The Power of Exercise for Recovery: How to Push Through Even When You're Not Feeling Your Best
Feeling sick and choosing to rest might seem like the logical choice, but sometimes a gentle workout can be exactly what your body needs to bounce back. After several days of feeling under the weather and avoiding exercise, one fitness enthusiast discovered that lack of movement only made things worse.
“I have been feeling sick for some days, I have not really exercised and I did not do any good for my system. 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 knees, my toes, everything pained me. Because of lack of exercise.”
Breaking Through the Discomfort
Despite still experiencing symptoms like a headache, sore neck, and congestion, getting back to a workout routine proved to be beneficial. Just a short 20-minute exercise session can be enough to start feeling better and regaining energy.
The transformation was noticeable right away: “If it was yesterday, I cannot sustain this jogging for five minutes. No stop, five minutes jogging. If it was two days ago, that was the worst.”
Mental Discipline: The Key to Fitness Success
One of the most challenging aspects of maintaining fitness is developing the mental discipline to push through discomfort and resist unhealthy habits. As our fitness enthusiast puts it:
“It is very hard to lose weight, but very easy to gain weight. All you need to do is to push your body. Force it. Not letting your body control you. Control your body. Control your mouth. When you feel like eating a snack, you say no. I will not eat today's snack. I will exercise. Just go ahead.”
Starting Small and Building Consistency
You don't need to be a professional athlete or lift heavy weights to benefit from exercise. The key is starting at whatever level works for you:
“We need to exercise anyhow we can. We must not be professional. We must not lift 100 pounds. Just start by lifting 10 pounds, 5 pounds. If we cannot lift 10 pounds, just little by little, we are going to be fine.”
Adapting Your Workout to Your Current Fitness Level
Understanding your current capabilities and adjusting accordingly is essential for safe, effective workouts. For example, when using a treadmill, it's important to select an appropriate speed:
“When I lose weight, I'll start running at 10. Because at that speed, you have to really move. If I put it at 10 now, I will fall because of my weight. But I used to put it at seven. Before, I used to put it up to nine.”
The Reward of Perseverance
By the end of even a short workout, you can already start to feel the benefits. As our fitness enthusiast noted while approaching 200 calories burned, “My energy level is coming back.”
Your health is the foundation for achieving your goals. When you're in good health, you can pursue your ambitions. It's only when health issues prevent you from doing certain activities that your goals become harder to reach. That's why consistent exercise, even when you don't feel like it, is so important for long-term success.
