I just came back home from physical therapy. I feel great – not like I was prior to my car accident but better than before I had my PT session. This is my second week of PT and I hope that I can continue for a long time. Because not only does it feel good, it is a gentle form of self care to my body. I am learning that not all exercise to get into shape must be fast, hard, exhausting, or pushing the body to its limits.
I am like many people who want to get into shape, improve their physique, or get past a plateau or move to the next level of fitness. I might use weights, or begin an aerobic exercise like biking, running, spinning. Maybe I’ll use a video routine and of course do level one once and convince myself that I am at the intermediate or advanced level. Talk about denial of my own fitness level!
These forms of exercise are great, especially for the large muscle groups, and I would never say not to do them. Yet, if you don’t have a strong foundation with the smaller support muscles that are often not talked about and most people don’t know about before building the larger muscles sets you up for injury and muscle imbalance. It could also slow down progress toward the fitness goal you set.
If you are anything like me or know anyone like me, you will relate to my story. The first session with the physical therapist I’m asking if I could do my bar workouts. They are not super aerobic and the moves are small. I didn’t see why they would be a problem. The PT hesitates and then explains that with my injury to my iliosacral joint, she would recommend exercises that have me supported by the floor. Her concern was with the standing and possible weakness of the core muscles could cause further injury. If I insisted on extra exercise, she suggested pilates. OK, I could agree with that. I have a pilates video.
The next day I did the exercises she had given me to do at home. Wow! They took some time. Not only took time, but I felt the subtleness of the exercises. I wasn’t using the large muscles as much as all those little muscles underlying those large muscles everyone knows and sees. The exercises targets those little support muscles that are so often ignored withe regular workouts.
Lesson One: if the small supporting muscles are weak, there is no foundation for the large muscles to rest upon. Result? Pain. Imbalance. Injury.
With the time it takes to the do exercises assigned, I don’t have time to do pilates I had assumed I was going to barrel through. I decided to wait until next week to begin pilates. LOL. Next week is here and I have not started pilates. Instead, I go to PT three times a week and do the assigned exercises and stretches on the other days.
Lesson Two: More is not always better. Gentle can be as good as hard. Know when enough is enough and if you have difficulties with this, allow the professional to tell you what is enough. Slow and steady can be as loving to your body and fast and intense.
At the PT session today I did new slightly harder exercises than last week’s exercises, but not as hard as I would be doing on my own. The physical therapist asked me if I started the pilates over the weekend. I told her that I decided to wait. the exercises she was giving me were good and that they took more time that I realized; however, more importantly I’ve realized how weak the small muscles she is having me strengthen are and that if these foundational muscles are weak, working the bigger muscles wouldn’t be very good, since they do not have a strong foundation to rest upon.
The therapist smiled and nodded. She agreed, confirming my insight.
After the exercises the therapist worked on the muscles in my hip hitting those muscles that are bound up and what I call “stuck” together in a way that causes hip pain when I walk and prevents free and easy movement.
While enjoying this ‘good pain’ and feeling how the muscles were subtly releases and letting go, I again thought about self-care and self-love. I thought about how long it has been since I had a massage and how much I enjoyed getting them. I thought about my act of loving kindness to both my body and spirit the gift of massage was. My inner voice told me it is time to get massages again.
Lesson Three: Making time to care for your body be it making sure you have annual physical exams, six-month dentist appointments, physical therapy doctor is a form of self-care and self-love. If we reframe how we see these tasks as chores and annoyances to acts of self-care, then we can walk in gratitude for the opportunity we have to give ourselves love and self-care. Reframing stops us from falling into negative thinking and complaining. Instead, the gratitude we experience from reframing will make us lighter, happier, and a more pleasant person to be around.
What are experiences in your life that you can reframe into opportunities of gratitude? I’d love to hear.