Mindfulness: How to Balance Your Fitness Routine With Self-Care

Guest  Writer:   Sheila Olson of fitsheila.com | [email protected]

Creating a fitness routine is crucial to feeling better and staying in shape. Unfortunately, exercise can also lead to injuries. Recent studies indicate that weight-lifting produces one injury per 1,000 training hours, while competitive sports such as rugby, soccer and football rack up injury rates as high as 260/1,000 hours. Although exercise can be fun and healthy, it can also snap collarbones, damage vertebrae and produce cuts, bruises and contusions. Plus, just as important as fitness is self-care – that is, coming up with a long-term plan for treating yourself well.

Fitness Routine

Even as you’re carving out a fitness routine, don’t overdo it. The last thing you’ll want is to recover from a serious gym injury at the same time that you’re coming down from drugs and alcohol. So, follow some of these take-it-easy tips: Don’t target the same muscle group over and over. Plan “rest days” between workout sessions, so your body can heal and regroup. And consult with a personal trainer, if only to interview a pro about proper form. Because not having the right technique when working out is one of the easiest ways to hurt yourself.

Don't Overdo It

Enough burpees and squats will carve your body into a magazine-cover physique, but don’t forget to take care of your body by adopting healthy habits, as well. Sleep eight hours a night. Ditch soda and trans fats for nuts, fruits, vegetables and lean meats. And drink plenty of water. Get outside, whether that means biking, gardening, taking a walk, or doing those squats in the park near your house. Whatever activities you choose, just make sure you like doing them, because people stop working out the moment exercise becomes a chore.

Mindfulness: The Body

Enough burpees and squats will carve your body into a magazine-cover physique, but don’t forget to take care of your body by adopting healthy habits, as well. Sleep eight hours a night. Ditch soda and trans fats for nuts, fruits, vegetables and lean meats. And drink plenty of water. Get outside, whether that means biking, gardening, taking a walk, or doing those squats in the park near your house. Whatever activities you choose, just make sure you like doing them, because people stop working out the moment exercise becomes a chore.

Mindfulness: The Brain

Fitness invigorates us, but perhaps just as much of an effort is the art of staying still. People have been practicing meditation for centuries, but only recently has science categorized all its benefits, including improved sleep, controlled anxiety, reduced memory loss, lower blood pressure, and lengthened attention span. Consider setting up a calm, quiet space in your home to meditate.

Escaping stress may be impossible in our modern grind, but try to stay happy and curious. Granted, this may sound abstract, but it comes down to doing things that nourish you. Take a warm bath. Nap without an alarm clock. Journal about your day to figure out what’s really in your mind. Turn off all the screens in your house (TVs, laptops, iPhones), and just be with yourself. Or, if you can, clear your schedule, and spend your time with your kids, spouse, significant other, or whoever else you’re happy to be around.

For anyone battling drugs and alcohol, signing into a rehabilitation program and consulting with medical professionals is indispensable to recovery. Part of that recovery is more complex than beefing up or winning the game. That advice applies to people who aren’t in recovery, as well. All of us could follow some of these tenets of well-being: Lessen the stress in our lives. Find joy in what we do. And, be mindful.

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