Intro and a question

[lullabymoon]

HI! I'm lullabymoon, 22 and trying to get fit as well as manage my pain and fatigue. I'm basically starting from scratch, although I have been doing supervised gym workouts twice a week for the last 6 weeks.

For example today's workout consisted of  11 minutes of walking pace on the treadmill, 12 minutes on the recumbent bike, 13 minutes on the handbike and 40 reps of various weight machines. I'm going to try and get back into some yoga and pilates and I'm planning on going to my first Zumba class next week.

My question is: how do you manage to stop yourself from going overboard? I'm enjoying my workouts so far but I'm having to stop myself from pushing too far, too fast and screwing everything up. Any tips on how to get off the treadmill? 

Comments

[green]

It's great to have a lot of motivation at first, and it's easy to go overboard. But I was just reading something today that said to make yourself hold back from everything you want to try, and it'll keep you motivated and interested when you finally add the new thing, and you won't burn out. At least I think that's what it said. ;)

[lullabymoon]

That's a great thought actually. Might make it a bit easier to hold back. Ta.

[rydra_wong]

Any tips on how to get off the treadmill?

Literally or figuratively? *g*

It may depend to some extent on how your pain and fatigue affect you: do you get physical signals that you're overdoing it at the time, or is it the kind of thing where you feel fine at the time and then it hits you like a tonne of bricks the next day?

Off the top of my head, things to think about might be:

* Rest days. Schedule at least one or two rest days a week (you may need more than that, especially when you're starting out), and make sure you stick to them.

* For when you just can't resist doing something: build up a mental list of "soft" exercises that won't wear you out. That could include something like slow, deep yoga stretches that involve minimal muscular effort (like the "yin yoga" approach); it could be gentle walking or tai chi, depending on how your body handles them.

They can actually be pretty intense in their effects (yin yoga is incredible that way), and will have knock-on benefits for everything else you're doing, but won't cause physical burnout.

* If it hurts, rest it. Don't exercise any body part that is twingy or painful (though if you have chronic pain issues, that may have to be adjusted to "more painful than usual"). If muscles are aching or sore the day after exercising or the day after that, give them a break and pick a form of exercise that hits other body parts. They need the time to rebuild themselves; interrupting that will prevent them from getting stronger.

*Watch out for worsening performance. If you find you're getting slower/weaker each day you do a given exercise, in my experience it's generally a sign that you're overdoing it and need to cut back until you've recovered a bit. Sounds obvious, but it's one of those things that's much harder to stick to when you're frustrated and feeling that if you just had another go ---

*See what helps your body recover from exercise. Hot baths? Epsom salts in the bath? Post-exercise stretching? Self-massage of tired muscles? Arnica salve? Aromatherapy massage oil?

*Don't skip the warm-up or the cool-down.

(Yes, this is all stuff I learnt the hard way *g*.)

[lullabymoon]

It's more like being hit by a tonne of bricks. :D I am familiar with the slow decline however as well.

Definitely including some rest days, and I like your idea of a list of 'soft' exercises. Definitely will come in handy.

Yin Yoga sounds pretty good, although it may have to wait until I've strenghtened my joints some more. My hips will go in whichever direction they please at the moment, without any input from me. Tai Chi on the other hand looks perfect just now.

Thank you so much for all your advice! I shall endeavour to learn from your mistakes ;D