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Rushing Back to Health
I think I overdid it. A couple of days ago, I was feeling so much better – having finally recuperated from that horrible viral infection – that I decided to return to the gym.
My trainer, Paula, was on holiday but she’d photocopied all my exercises so that I could get back into my routine. We’d spoken on the phone before she left and she told me to make sure I was completely recovered before getting back to my exercises. She also warned me to ease myself back into the routine and not push myself.
Did I listen? Of course not. I immediately started pushing myself – 20+ minutes on the treadmill to make up for the time I didn’t go because I was sick (I usually warm up with only 10 minutes so who knows what I was thinking). Then 15 reps of each exercise she’d given me, followed by another 15. I could feel myself getting tired but I continued to push on with some ball and weight exercises.
When I finally finished exercising, I did the mandatory stretching and cooling down. By this time, I was feeling exhausted but I convinced myself that it was just that my body was getting used to the exercise routine again. It was all good, right?
Wrong. The next morning I woke up and was aching all over –my legs felt like jelly, my head and neck hurt, and there was a black spot in my eye (the one with the glaucoma). Oh-oh…not good.
I decided the best thing for me to do was just lie low and relax. So that’s what I did – or rather, that’s what I tried to do. But work kept nagging at me, so I tried to do some of it on the computer. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do as much as I wanted to because of my eye strain, so I decided to stop and…what? I tried reading but with my eye bothering me, it wasn’t one of my better ideas. So I turned on the TV to watch some mindless TV program – and ended up falling asleep…TV has always had a soporific effect on me.
When I woke up, I realized that I’d slept for three hours, which immediately made me feel guilty. Then I decided to smarten up, let go of all that unhealthy guilt and just go with the flow. I was feeling so much better and it was obviously just what my body needed…a little rest and relaxation.
Lesson learned – the hard way (as is usual for me)!
[tags]routine exercise, relaxation, treadmill, weight exercises, stretching[/tags]
That’s similar with me, but i often push my work hours so i don’t give myself value sleep time. I’ve been a freelancer writer and web designer for about five years, and i go to bed always at 12 or 1 or 2 am, then i wake up tired at 6 or 7 am to make some yoga and some fitness, and keep on accumulating fatigue. I don’t sleep well and my fitness is going down.
I too come from a web background and as we all know, the internet is “ON” 24/7 and I found it sometimes difficult to discipline myself to unplug before the early mornings when the sun starts to come up and the birds begin chirping. These days I’ve found a woman who keeps me “In-Line” and I step away from the computer around 6pm every day. She’s also my inspiration to continue a daily yoga practice, because I went for years without yoga when it was completely up to me to get to a local class.
Oh yah, and Francesca, you should know better you silly!