will be better for it and I will rid myself of my dark passenger forever!
For now, I thought I would give you all a workout challenge – so you can represent me and kick some serious butt for me 🙂
The Challenge
Complete as many rounds of the following 4 exercises in 15 minutes:
- Goblet Squats x 10 reps
- Burpees x 10 reps
- Two-Handed KB Swing x 20 reps
- Bent Over Row (double or alternating) x 10 reps for each arm
And that’s it. Doesn’t seem too bad … 😉 The thing is, now I won’t be doing the workouts means they might end up harder haha! J/K
Hope you all have a great workout and never take for granted being able to move pain-free 🙂
Cheers
Marianne
PS – I found this great article by John Romaniello about Body Weight Training. For anyone wanting to deload, this is a great way to do so and still feel the many other benefits of exercise. Hope you enjoy the read as I did.