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Movement is Excellent Medicine

Last fall I felt like I was at the peak of my health.  I was gearing up to turn 40 and I had the world and my fitness by the tail.  Then foot issues got in the way of an intense training program I was doing.  I took a few weeks slow down, got myself together and started back where I had left off. A few month went by and still with great ambitions to do some really hard core programs before I officially turned 40, I set off pushing myself even a bit more.

Then a nice winter vacation to a warm destination, I started feeling some chest pains before we started our flight back home.  I didn't think much of it other than my body wasn't used to the bed we had slept on...it'd go away.  Well, it didn't the intensity of the pain became worse and it wasn't soon after we got back home that I had a pre-scheduled physical.

I went to the doc, laughing that I always come home with some ache and pain from vacation...he said he figured I was allergic to vacation!  Ha...NOOO way!

In seriousness, after blood work and chest x-rays, it was determined that I had a case of Pleurisy.  Pleurisy is inflammation of the pleurae, which impairs their lubricating function and causes pain when breathing. It is caused by pneumonia and other diseases of the chest or abdomen.  It was incredibly painful.  I knew it was going to mean shutting down some goals and spending some time RESTING.  Rest heals.  And that is just what I did.

However, I get antsy.  Fitness is just part of my day.  My family is grateful when I get my fitness work done and out of the way for the day.  But getting back to my "normal" routine wasn't going to be the answer.  I still had pain to overcome and didn't want to overwork myself to continued inflammation.

In my "rest" period.  I found a few things that I had kinda left in the dust.  First, the simple act of walking, at a slow pace, with a friend to keep me encouraged.  The second, learning to do light yoga.  I've not been a big fan of yoga, but after only a few weeks of working through it, I'm learning a new strength about my body.  I've been able to slowly retrain my body and now I can start building more weight training and cardio back into my routine.

If I wouldn't have visited some of my fitness friends that do yoga on a regular basis, I think I would've either started back into a high intensity program way too quickly or I would still be laying on the couch whining about how I couldn't do anything.

Yoga has helped my body heal.  It's helped me become stronger mentally and physically.  It's also helping to relieve a lost of stress and worry that I had been carrying.

I'm not an expert in any type of fitness, especially when it comes to yoga.  However, I do know that movement is my daily dose of sanity and that I function better, sleep better and have more energy throughout each and every day when I make the conscience decision to make intentional movement a part of my daily routine.  I also know that with Spring planting right around the corner, that I have to be my strongest me possible.  So, it didn't take me long to work into figuring out how I was going to get better.

I'm not quite camera literate yet when it comes to video taping things and since I'm still learning so many of these moves, I thought I'd share a yoga video from another blogger friend of mine.  She has quite a bit of yoga experience and does a great job working through the yoga poses with her followers.

Posted by Elaine Gillis at 11:23 AM Labels: Fitness, recovery, Rest, yoga


