Last year I was ill and had to take time off work for the first time in a decade. The hardest part of this period of my life was that life continued outside my front door. Jake was attending the races we would have gone to together. My body needed me to listen and slow down and I wasn’t. So it kept hurting and letting me down… until I stopped. Really stopped.
I tried to get back to running mid March and found myself with a sore knee. Determined to still be able to move I saw a physio. Diagnosed with weakness around my quad/hip which was causing the knee pain, I left with exercises in hand. At this point I realised my body was talking to me again… I knew I could use yoga to strengthen my body and mind and rule out the need to have any form of support.
Yoga every damn day… I rolled my mat out one morning before work and did 10 minutes. I felt good. Great, in fact. I found yoga helped me to stay happy with moving. I still do this over a year on.
As the year went by I still wasn’t fit or strong enough to run any great distance so I had to get creative. I got a bike in the summer holidays and chased Jake around but my main exercise was still yoga. I found it grounding, calming and empowering. I felt super strong and yet humbled by the flows and postures.
You may wonder where this is leading… move from home. There is absolutely no need for you to kill yourself with ridiculous at home workouts while we are in lockdown. You need to look after yourself. Try and listen to what your body wants, like I HAD to. We have time now to just rest and tune in to what your body is telling you it needs.
You may want to yoga – I thoroughly recommend it! Maybe a walk, finding new paths near you. I still like to run; I’m sticking to once per week in place of parkrun. There are seated exercise classes on line, I sent my parents’ the link for one by Alice Liveing on Instagram but I think they were offended (“for older people”!). These last few weeks I have been trying out Barre classes as well as HIIT, body weight workouts and kettlebell circuits. I haven’t made a plan, I just try to listen to what my body needs that day. When my body needs a rest, I do.
Move if you want to, don’t if you don’t. You don’t have to come out of this any “better”, you just have to survive it. So be as kind to yourself as you would be to your best friend.
Remember, what’s online is everyone’s highlight reel. We see their good bits… yet we know our own good AND bad bits. Hence the infamous phrase “Comparison is the thief of joy”!
The F Word 