I don’t think I have mentioned on this blog I have started a new pain treatment at the Utah Chronic Pain Center. This is a dual approach of hormone balancing and laser/decompression treatment all supervised by nurse practitioners and doctors. As part of the treatment I am supposed to remain active but not cause my muscles to be overly swollen, tender or pulled. This would revert all of our progress. I am also supposed avoid bending, twisting or sudden movement. As a result I have moved from working out 4-6 times a week to more like 2-3 times a week. I have also been a little less intense on the diet; although I don’t really have an excuse for that.
I have also been specifically told by the doctor to stop mixed martial arts for the moment because it is too jarring and too much potential for my muscles to be strained. I miss it and hope to be back soon but for the moment, the treatment is very expensive and I’m inclined to listen. :).
Here’s the weird thing- I feel great. I feel energetic, happy, and relatively free from pain. In all the years I was working out hard core I kept expecting to be energetic from exercise but never really felt it. All those endorphins were a myth to me, never a reality (and I mean never). I can’t explain it but I feel healthier now than I have in years. Hmmmm… Why does my body have to be a freakazoid and not response like everyone else’s! Can any of you relate to what I am saying? Please, please share your experiences.
Now I have to get training again soon because I have the GSL swim coming up and I have been woefully out of the water this year. (With everything crazy for Poler and Grabber I haven’t had time to get to the pool as much as I would like. Going tomorrow though!).
What do you think of this? Am I just deluding myself that these behaviors are making me feel good. I don’t think so. I really feel good. Most importantly I am not in constant pain when I breath, move, bend over or walk. What should I do in the future because I don’t want to lose all the training I worked so hard for but it was making me feel terrible and it never got easier after 3 years? Never. What would you do? It’s like I have to decide pain or fat?
It’s so hard because you feel like you should almost be feeling bad when you are training but usually that goes away after a while. For me it was a constant bad reaction to exercise. Even swimming would leave me weak and frustrated. There’s a limit how long a person can live like that especially without losing much weight.
I’m puzzled because it seems to go against what doctors and medical science thinks for me to feel better not exercising. Thoughts? All I know is what my body is telling me and it is definitely telling me to slow things down.
Rachel's Musings 
I recently read that people with PCOS and other hormone imbalances have an easier time losing weight if their exercise is light rather than intense. This is really difficult for me as I find that even when I am not trying to go hard, I work out at a high intensity and keep my heart rate high, so I haven’t really tried it yet. I wonder if you’ll find yourself actually shedding pounds with this because intense exercise messes with hormones, which also messes with metabolism (as far as I’ve read recently).
I hope the treatment works and I’m glad that at least for now you are feeling less pain!
Really? I’d be interested in reading that article. I am beyond grateful to be lessening pain and the anxiety that comes with it.
It’s kind of a weight off of my shoulders giving up the hard core exercising. The other day I said to myself ‘what if this is just how God wants me to look?’ What’s wrong with that?
I’ve always hated weight loss on television because the attitude is ‘we have to rescue these fat people from their horrible lives’. I don’t need rescue. I’m a healthy person and I tried it your way for a long time. It didn’t work. Now I’m going slow and feeling happy about it. thanks for your comment.