This morning I woke up feeling sore in my legs and hips. I went for an outdoor jog yesterday and worked muscles that I hadn’t worked in a while, since my usual mode of exercise is swimming. It reminded me of the importance of cross-training—doing a variety of exercises, as opposed to just one type. This works different muscles in your body, giving you overall greater health, as well as helps to prevent overuse injuries.
In this time of public health emergency and economic crisis, we are all working different muscles. We are getting creative with the resources that we have.
Working muscles that we are not used to working is hard. There are muscles we may not have ever known existed, because we never targeted them. I remember crying after my first Pilates class (college P.E.). I was so frustrated that having done ab crunches for 7 years prior, my body couldn’t do what seemed to be simple Pilates moves. Then after 5-7 classes, my body started to develop these new muscles, I started getting the hang of these new exercises.
Many of us (myself included) are only in week 1 of this “new normal.” We are still learning the ropes, trying new things. It’s uncomfortable, it’s uncharted. New muscles take time to develop, but if we keep working at it, we may surprise ourselves with our new capabilities.
Mindful Nuggets 