The Wide Road or the Tightrope

Everyone has a range of two little or too much exercise. For the average person, one weekend of gardening can cause a back ache. Or it might take a couple weeks without moderate or vigorous physical activity for weakness to turn into stiffness and achiness. Most people do fine with regular exercise here and there with not too much at any one time.

I liken this to a wide road with shallow shoulders. When we exercise the right amount we stay on the road. If we verge to the side of overexertion and strain a muscle, we stray off the pavement and get bogged down in the gravel. It takes some work, maybe seeing a health care provider or doing some stretches or extra time in the hot tub, to get back on the road. Sometimes we get too busy with work to walk, do yoga, lift weights, whatever our usual exercise routine is, so our muscles lose strength, our cardiovascular system loses steam, our organs lose vitality. This is the other side of the road. We’re heading for the ditch of lethargy, aches and pains.

The better our physical condition, the wider the road and the easier the shoulder. With inattention or injury, the road narrows, the banks steepen, the ditches turn to ravines. For people with chronic pain, the road has dwindled to the thickness of a tightrope strung high. This isn’t a glamorous high wire circus act; this is a trembling person, already off balance by pain, who doesn’t want to fall.

Managing the tightrope can be a full-time job. Every activity must be considered as potentially being too much or too little. Vacuuming the house might send one tumbling off the rope into a free fall to the net below, so that an arduous journey is required to climb the ladder back to the rope. Each person’s ladder is a unique combination of treatments. Finding the personal combination of therapy is as relevant as discovering what throws one off balance and into the net.

The other side of the tightrope – inactivity – is just as dangerous. Chronic pain creates and exacerbates weakness. Every day some exercise is required or else one risks falling off the other side of the wire with a similar climb up to the rope of equilibrium.

My teacher, Donna Bajelis, taught me the analogy of the tightrope. My clients, especially those with chronic pain, find it useful to keep on track with activity. They use continual self-care to lower the rope to ground-level, widen it to a balance beam and eventually recreate a broad road. Everyone can broaden their path with regular exercise. If you’re on a tightrope, work toward a balance beam. If you’re on a beam, work toward a narrow path. If you’re on a path, create a road for yourself. If your road is already broad, what will it take to make it an eight lane highway?

3 Exercise Myths Debunked

According to U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, sport and exercise related injuries are on the rise for all age groups, and especially for older persons. Despite the tremendous sympathy and TLC you could receive from family and co-workers, you don’t want to be one of the millions of Americans who gets hurt. It’s not worth the short-term pain, mid-term reduction to your fitness, or long-term damage to your body.

Unfortunately, many people get injured, because they’re following the bad advice of old exercise myths. Read on to reduce your chances of being an injury statistic.

Myth #1 – Bigger is Better
Do you agree with any of the following statements?
§ If bench pressing 40 pounds is good, 60 pounds must be better for you.
§ It’s better to run fast or with longer strides than to jog slowly.
§ The best stretch for your hamstrings requires touching your toes.
Hate to tell you, but it ain’t necessarily so. When you pick a goal that’s more suitable for Lance Armstrong, Jackie Joyner Kersey, or Arnold Schwarzenegger, you ignore your body’s fitness needs and extend too far.

In addition, large movements often bypass small core muscles. Many of the muscles around the spine are less than one inch long. Small, slow movements will wake and strengthen them. Bigger may be a goal, but for the here and now, try to focus on the weight, time, and stretch that is “just right” for you right now.

Myth #2 – No Pain, No Gain
Even though your middle school coach told you that pain was good for you, he was misinformed, and you don’t need his approval anymore anyway. If activity hurts, you are probably hurting yourself. Period. Thousands of health professionals agree.

You get the most benefit when you work at your personal edge. The edge is the place right before it hurts. Most of us (me, too, most days) don’t want to pay that much attention; it’s easier to go full tilt and justify it with the “No Pain, No Gain” baloney. But if we want to stay fit for a lifetime, we must ditch this macho myth.

Myth #3 – Fun Exercise Doesn’t Help
When you’re happy, your body is more flexible, the muscles better able to contract and relax. When you force yourself to do something, you have to move through tension and shallow breath, which makes strain more likely. Plus, you’re more likely to stay active when you’re having fun.

The hard part can be figuring out what you like to do. I really don’t like breathing hard, so I’ll find any excuse to avoid the treadmill or elliptical. I do like riding a bike (in the sun) and dancing, so I get my cardio that way.

Your body knows what it needs and it will choose to challenge itself without the brain brandishing a whip. Try some of your favorite childhood activities, and, like a child, do them for fun. Enjoy jumping rope? Don’t force yourself for 10 minutes, just hop as long as it feels good. Again, work your edge. If 10 laps in the pool are pleasurable, try 11, not 15.

Many ideas of how to get healthy are unrealistic myths that try to mold you into a make-believe action-figure. Your body’s not disposable like a toy, nor infinitely reparable. If you set your sights on reasonable goals, avoid pain, and have fun, you’ll get injured less and soon exceed your current limits.