Exercise – Purple Hexing

Back to healthy behaviors

Yesterday, I ran again for the first time since last Monday, and today I did Yoga again for the first time since last Tuesday. After having injured my back last Tuesday, I had to take a little bit off to recuperate. This was a dangerous proposition, because as I wrote before, it’s exactly this type of situation that raises the risk of me slipping and abandoning my exercise. That’s why I am proud of myself that I made sure to continue, despite those thoughts that said “Maybe take a little time more, just to make sure you’re fully healed.”

My wife, fortunately, trained to be a nurse, and has also learned a lot of massage techniques. She figured out last week that I had just popped a rib, and managed to massage away some of the fluid that was building up. So, I did feel good enough yesterday to run. I was a little concerned during Yoga today, because I worried that I would again overdo it, but I made sure to just stretch gently. After all, it’s not about going to extremes, it’s about doing it.

Back Problems

On Monday morning, I pulled my back by, well, pulling on my back. Aside from starting running back up, I figured I’d get back into Yoga on my off days. Naturally, I made the same mistake as I did last time I picked Yoga back up. A golden rule in Yoga is that you stretch only as far as is comfortable. That’s not to say you’re not supposed to actually stretch, but that it’s never supposed to be painful. So there I am, with the instruction to touch my knee with the tip of my nose from a three-legged dog position—a thing I used to be able to do with ease. Now, the point is to get some flexibility back and reduce a little ache, so I expected to not be able to do all the things I used to do. However, this one didn’t particularly hurt, so I figured I was fine. I’m stretching my knee to my nose, and can nearly touch it; however, as I turn my head down a little, I hear an audible snap from my back.

Taken from the website https://strengthflexibilityhealtheds.com/three-legged-downward-facing-dog-pose-pocket-yogas-pose-of-the-day/

As you can imagine, I spent most of the Monday having shoots of pain if I moved the wrong way, but thankfully with the care of Tracy I managed to deal with it rather quickly. Tuesday felt a little better but still quite painful. Wednesday, I was a little better still, but still stiff and painful, which, sadly, has meant it was better to skip that run (dangerous territory, there—this is how it starts!). Today, I’m more stiff than painful, fortunately. Not up to one hundred percent, but I also don’t feel as incapacitated as I have. Hopefully, soon, this’ll be no problem at all again.

Second Run

This morning was a bit of a victory. Just yesterday I posted that I usually ended up quitting running due to excuses. Well, last night, I could not get a wink of sleep for some reason. Well, probably around three or four hours of restless sleep, in the end, but I didn’t fall asleep until 3am. So, as you will imagine, I woke up rather tired. On top of that, as I look outside, I notice that it’s raining steadily with no sign of letting up any time soon. What a recipe for failing before I even start. So, I doubled down and told myself: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays—just go out and run. And run I did. You know, running in the rain isn’t as bad as it seems. Above all, though, it made me proud of having made that choice.

Picking Running Back Up

For the first time in a few years, I went running again yesterday. There was a time when I ran relatively regularly, because I wanted to be in shape. Usually, I end up slipping out of those habits—it’ll be rainy, so “it’s not a good day to run”, or I’ll have had a tough day at work, or I have the sniffles. There’s always some excuse that ends up with me skipping “just this once”, which leads to “I’ll start fresh next week”, and ends up right in “I should start running again someday”. So, I started running again that day.