The Importance of Consistency: Returning to Exercise After Illness
Returning to exercise after illness can be challenging, but it's a crucial step in maintaining overall health and wellness. As many fitness enthusiasts discover, even a short break from regular workouts can lead to stiffness, discomfort, and decreased stamina.
After several days of feeling sick and neglecting exercise, the body quickly responds with increased stiffness and pain. One fitness enthusiast noted, “I have been feeling sick for some days, I have not really exercised… That did not help me at all. Not exercising did not help me, but made my body to be stiff. I tried to stretch, even the back of my legs, my nails, my toes, everything pained me. Because of lack of exercise.”
The Challenge of Weight Management
One of the most frustrating aspects of fitness is the imbalance between how difficult it is to lose weight versus how easy it is to gain it. “It is very hard to exercise, but very easy to get weight. Very hard to lose weight. Very easy to get weight.”
The key to success lies in mental discipline: “All you need to do is to push your body. You force it. Not letting your body control you. Control your body. Control your mouth. Control your lungs. Control your belly… force your body to move.”
Starting Small After a Break
When returning to exercise after illness, it's important to start with manageable goals. You don't need to immediately return to your previous level of intensity. As our fitness enthusiast points out, “We must not be professional as well. We must not lift 100 pounds. Just start by lifting 10 pounds. Five pounds… Just little by little, we are going to be fine.”
This gradual approach allows your body to rebuild strength and endurance without risking injury or burnout.
Tracking Progress
Using equipment with built-in tracking features can help monitor your progress as you return to fitness. Modern treadmills, for example, can track time, calories burned, incline, and speed. This data helps you measure improvements and set appropriate goals for future workouts.
For safety reasons, it's important to adjust intensity based on your current fitness level. “If I put 10, I will fall. Because of my weight. But I used to put seven. I used to put up to seven. Before, I used to put up to nine.”
The Health-Achievement Connection
Perhaps most importantly, maintaining good health is foundational to achieving other goals in life. “Your health is what? When you are in good health, you can achieve. It's only when you cannot do certain things that you cannot achieve your goals.”
This perspective serves as powerful motivation to prioritize fitness, even when it's difficult to get started again after an illness or break.
Remember that consistency is key, and even short workouts contribute to overall health. By gradually increasing intensity and duration, you'll soon find your energy levels returning and your fitness improving day by day.
