The Muscles Have Staged a Work Slowdown

{ Wednesday, July 8, 2009 }

So for the past couple of days I've felt sluggish and undermotivated. I'm not sure what's going on; is my body just not used to so much exercise all at once? Maybe. Maybe not.

Don't get me wrong — I'm not unsettled by this in the least. My response is more of a "hm, that's annoying, what's that about" than an "oh no! I'm slacking off!" This little slowdown is just something to watch and learn from.

Here's what I think.

a) I haven't been getting enough sleep or a consistent amount of sleep every night.
b) I haven't been eating enough protein.

Those two factors alone can account for most if not all of what I'm feeling. And they're relatively easily corrected.

I've been taking regular rest and active recovery days; I can play around with taking more and see how that goes.

The one piece of advice I take with a grain of salt & potassium is to "listen to my body." Like a lot of advice it's true but superficial. It's too easy to listen to my brain and call it listening to my body. And my brain has historically repeated messages to me that range from incorrect to insane. My brain often interprets the available data for maximum convenience, which is to say, whatever challenges its ingrained patterns the least.

I've also noticed that "listen to your body" is the go-to advice when people mean, "You should never do anything uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable to know you're doing that."

Friends — just because I'm pushing doesn't mean I'm ignoring my body. For instance, right now my calves feel a little tight. It's slightly uncomfortable. That doesn't mean I shouldn't run in the morning. It means if I run, I should be sure to warm up well and stretch afterward.

It also probably means I need to stack the deck a little further in my favor with some sleep. I'm off to bed!

2 comments:

Troy said...

Some wise words here, Ann. I heard the following phrase on some TV show and have adopted it as my own.

- I don't mind sore muscles. It just means I'm using them.

Ann Pai said...

Thanks, Troy - and btw, turns out the extra sleep and protein was what I needed. Also the rain recently has forced some recovery days that weren't exactly planned!

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