The Importance of Exercise During Recovery: A Personal Journey
After several days of feeling unwell, the decision to get back to exercise proved challenging but necessary. Despite lingering symptoms including headaches and nasal congestion, the return to physical activity highlighted how quickly the body can become stiff and painful without regular movement.
“I have been feeling sick for some days, I have not really exercised and I did not do any good for my system,” shares the author. “That did not help me at all. Not exercising did not help me, but made my body to be stiff. I tried to stretch, even the back of my legs, my nails, my toes, everything pained me. Because of lack of exercise.”
Mind Over Matter: Taking Control of Your Body
One of the key insights from this experience is the importance of mental discipline when it comes to health and fitness. Rather than allowing physical discomfort to dictate behavior, the focus should be on maintaining control:
“All you need to do is to push your body. You force it. Not letting your body control you. Control your body. Control your mouth. When you feel like eating unhealthy food, you say no. Control your mouth. Control your belly. Control everything. And then force your body to move. Force it. It’s not easy. But you are going to force it.”
The Progressive Return to Exercise
The journey back to fitness after illness is necessarily gradual. Starting with light jogging, the author noted significant improvement compared to previous days:
“Because yesterday I cannot sustain this jogging for five minutes. No stop five minutes jogging. Today I feel better.”
This improvement served as motivation to continue, with the workout eventually building up to nearly 200 calories burned during the session.
Adapting Exercise to Your Current Abilities
An important aspect of sustainable fitness is recognizing your current limitations while still challenging yourself appropriately. The author describes adjusting treadmill settings based on current fitness level:
“When I lose weight, I’ll start running at level 10, but if I put it now, I will fall. Because of my weight. But I used to put 7, I used to put up to 7. Before, I used to put up to 9.”
Health as a Foundation for Achievement
Perhaps the most powerful insight from this experience is the fundamental role health plays in our ability to achieve our goals:
“Your health is what? When you are in good health you can achieve. It’s only when you cannot do certain things that you cannot achieve your goals. That is why we need to run. We need to exercise anyhow we can.”
The author emphasizes that exercise doesn’t require professional-level intensity to be beneficial: “We must not lift 100 pounds. Just start by lifting 10 pounds. Five pounds. Just little by little we are going to be fine.”
This gradual approach to fitness, especially when recovering from illness, represents a sustainable path forward for anyone looking to improve their health and wellbeing through regular physical activity.