- by Kelly Miller
- 2 minute read
When Fear Gets In The Way!
Written By: Coach MJA huge fear to overcome is moving when living with chronic pain, let alone starting or keeping up an exercise program! It is much easier to do as little as possible to keep pain to a minimum, but in reality we are not doing ourselves any favors. The less we move, the stiffer and sorer we can become.
The old adage- use it or lose it comes to mind!
The fear of pain is very real and often impedes our fitness journey for different reasons aside from the pain itself. The awkwardness or self consciousness we feel when we can’t do a movement as everyone else can get in our way. When we just put up with the pain during a movement, the rest of our body suffers when we move in ways that can throw out the alignment of our body. This more often than not causes pain elsewhere as we put unnecessary stress where it shouldn’t be.
As my arthritis progressed I would unwittingly shift my weight when standing to the stronger side; this caused a shift in my pelvis and lower back, straining muscles and joints in ways that caused more issues. The shift was so gradual that I didn’t notice and it just became the way I moved and walked. Soon there were movements I would avoid altogether to avoid the aggravations that they caused – in retrospect I should have communicated with my coaching team sooner that something was off.
When I was willing to admit that something was off in my movements and our coaches were aware of it, we were able to come up with a plan of action to make the workouts work in a safe and effective way to keep moving forward in my fitness journey.
This allowed me to not only keep working out but to build strength around the weaker areas so that when I had my hip replacement, it was a benefit to my recovery progress.
Communication is key in keeping our fitness journey as safe and efficient as we can. Talking with our coaches, opening up a conversation with any other medical teams we have in place, (chiropractor, massage or physio) allows you to keep moving in the safest way possible.
Our life is constantly changing as we move forward; taking the time to care for the one body we have is important to live to the best of our potential! What are you doing to take care of you?