Throughout the past 5 years, getting up in the morning to do some exercise has been my favourite thing, I love the feeling of being awake before the city, it sets me up for the day, I want to fuel my body with good food afterwards and I forget I’ve even exercised by 10am! But I’ve had a burn out in the past few months and I’ve had to listen to my body.
A few months ago I was getting up early for the gym, often doing 2 classes or going for a run followed by a 30min grit class then working a full time job, planning our wedding and the move to France. There was so much going on at the time and one morning at the gym, I felt my lower back twinge. I ignored it (obviously) and kept up with the fast pace life was going. It wasn’t until after our wedding in June that I was in such pain I went to see an Osteopath who specified that the injury was an inflamed sacrum which is an easy fix (so that’s good) and who also told me to lay off the weights and running and do yoga or pilates for a couple of weeks. This had me shook as I’ve never had an “injury” before, never had to alter my work out routine or deal with what my body needs compared to what I want to do. Weights, HITT and running are what I like to do best, I’ve always felt like I need to be out of breath and sweating to consider it a “work out” and if I’m not up smashing it out at 6am, I feel guilty.
I read an article online awhile ago that you could actually be putting your body under [more] stress by forcing yourself up early and hitting the gym while you’re still waking up, carrying into your normal full day to where you could sleep until your body is ready to wake and exercise later which could have a more positive impact on you. I thought about this during the past month and can confirm that it rings true to me. Although I will always love an amazing early morning work out, I can now slow down and take it easy when I need to without the guilt behind it.
I decided to listen to the osteopath and after a hectic few months where I loaded my body with a whole lot of work and pressure, I went and signed up at a yoga studio. I’ve now been there for about 7 weeks and enjoy so much! Its such a different work out to what I’d been doing but my heart rate is over 100 most of the class. In yoga I truly feel like I’m taking care of my body by slowing down, tuning into myself more and pushing to where I can, carefully. I can do so much more since my first class, I’m a lot stronger in certain poses and discover more things about myself each class. I don’t always make the 630am class and often do lunch time or 530pm classes which I enjoy just as much. I’ve only just started incorporating functional training back into my week’s but I am now starting to recognise when to pull back when I’ve previously been drilled to push, push, push.
It has been SO GREAT listening to my body when it needs a rest. It is almost a blessing in disguise this happened before our move to France as I’ll be all out of sorts with settling in, I can approach it from a better mindset with taking time to figure it all out. Finding a new routine, finding a new space to workout in.
Take however long you need and do what your body is asking for. If it shakes up your usual, amazing. You’ll reap the awards.
DANNIELLEGRACE 