I also agree with the Every Step Counts segment. More is not necessarily better. No need to feel guilty that you don't churn up and down the pool for an hour, can't run a half marathon every week, or don't hit the gym everyday. The culture of pride and awe around excessive exercise is really not helpful for most. You can get perfectly fit and healthy, and look your best doing just a little exercise, and you are less likely to get injured. Ever since I read The First Twenty Minutes (Gretchen Reynolds - and I hope the science is still right!) I'm content at mid life doing my 1km in the pool. The law of diminishing returns prevails.
Returning to physical activity soon after injury is a winner for me. I have two stories to tell about this. The first was a few years ago when I suffered nerve impingement in my neck and was strapped up and on high level pain killers (which didn't really help). It took a few months for the pain to subside but I returned to surfing before that occurred. Mostly because the reward from surfing was too great compared to the pain (I'm addicted to surfing). I believe by returning to surfing I taught my body that the pain was ok and tolerable. The neck pain continued to get better, and today although I continue to feel a remnant of it, it does not inhibit my daily life in any way. The second incident was recent. I had a sore back, went surfing, and it became worse. That night I would experience painful back spasms in bed when rolling over, or moving in a particular way. The next day I spent on the bed to rest it. I felt pretty miserable doing that as it was beautiful outside and a day for the ocean. Over the following week I had slow improvement and the spasms subsided, but I was still too sore to surf. At the end of that week I woke up again back at square one with the bad back pain! I spent the day on the bed with anti-inflammatories and felt tired and fed-up. The following day I woke with back pain AND a crick in my neck from sleeping badly! Couldn't believe it. Oh no, another day on the bed.... But I was too miserable at that thought so made myself go to the beach to meet my friends for our regular Sunday ocean dip. My thought process was as the bed rest made me feel worse, I am going to continue as normal, but respectful toward the sore bits of my body. Warm sun, cold ocean water, light body surfing, connection with friends - I could not believe the difference it made to my physical discomfort and mood - all much improved! My back pain is still there but receding, and I know it will resolve, and I will be surfing again just in time for an upcoming surfing holiday :-).
I also agree with the Every Step Counts segment. More is not necessarily better. No need to feel guilty that you don't churn up and down the pool for an hour, can't run a half marathon every week, or don't hit the gym everyday. The culture of pride and awe around excessive exercise is really not helpful for most. You can get perfectly fit and healthy, and look your best doing just a little exercise, and you are less likely to get injured. Ever since I read The First Twenty Minutes (Gretchen Reynolds - and I hope the science is still right!) I'm content at mid life doing my 1km in the pool. The law of diminishing returns prevails.
Returning to physical activity soon after injury is a winner for me. I have two stories to tell about this. The first was a few years ago when I suffered nerve impingement in my neck and was strapped up and on high level pain killers (which didn't really help). It took a few months for the pain to subside but I returned to surfing before that occurred. Mostly because the reward from surfing was too great compared to the pain (I'm addicted to surfing). I believe by returning to surfing I taught my body that the pain was ok and tolerable. The neck pain continued to get better, and today although I continue to feel a remnant of it, it does not inhibit my daily life in any way. The second incident was recent. I had a sore back, went surfing, and it became worse. That night I would experience painful back spasms in bed when rolling over, or moving in a particular way. The next day I spent on the bed to rest it. I felt pretty miserable doing that as it was beautiful outside and a day for the ocean. Over the following week I had slow improvement and the spasms subsided, but I was still too sore to surf. At the end of that week I woke up again back at square one with the bad back pain! I spent the day on the bed with anti-inflammatories and felt tired and fed-up. The following day I woke with back pain AND a crick in my neck from sleeping badly! Couldn't believe it. Oh no, another day on the bed.... But I was too miserable at that thought so made myself go to the beach to meet my friends for our regular Sunday ocean dip. My thought process was as the bed rest made me feel worse, I am going to continue as normal, but respectful toward the sore bits of my body. Warm sun, cold ocean water, light body surfing, connection with friends - I could not believe the difference it made to my physical discomfort and mood - all much improved! My back pain is still there but receding, and I know it will resolve, and I will be surfing again just in time for an upcoming surfing holiday :-).