We change every single day that we are alive. We grow older, yes of course, but more than that, our cells are constantly responding to external stimuli from the food we eat, activities we take part in, the air we breathe, sleep that we allow ourselves, etc., some things we can control more than others. The important thing to focus on are the things we can control and for the scope of this site we are going to focus on the physical activity we choose to take part in. The activity we take part in today will send signals to our body to use our resources (food) to prepare our bodies for the challenges of tomorrow. For example, if we take part in an exercise program today our body will respond to that stimuli by allocating its resources to building up the boney structures, developing the neuromuscular system through hypertrophy (gains!) and neural efficiency, build up our cardiovascular system in a number of fascinating ways! The positive benefits of exercise is well-documented and hardly requires defending at this point.
The same concept applies to the recovery or rehabilitation process. A metaphor that I like to use when explaining the recovery process to patients is to compare an injury to the musculoskeletal system to a cut of the skin. The way the cut needs time to scab over and heal is similar to the way muscle/tendon/bone/joint heals. It is important to give our injured body part time to recover as we gradually return it to normal use. Taking part in activities that aggravate our injury is like picking a scab before the wound is fully healed.
There are three groups of people when it comes to their physical activity. The first group are the couch potatoes. The never exerciser, usually overweight, but not always. These people need to gradually incorporate physical activity in their lives. Starting gradually, and working to find a consistent, healthy amount of exercise to achieve the lifelong health benefits without burning out or causing injury. The form and type of exercise is less important (although some types may be better suited than others) but the consistency is the key. These people need some form of physical activity that they enjoy enough that they will continue to do consistently week after week, year after year.
The second group is on the other side of that coin. The exercise addicts. Physical fitness is a part of this group’s self-identity and without it there is a negative impact on their mental and/or emotion well-being. This can lead to a problem, especially when there is an injury that restricts this person’s ability to perform physical activity. With this group it can be difficult to take time to recover from injury and gradually return them back to the exercise they love. The benefits of exercise are well documented, but over-exercising can lead to dangerous depletion of our body’s resources and a small injury that is not cared for and allowed to heal can turn into a bigger problem.
The last group is the happy medium group. Those that enjoy exercise, perform physical activity consistently, but do not derive their happiness from their fitness.
I will finish this post with an analogy that I particularly enjoy. We are all floating out in the ocean that is life. The tide is gradually pushing us to shore (the shore representing death in this analogy). Exercise is, in a way, like swimming against the tide. The tide is still stronger than the hardest we can swim, but if we swim against the tide we can prolong life and spend more time in deeper, healthier water before, inevitably, coming to shore. <3