Good Morning Friends!!
Over the last several months I have been dealing with an injury that has made it painful to run and I have been going to physical therapy to help work out some of the issues. When I started going to physical therapy about a month ago I was told to not run or ride my bike as that was aggravating my injury. I was told I could walk but not to run or ride. I want to heal without issues so I did as I was told. Last week I started feeling better and thought I would try jogging very slowly a little at a time. By the end of the week when I went to PT I was starting to hurt again. My therapist delivered the news that the type of injury I have may take a while to heal and I had started jogging to soon. She told me no more running until my pain is completely gone.
All of my morning cardio HIIT workouts revolved around running and biking. When I was told I couldn’t do those anymore my thought was a bit of panic at first. I then got a hold of myself and realized I can still walk and power walk. After the news last week, I decided I can still do what I have been doing…walking. I do all of my cardio on a treadmill, so I have been power walking and climbing steep inclines to get my heart rate up and keep it up. The amazing thing is with speed walking and inclines I am able to get my heart rate to the same level as if I was running.
When I was told not to run or ride I had to look at my workout routine and decide what I was still capable of doing. I could walk for cardio and utilize walking to the best of my ability to continue to burn calories and elevate my heart rate.
Have there been times when you have had an injury and just stopped working out all together when in reality if you had taken a look at what you were still capable of you could have still done some type of exercise? A hurt shoulder doesn’t mean you can’t workout legs or core. Knee surgery doesn’t mean you can’t sit or lay on a bench and exercise your upper body. A weak back doesn’t mean you can’t do core to help strengthen your back and alleviate pain.
I want to challenge us to find what we are capable of doing when an injury or pain enters our life. Those are just obstacles we must find a way around. There is always a solution to the problem, we just need to be proactive in finding our own solution.
I encourage you this week to be active in your capable way.
Your Friend,
Aaron