MIND GAMES AND A RIGID BACK
How I tricked myself into getting back to the gym after a 2 month hiatus.
The tin man syndrome, I call it.
Motion is lotion, one of my favourite phrases and one you may have heard me say recently. I have been moving; I thought to myself with hopes that if I told myself this often enough, it would make the need for more targeted fitness go away.
It is true. I move a lot, and for all basic purposes, I’m fit enough to do what life requires of me.
The missing disc between T10-T11 started to radiate a thick band of stiff pain across the mid of back. My ability to move forward was still okay, backwards was a bit of a challenge, but once again I bend like a fence rail.
The lack of undulation in my spine was a sure sign that the tin man syndrome was setting in. If experience serves me right, my next fibromyalgia flare up will be sneaking in right behind that tin man, sealing the fate of the next few weeks in a cycle of pain and misery.
I knew what I had to do and how to do it. I knew that the energy would come if I showed up and started out slow. What I didn’t know was how I was going to continue to pursue a new career, work full time, ride my horse, drive my pony, look after my farm AND workout.
Pain radiated through me and I was reminded that if I didn’t figure it out soon then there would be no more horses or farm. My dreams are hung on the ability to use my body and in order to use my body I have to keep it well moisturized, and the moisturization of tissues was going to have to start at the spine.
Pumping the body’s good juices into the spaces between my horribly abused vertebrae can only be done by hula hoop as I discovered years ago. I suppose some people have luck with yoga or Pilates when it comes to keeping the intricate joints of the spine limber but I find the rocking of the hula hoop and constant desire to see what I can learn next much more mentally engaging than traditional fitness.
The first problem I was going to have to solve was how to rearrange my schedule. Knowing from decades of fitness practice that I have to workout first thing in the morning or not at all gives me the foundation to start building my new plan.
Luckily I am already up that early and wouldn’t have to teach myself to wake up earlier. I had done that part a few years ago, the space in time is one of my writing spaces which I am not willing to give up but I am will to move to another place in the schedule. Far too often, I have sacrificed my horse time. Making sure that adding one more thing to the schedule doesn’t tip the rest:activity ratio that undoubtedly cost me Horse O'clock is of utmost importance.
Time is a solid constraint. As a rule time can not be not bent. To do another thing in the day, I have to give up something else. I could try to write and workout in the mornings, but the reality of it all the minutes in my life are full, no matter how hard I try to pack more into them.
I’m going to have to give something up now, so I don’t have to give up my horses and farm in the near future.
I wish it was easy to quit one thing but I seem to be out of things worth quitting. So instead I decided to quit pieces of things that weren’t working out the way I had hoped. I’m still unsure if this means I’m working smarter not harder but I like to believe that it’s a step in the right direction.
With the schedule tuned to allow for the return of my morning fitness routine it was time to get my mind on board. I love my workouts. I hate starting them and I had grown accustomed to the cozy mornings curled up on the couch in the quiet of the early moring to write. The thought of dragging my backside out of bed and down the stairs to the fitness space is almost torture.
My phone holds a playlist I like to call a fit list. This is a special list of music that I listen to only when I workout. It’s fun and fast and mainly disco.
When my workouts are going well I often wake up with those songs stuck in my head and they motivate me to get my butt on the dance floor and workout my back. The music helps me have fun and the more fun I have the more I get out of the workout.
I chose a few new songs to help get me in the mood to move my behind at 4am. Then I chose not to soak the horses mash the night before. This was a cunning and manipulative move on my behalf. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with manipulating yourself into doing something that you know you really want to do.
The feed room is in the basement. A wall of compressed hay bales separates the dance floor/workout space from the feed room. To soak the mash in the morning, I would have to cross the dance floor and pass the hula hoops.
The mind games I played with myself had done their job. The alarm went off at 4:00am and I headed downstairs to find my cat waiting on the floor next to the pile of hoops. After soaking the mash, I picked up my favourite hoop and pressed play, Stayin Alive was the first song up.
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