My Journey With Health And Fitness – Recognizing Limitations

I was going to write an entirely different introduction to today’s post but I am just so excited. I went to a local footwear store (the kind that make orthotics) because I just couldn’t wear my NB running shoes any more. It wasn’t so much because they were worn, though they were getting there, but rather I have disliked them since I started wearing them. This is the 3rd different style of NB running shoes that I have tried and while I wasn’t a big fan of the first 2 styles these were the worst. However, because of the cost of them I was reluctant to swap them for new pairs until they were wearing out. The only reason I stuck with that brand was because it was recommended by my podiatrist. Today they gave me a wide size of Brooks (they were originally my favourite brand before the podiatrist got involved) and I almost heard angels singing when I put my feet in them. I can’t wait to break them in so I can take them for a run.

I have been really trying to push myself in my fitness classes these past few weeks and it has been paying off. Tuesday it appears I have finally mastered a single leg deadlift which when I started doing them I thought would never happen. Today I was doing full on pushups, you know on my toes not on my knees. I had been doing them against the bench all this time because I can’t drop to my knees to do them but today I figured let’s go for and I can actually do full on pushups. I was actually pretty proud of myself.

Yesterday though I really put myself to work. This included trying to deadlift about 100lbs. I was able to do it for 2 sets before I realized my back was starting to twinge so I dialed down a bit. But still, 2 sets were accomplished. It was in fact a brutal workout yesterday but that’s ok, I want to keep moving forward.

But then I tried to get out of bed this morning and went oh, oh. This is the first time that I have really felt the results of a workout. Don’t get me wrong, my muscles are often doing some complaining to me about working them too hard but today was more than usual (my lower back was sore but it was very obvious to me it was muscular and not due to a nerve issue). And so, despite being able to do full on pushups and having to do the Thunderstruck cardio I opted to just scale back a bit. My shoulders and upper body in particular were struggling so sometimes I dropped down to lower weights than I would normally do but that is ok, at least I tried.

It is alright to realize your limitations and let your body recover a little. The thought in my head was it’s only 7 days until Mexico, don’t screw things up. Does that mean I will back off for the next week? Hell no, I just will let my body tell me when It is ok to go above and beyond what it wants to do.