I was at my chiropractor last week about a problem I’m having with my heels.
I already had a working theory that my sore heels were a result of overly tight calves (I was half right) so I had been doing all kinds of different calf stretches to try and find some relief.
One of the most useful sets of stretches I found was in this short yoga video.
Her exercises helped my calves…and my heels, at least temporarily, but there was one problem.
I really hate that ‘front fold with your fingers tucked under your toes’ stretch.
I mean, I HATE IT.
I know, I know! Why don’t I tell you how I really feel.
Let’s see if this helps clarify things:
I forced myself to do it though because the rest of the video was so helpful (I was wary of the bouncing but I didn’t hate it) but I found myself dreading it and putting it off, and even the promised relief for my heels didn’t help.
So, anyway, I’m mentioning all of this to Ken, my chiropractor (and my cousin!) and he, clever soul that he is, sensibly said ‘You won’t stick with a stretch you hate, do something else instead.’
Glerg.
Of course!
How many times do I have to learn this lesson?
How often will I have to be reminded that the best exercise is the one I’ll do?
Why can’t I remember that hating an exercise can be a good reason not to do it?
Now, I get that sometimes there are exercises that must be done in order to heal specific things and how much you hate it may not be a factor in that case.
But, for me, it keeps happening for exercises that can easily be switched out for something else.
I need to start letting ‘I hate it!’ be a signal to find an equivalent exercises that I like instead of a signal to dig in my heels and (try to) force myself to keep doing something that feels awful.
(Besides, digging in my heels is definitely not going to help right now. 😉 )
Do you have exercise lessons that you have to learn again and again?
Please tell me that I’m not the only one!
