It’s great to be back! I took some time off to rethink the focus of the blog, and second, truth was, I was a bit down, not feeling like the fitness warrior I used to be. I mean, this is a blog based on an ethos of fitness! But then two great things happened. First, I discussed this with my boyfriend. He rolled his eyes and told me I’m the expert and live and breathe this stuff, you don’t have to be superwoman (and he believes in me 100% since the day we met). Now secondly – I decided to fix myself and go to physical therapy for that nagging groin strain and hamstring tendonitis.
I committed myself not only to go to the physical therapy sessions, but as experience has shown before, to do all of the exercises I was told to do. I worked diligently and consistently. I also did a really hard thing, I laid off of high intensity cardio and yoga. The yoga was the hardest part, I had just spent over six months in teacher training taking loads of classes and finally found an advanced class I LOVED that really pushed my practice. Nope, nada, it was off the calendar. I took a break. No hard classes, no cardio and yoga the same day (in fact I laid of yoga almost entirely for a couple of months), no leg presses or lunges with weights, and most definitely no running.
An amazing thing happened – I started to heal! I graduated from physical therapy and then I did a really smart thing. I took a personal training session to kick-start my motivation and then had him write out a three-week program for me that I could do for a couple of months with the special parameter of post rehab exercise. The program is “en punto,” a Spanish saying taught to me many years ago by my theatre professor of mine. It translates as “on point,” that just so sweet spot. The result? I have been weight training for six weeks and I am PAIN FREE for the first time in nearly 5 years of nagging, chronic, injuries that kept me on the sidelines. Last year this was a huge goal of mine to accomplish. I’m now happily riding pretty intensely on a spin bike and kicking it up a notch on the elliptical. I’ve also been slowly introducing more vigorous yoga into my schedule.
The lesson?
Take a break when you need it. Heal your body and the rest will follow. Celebrate the victories, big and little alike.
The result of all of this – happiness, confidence, and excitement, real excitement.
So no, I’m not doing lunges with 10 lb. dumbbells just yet, and that’s OK. But even with low to no-weight exercises, I am still really sore as these gams get back into shape.
These slower workouts were just the thing to easy my body back into the game.
I got over the fact that just because I am a fitness expert and coach, it doesn’t mean that I don’t have my own struggles. I work in the trenches of behavior change so I know how hard change can be. I feel reborn because I am achieving my fitness goals – the ones that work for me right now
In coaching parlance they call it self efficacy. It means how much confidence you have in achieving the goals that you set for yourself. Self-efficacy is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. My new workout regimen has slowly and steadily built my self- efficacy day by day and week by week.
The key ingredient to motivation is finding the why. My “why” was internal and intrinsic and deeply resonated with me. The next time that you want to create that goal, think of what moves you from the inside, it will help you move to the outside.
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