Perhaps the most underappreciated aspect of dealing with pain and suffering is FITNESS. Our bodies were designed to heal. Our lives as humans was not always as developed as it is now. Our ancestors from centuries past had to struggle to survive simple day to day life. We were built to deal with pain and suffering and to be able to overcome. We were equipped with mechanisms both neurological and physiological that are specifically designed to survive injury and heal. When God designed our bodies there were no doctors, there was no technology, but we were designed in a way to adapt and overcome.
Humans were truly built for survival of the fittest. People that are fit and healthy will survive much better than those that are unfit. That was true thousands of years ago and it's true today. There are mechanisms in our body that when functioning appropriately will serve to help us deal with injury and deal with pain. But when functioning inappropriately, those mechanisms will result in more suffering than was meant to be because our body is not functioning the way it should.
In my practice everyday I witness patients that come in that deal with chronic pain and chronic suffering. And the vast majority of these patients are in poor physical condition. A large portion don't exercise and are not concerned with fitness. You can see it clearly is a factor in degenerative change.
Now I must say that pain and a lack of fitness is a vicious cycle. There are many people who would love to exercise and would love to be more fit. But because of their pain they are limited. However, notice that I said they are LIMITED. They are not completely excluded from improving their fitness. When people say "I can't exercise", they have given up. I believe sometimes pain makes us think we can't exercise at all. And as a result, we become less fit. Then our body becomes less and less adaptable to dealing with pain.
Now if you have a bad back, maybe it is true you can't go out and run a long run like I love to do. Or you can't go out and do dead lifts or some other cross fit move. But you can get in a pool and walk against the water. You can do deep water resistance exercises. But then you might say " I don't have access to a pool or its the winter time and I don't have the ability to join a club that has a pool". However, you do have the ability to get out on the road and walk. You do have the ability to do simple strengthening exercises at home in the comfort of your own house.
There is always something you can do to be more fit. It may not seem like the traditional exercise that you always think of. But there is always something you do!
There is ALWAYS something you can do!!
I heard it said one time "everyone is an athlete, it's just that some of us are in training and some of us aren't". Do you see yourself as an athlete? You were built to be an athlete of life. We were all built to be athletes but if we've been out of training then our body falls out of fitness and we are not able to recover. It takes strength of muscle to recover from injury and to recover from disease. The stronger we are physically, the better we will recover. The better our muscles adapt, the better our tissues heal. And I think it is also very true that the stronger we are emotionally and psychologically, the better we will heal and recover.
When our body is fighting a battle of recovery; if we are losing the battle emotionally, it makes it so much harder for our body to recover physically. I have said before that pain is inevitable. As we try to heal and as we try to recover there are times when we are going to have to work through pain. We are going to have to learn to suffer. And there is no better grounds to learn to suffer on than the field of exercise.
I have a huge heel spur that causes me to hobble like an old man every morning when I wake up. It recently got worse when I increased my mileage. But instead of being intelligent about it, I refuse to decrease the mileage. Because secretly I have to suffer, I love to suffer because I know it is through the suffering that I will make a better me. Running has taught me that I am not afraid to suffer.
And it is never too late to start to work on fitness. No matter what shape you are in from a standpoint of fitness or from a standpoint of pain and disease. It is never too late to start.
There is always something you can do.
You just have to find a place to START! It should be something you enjoy but also should be something that builds strength both mentally and physically. Maybe you can't run, but can you walk? Can you swim? Can you ride an exercise bike? Can you do body weight exercises in your own house? Can you find a fitness trainer that will specifically work with you to do the things you can do.
There is always something you can do.
SO GET UP!
GET ACTIVE!
GET FIT!
AND LIVE BETTER EVERY DAY!!
moeo everywhere we go!!!
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