Day 3 - Exercising despite the pain

In response to today's journal query: "When was the last time you exercised or did another physical activity? What was this activity? How did it make you feel physically and emotionally?"

I had decided about 2 years ago to begin exercising, despite the pain. I noticed that I mentally felt better after exercising even if the pain did not go away, so that is good. There are a lot of exercises I can do that I can do pain free, but some exercises are painful. Sometimes I don't feel the pain during or right after exercising, but I find it is difficult to get comfortable to fall asleep at night on those days. I wonder if I am conditioning myself to feel pain when I do those exercises? And if so, how do I get out of that pattern? I know I have some fear in anticipation of doing those exercises. I guess that is enough to set up the pain scenario?

On a good note, I "injured" my back several years ago moving a heavy piece of equipment at the gym where I worked. At the time, I felt a "pop" and was in excruciating pain for about three months afterward. Yesterday, I was asked to help move these same heavy pieces of equipment. I was feeling strong enough to do so and I said yes, but I was scared inside that I would "hurt"my back, again. There was no snap or pop, but driving home afterward, my whole left leg went numb. I mentally reviewed the stresses I am currently under, part of which was that I gave up some of my time to help others at the expense of not spending time on a few of my own pressing issues. (Goodism and my own self-imposed pressure and perfectionism). I explained to my brain that this was the cause of the pain and it had nothing to do with the heavy lifting. I got up this morning feeling stiff. My plan was to go to the gym and work out, which I did. One of my weak areas is my hamstrings. When I tried to do hamstring curls, I got all sorts of pain, numbness and tingling. I again talked to my brain and told it there was no reason for all the drama. Again, I reflected on the pain and my current stressors, dropped the weight a little and finished the set. That was enough to banish the pain.

I feel like I was successful with the new pain. But with the deeply seated or conditioned pain, not so much. Any recommendations?

 

Hi. I've read good and bad things about exercising he hamstrings. Not sure if it's a good idea.
Maybe do some reading on hamstrings. I've seen some videos on Youtube.

You shouldn't have been such a goodist to help move that stuff. Let the heavyweights do it.

I think you mainly need to modify your goodism and just learn to say NO.

Try not to condition yourself to worry you will hurt yourself by exercising, but easy does it.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to look into the hamstring thing. Saying "NO" is sometimes hard to do!