Have you ever been injured?

If you have, I guess you have not stopped exercising but instead scaled your exercises back and avoided activity that aggravated your injury.

What happens when you are feeling overwhelmed by the stress of life?

Do you keep pushing through and adding to the load?

I hear a lot from my clients that when the stress levels rise “I will just add another workout in to help with the stress”. This usually means getting up an hour earlier, getting to bed an hour later or eating lunch on the run to fit a workout in.

I honestly want to shout “STOP” at this point. You will gain very little from that extra workout, all it will do is boost your already high stress levels. Rather than getting up early take a lay in, get to bed earlier, take a walk in the park and sit down on a bench eating your lunch in the fresh air. Most importantly give yourself a break.

We still all vastly underestimated how much, our day to day lives effect our stress levels. Yes, I know I’m not a Psychologist, but it would remiss of me to ignore how much the psychological effects the physical.

On many occasions I have completely changed a session I had for a client because they have turned up to a session totally exhausted from a stressful day at work or have been up all night with their kids. It doesn’t mean they do nothing, although I have sat down with clients in the past and let them just let off steam because their head was really not in the game. I definitely do not see that as a wasted session, in fact it was incredibly productive. If I had powered through the session regardless then 3 things could have happened.

• The client ends up injured because they aren’t focused on technique
• The client gets ill because they are already run down, and I’ve just added to it.
• The most likely scenario is that they would have left the session feeling deflated and with low confidence because they feel they didn’t perform as well as they did in the past.

This is where I want to go back to the beginning. If you treat stress like you would a physical injury it may allow you to “Return to play” stronger.

Let’s call stress “Emotional injury” for the purpose of this explanation.

Stage 1

When you first realize you have an “Emotional” injury, seek professional help if you need to.

Try to cut back on the things that are making it worse. I know it’s hard not to go to work, be a parent or care giver, but you may be surprised that if you ask for help someone will be there. Try to delegate or at least cut out the stuff that really you don’t need to do right now.

Stage 2

Progressive overload. As with a physical injury you wouldn’t (or hopefully not!) after one pain free day go straight back into full training. The same applies to an emotional injury.

After one good night’s sleep don’t try and fill you day. Add a few things to your schedule and if you feel good stick with that workload for a few days. Once you have adjusted to the new workload only then add more.

Stage3

“Return to the game” Once you have followed stage 1 and 2 and feel well, then you should return to your routine. Never forget, to drop back to stage 2 or 1 if you feel the “Emotional injury” reoccurring. Part of the healing process is learning your bodies warning signs and knowing when to step back.

Over the years I have learnt, sometimes the hard way, that saying “No” is a good thing to do. It might be to yourself when you are thinking about doing an extra rep that could push a good session into one where you walk away injured. It might be saying “No” to the night out because you really need to get to bed on time.

Sometimes it’s worth letting go of a little, putting things off until tomorrow, allow yourself to breathe and get off life’s treadmill. Don’t worry, it will still be there tomorrow if you want to get back on.

Have a healthy 2020!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where has the year gone?

It only feels like yesterday that I was applying sun block to a screaming 6-year-old.  He is now 7 and is writing a Christmas list that would give “War and Peace” a run for its money in terms of length.

Am I the only one who bans TV channels that have commercial breaks this time of year? Telling your children, the TV remote is broken is only a little lie Santa!

Last Christmas I wrote a blog on how Christmas dinner should be embraced rather than feared. Yes, it has more calories than most other meals throughout the year but it also contains healthy dose of veg and social interaction.

If you can eat a full turkey dinner, pudding followed by mince pies and a wafer-thin mint every day of the year than honestly a would have to salute you before handing you some indigestion medication.

ONE MEAL…………. EVEN 3 WILL NOT RUIN YOUR NUTRITION AND FITNESS GOALS. (Angry capitals are back and I have a new coffee machine a dangerous mix reader!)

Why are the scales telling me a different story Laura?

Most of the festive food we eat is pretty carb heavy. No, I’m not going to jump on the anti carb wagon I would wrestle you if you got in my way of me and a slice of Panettone at Christmas. However, the clue is in the name “Carbohydrate” every gram of carb likes to hook up to three water molecules, giving you that lovely post dinner bloat.

Fear not, get back into your regular routine and the scales if you still feel the need to stand on them will be back to pre-Christmas numbers.

One last thing.

If I see a magazine or social media pop up telling me how many minutes of exercise I need to do to burn off a mince pie, I may have to poke my eyes out with some matchmaker mint sticks.

EXERCISE SHOULD NOT BE A PUNISHMENT FOR EATING! Do it because you enjoy it, not because the media says you need to strap yourself to the treadmill for 10 minutes because you licked a “Ferrero Rocher”.

When it comes to exercise during the festive season, be active but don’t beat yourself up if you miss a work out or two. Walk, dance and play ……… and be merry!