Listen to Your Body

It happens to all of us sometimes. Life is going great and then some person comes into work coughing and sneezing their infectious agents all over. It’s like a mushroom cloud of germs permeating the work space. Unfortunately, it isn’t socially acceptable to wear rubber gloves and a mask in most work environments. So recently I found myself succumbed to an upper respiratory virus *shakes fist*.

At first I kept running and trying to lift when I could but team that with work and I was getting very tired quickly. I decided it was time to l listen to my body. I was getting more into the illness and I needed to take it easy. I increased my fluids and moved my bedtime to earlier. I felt guilty about skipping my workouts. I mean I have half marathon breathing down my neck and a competition in May; this is not the time to start slipping!

It is important to get proper rest, nutrition and fluids while your body is busy trying to fight off those disgusting germs. If you don’t listen and you keep pushing you are just going to prolong your misery.

Not only should you listen to your body during times of illness but also if you feel pain. Sure, exercising can be uncomfortable but it shouldn’t be painful. Any time you feel sharp, stabbing, electric, shooting or anything that feels bad you need to stop and re-evaluate. You should be able to feel the difference between general working out discomfort and all out pain. If you are working with a trainer make sure you are communicating with them. What hurts where and how. They need to know this information so they can help you determine if it is normal or not and select something that will not aggravate a potential problem. Sometimes our bodies are just not going to do certain moves but will happily (grudgingly) accommodate something similar.


So remember rest when you need it, communicate your needs and keep chipping away at those goals!