Happy Friday friends! I hope you are all having a lovely week filled with sunshine, relaxation and lots of cocktails – and if your at work and not on vacation like me, congrats on making it to the weekend!
Today I am very excited to welcome a dear friend to Cave Girl in the City. Lex ad I have known each other for years and have been through many ups and downs together. I asked Lex to share her fitness story with you in hopes that it inspires you to find a balance in fitness training. I hope you learn as much from her story as I have. So with out further ado, take it away Lex!
Well, howdy. I’m Lex from LexaliciousDaily and I’m pretty excited to make an appearance here today. I’ve been following this CaveGirl for two years now (Happy Blogabirthday!) so when Kenzie asked me to write a little something for Fitness Friday, I was thrilled! Thrilled and a little stumped. I’m not really one to give advice or fitness tips because, honestly, I’m still figuring everything out for myself! So I guess I’ll just have to tell you all a little story.
My workout regime has evolved a lot this year. I used to be a runner, beasting out 20 miles every morning before work and then I’d still go lift in the evenings. I was spending many hours each day working out or obsessing over working out and looking back it wasn’t healthy. I was working out hard, but not smart, burning out one muscle group and ignoring the rest. In January, I finally reached my breaking point and fractured my hip so severely that I was on crutches for four months. After many hospital trips and tests, I discovered that I had a serious case of osteoporosis and high impact sports (such a running) were off the table permanently.
So what is an athlete to do? It seems that fitness programs use words like “pain is gain” or “push your limits” to motivate us or imply that working out harder is better. It’s been a hard transition to tune out those voices out and listen to my own body.
Just because I can’t work out the way I used do, doesn’t mean I have to stop being active. I just needed to find a way to be fit with these new limitations. In searching for exercise I could still do while injured, I found yoga and fell in love.
I had done yoga in the past on my recovery days because I thought it was just stretching and kind of a snooze, but once I started taking it seriously I quickly realized how wrong I was. (Proving myself wrong seems to be a trend here, no?)
Through yoga, I regained strength in my hip faster than my physical therapist thought possible and I finally was able to quiet my mind. Since my initiation as a yogi, I’ve branched out and tried all different kinds –bikram, vinyasa, even aerial! It’s a great feeling to think of exercise as fun and exciting, not just a chore. I’m so happy with where I am now, that I don’t even miss my old lifestyle, which is something I never dreamed possible.
I guess the moral of my story is to find a way to live a balanced life to avoid injury. There is no one-size-fit-all lifestyle when it comes to fitness, so you have to find what works for you. Oh, and have fun. If you don’t enjoy it, what’s the point after all?