The strangest thing happened to me last week…I had just finished an envigorating leg workout; free bar squats, deadlifts, leg curls, and single leg body squats on the bosu. As I was putting away the bosu, I kicked the group X room door open with my right foot and immediately felt a sharp pain in my knee that made me drop to the floor. Oh no, had I just injured my MCL or meniscus!!! I was in quite a bind considering I had run to the gym and gave up walking after one block to have my boyfriend pick me up. How pathetic!
You know when you’re just having one of those weeks when nothing goes right? Well that was last week. After getting home and nursing my knee with ice, I woke up the next morning with what felt like a cold but I played it off as allergies because I was determined to not give in to being sick. And to top it off I was feeling fat or “fluffy” as I like to call it. And the scale was a bit on the heavy side for my normal weight fluctuations.
So I decided to “take it easy” the next few days. I quit running and went for long flat walks with the dog. Did very, very light functional resistance training. I slept A LOT. And made it a point to eat as healthy as possible over the weekend, and limit my usual weekend social drinking.
Then the light bulb went on! I was feeling symptoms of over training, duh!!! I looked back on my calendar (yes my workouts are in my calendar as meetings with myself, it's the only way it will get dong) and realized I had been training pretty hard since January (and it’s now the mid-May) to get ready for my trip to Cabo, then I had to work off Cabo. And I had recently been increasing my squatting weight and incorporating longer runs on the weekend, oh AND my sleep schedule had been a little off for the previous 3 weeks because of some early morning work meetings.
Whoa! Once I realized this on Thursday (after tweaking my knee on Tuesday), I was committed to taking an entire week to taking it easy and sticking to my plan. For those who know me, this isn’t easy, I’m a physical activity fanatic.
So now that the week of taking it easy has passed, the power of rest has become even more apparent. Being the avid runner that I am thus living with tight hips, one week of rest has restored my hip flexibility. Just to prove it, today I was able to do full king pigeon pose in yoga and I haven’t been able to do this in over a year!
Yeah, this pose is pretty awesome. It made me feel very accomplished today :)
You know when you’re just having one of those weeks when nothing goes right? Well that was last week. After getting home and nursing my knee with ice, I woke up the next morning with what felt like a cold but I played it off as allergies because I was determined to not give in to being sick. And to top it off I was feeling fat or “fluffy” as I like to call it. And the scale was a bit on the heavy side for my normal weight fluctuations.
So I decided to “take it easy” the next few days. I quit running and went for long flat walks with the dog. Did very, very light functional resistance training. I slept A LOT. And made it a point to eat as healthy as possible over the weekend, and limit my usual weekend social drinking.
Then the light bulb went on! I was feeling symptoms of over training, duh!!! I looked back on my calendar (yes my workouts are in my calendar as meetings with myself, it's the only way it will get dong) and realized I had been training pretty hard since January (and it’s now the mid-May) to get ready for my trip to Cabo, then I had to work off Cabo. And I had recently been increasing my squatting weight and incorporating longer runs on the weekend, oh AND my sleep schedule had been a little off for the previous 3 weeks because of some early morning work meetings.
Whoa! Once I realized this on Thursday (after tweaking my knee on Tuesday), I was committed to taking an entire week to taking it easy and sticking to my plan. For those who know me, this isn’t easy, I’m a physical activity fanatic.
So now that the week of taking it easy has passed, the power of rest has become even more apparent. Being the avid runner that I am thus living with tight hips, one week of rest has restored my hip flexibility. Just to prove it, today I was able to do full king pigeon pose in yoga and I haven’t been able to do this in over a year!
Yeah, this pose is pretty awesome. It made me feel very accomplished today :)
Plus, when I stepped on the scale today I was at the low end of my normal weight fluctuations! And I was able to kick the cold’s butt before it kicked mine. Lesson learned, get more rest!
It’s tough for most to fathom the idea that resting will promote weight loss and improved health, but it is SO important and not utilized enough. Most think “no pain, no gain” or that they need to keep pounding themselves in the ground to get results. But just like how continuous emotional stress takes a toll on the body, so does continuous physical stress.
So don’t feel guilty when you need to take a day off to rest or even a week! And that doesn’t mean becoming a couch potato for the whole day or week. It means just go lightly; walk instead of run, do some restorative exercise like yoga or Tai Chi. So check yourself now, when was the last time you rested. YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO WHAT YOUR BODY IS TELLING YOU.
It’s tough for most to fathom the idea that resting will promote weight loss and improved health, but it is SO important and not utilized enough. Most think “no pain, no gain” or that they need to keep pounding themselves in the ground to get results. But just like how continuous emotional stress takes a toll on the body, so does continuous physical stress.
So don’t feel guilty when you need to take a day off to rest or even a week! And that doesn’t mean becoming a couch potato for the whole day or week. It means just go lightly; walk instead of run, do some restorative exercise like yoga or Tai Chi. So check yourself now, when was the last time you rested. YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO WHAT YOUR BODY IS TELLING YOU.