In the last 35 years I have had about a half dozen times where I got out of the habit of exercising as a result of injuries or life just getting in the way. When that happened I had a greater propensity to eat more comfort food. I would even get up in the middle of the night to eat. Of course I gained weight, sugar levels went up, bad cholesteral went up, and my blood pressure was a little harder to control. What was more striking was how badly I felt. Old injuries came back to haunt me.
Last year I tore my Achilles tendon right in two. The recovery was slow. I stopped all exercise for months. I woke up one day with a pain in my shoulder that’s lasted for days. I further injured it playing around with my daughter. The pain, numbness, and restricted movement lasted for months. Because I favored one shoulder I slept on the other shoulder, and it soon began to hurt as well.
The pain and numbness just would not go away. I couldn’t reach over my head, reach out to close the car door, and had trouble putting on a shirt. I couldn’t sleep; the pain was persistent. Each night was constant struggle to find a position that would not hurt or make my arms numb. I began therapy with positive results. Massage helped too. I eventually got a shot of cortisone, and the pain subsided enough that I began strength training again, slowly building up.
The pounds started coming off and the pain totally disappeared. I was motivated to eat better. If I was going to all this effort of exercising I did not want to sabotage it with bad eating habits. Eventually I could move my shoulders effortlessly without having to be conscious of every movement.
At New Orleans Fitness Trainers and at Austin Personal Training we have extensive lines of Medical rehab equipment that can be finely adjusted to accommodate those with physical limitations to get you back to effortlessly doing the things you want to do and increase your quality of life. The time, effort, and price of price of exercising far outweigh the price of not exercising.