Listen to your body

Kung Fu Wang

Sr. Grandmaster
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Some people may say you should listen to your body. But your body can fool you. I have worked out 5 days non-stop. Today I felt tired. I decided to take a short walk. In the 1st mile, my body still felt tired. During the 2nd mile, my body started to feel normal. For the 3rd and 4th mile, I felt I had a lot of energy. If I listened to my body, I would quit during the 1st mile walking.

Do you have similar experience that your body may not tell you the truth? Sometime your body tells you that you need to rest. But the truth is your mind try to find excuse for your laziness.
 
Some people may say you should listen to your body. But your body can fool you. I have worked out 5 days non-stop. Today I felt tired. I decided to take a short walk. In the 1st mile, my body still felt tired. During the 2nd mile, my body started to feel normal. For the 3rd and 4th mile, I felt I had a lot of energy. If I listened to my body, I would quit during the 1st mile walking.

Do you have similar experience that your body may not tell you the truth? Sometime your body tells you that you need to rest. But the truth is your mind try to find excuse for your laziness.
I think everyone struggles with this from time to time. Although it is usually the other way around for me, my mind tells me to keep going but my body is screaming “STOP!”
 
If I had not done any excercise for 2 weeks, I get more stiff overall, and i wonder how I am going to make the next karate class. But with regular training, at minimum 3 times a week where i activate the relevant muscles and excercise the joints, I feel more mobile and get more energy. So I have some back and joint issues, and I have learned that rest makes it worse, staying active (but avoiding certain things) keeps me in decent shape.

So the "resistance" you feel, initially after long rest, indeed goes away fast, just give it a few days of simple training and I am back on track.

Before I started karate 2 years ago i did 10 pushups and felt the fatigue coming want to give up now i can do 50 before getting the same "feeling". And I certainly have NOT grown 5x more muscle. I'd say larger part is in the head, learning to overcome mental fatigue, and a good part is also about just keeping the muscles active regularly.

But at the same time, I listen carefully to pain related to my back issues. So learning to distingsuish between benign pain and pain that you should take seriously is not trivial. But I'm getting there. Sore muscle pain or bruises i can ignore in training. But pain from a nerve jam is not to be ignored, as an example.
 
Some people may say you should listen to your body. But your body can fool you. I have worked out 5 days non-stop. Today I felt tired. I decided to take a short walk. In the 1st mile, my body still felt tired. During the 2nd mile, my body started to feel normal. For the 3rd and 4th mile, I felt I had a lot of energy. If I listened to my body, I would quit during the 1st mile walking.

Do you have similar experience that your body may not tell you the truth? Sometime your body tells you that you need to rest. But the truth is your mind try to find excuse for your laziness.
Oh, how we all forget this at times.
 
Some people may say you should listen to your body. But your body can fool you. I have worked out 5 days non-stop. Today I felt tired. I decided to take a short walk. In the 1st mile, my body still felt tired. During the 2nd mile, my body started to feel normal. For the 3rd and 4th mile, I felt I had a lot of energy. If I listened to my body, I would quit during the 1st mile walking.

Do you have similar experience that your body may not tell you the truth? Sometime your body tells you that you need to rest. But the truth is your mind try to find excuse for your laziness.
There is nothing wrong with laziness. I know well how to push through pain and injury. I know well how to drive on. I've done it. To my detriment as I age. I'm done with it.

If I hurt, I stop. That's not to say I stop training, or stop trying. It means if I am doing injury to my body, I stop that activity until I can safely do it again. And nobody else is a doctor, so they don't get to give me medical advice.

I've also earned the right to take a break. I like being lazy sometimes, and I won't be made to feel bad about it. I've given up a lot in my life for others. I'm paying a price for that, which I can never get back. So to those who want me to do more when I don't want to, good luck, but maybe run your own life and not worry so much about mine.
 
I like being lazy sometimes
It's a treat, like a pecan pie or good cigar. It's good to indulge a bit. Even the most ferocious beast likes to take a good rest. All things in balance. But as we age, the "balance" has to be periodically adjusted. I've just scaled back a bit. When I'm 75 in a couple of years I'll definitely be due for another adjustment towards the lazy side of the scale - that's the side where I keep the pie.
 
the lazy side of the scale ...
The laziness may make my body to feel more comfortable. But it won't easy my mind.

If I can still do what I did the day before, I'll feel happy. If I don't repeat what I did the day before, I may feel that I will never be able to do it again. That kind of thinking do scare me big time.

When I was young, if I skip training for 2 days, it won't bother me. When I get older, since I don't know when the last training day in my life will be, any laziness day can scare me as my last day finally has arrived.

I keep telling myself that final day will arrive, but it won't be today or tomorrow.
 
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Do you have similar experience that your body may not tell you the truth? Sometime your body tells you that you need to rest. But the truth is your mind try to find excuse for your laziness.
I think it can vary and I'm only saying that because I've been tracking my energy and stress levels consistently for about 3 or 4 months now. There are a lot of reasons why you may feel tired but not be tired for exercise. There is also the possibility that feeling like you have a lot of energy is "the lie" while being tired at the beginning was the truth.

Things like stress can make you feel tired but doesn't mean that you don't have energy to workout. My watch often says that I didn't have a restful sleep, and that my energy levels are low, but it still tells me that I'm good for exercising. Then there are other days where it tells me not to exercise, even though I feel good, my vitals are telling the watch a different story. It could also be that your exercise is stimulating you which is why you feel better at the end. It is also the reason why they recommend not exercising at night because it will make it more difficult to fall asleep.

It will be difficult to know which is which unless you are checking your body using some sort of device.
 
I think it can vary and I'm only saying that because I've been tracking my energy and stress levels consistently for about 3 or 4 months now. There are a lot of reasons why you may feel tired but not be tired for exercise. There is also the possibility that feeling like you have a lot of energy is "the lie" while being tired at the beginning was the truth.

Things like stress can make you feel tired but doesn't mean that you don't have energy to workout. My watch often says that I didn't have a restful sleep, and that my energy levels are low, but it still tells me that I'm good for exercising. Then there are other days where it tells me not to exercise, even though I feel good, my vitals are telling the watch a different story. It could also be that your exercise is stimulating you which is why you feel better at the end. It is also the reason why they recommend not exercising at night because it will make it more difficult to fall asleep.

It will be difficult to know which is which unless you are checking your body using some sort of device.
My wife uses her watch for this as well. I can usually tell by my back if I need to rest or not. It yells at me pretty loud!
 
My wife uses her watch for this as well. I can usually tell by my back if I need to rest or not. It yells at me pretty loud!
yeah the back doesn't send mix messages. It also doesn't take no for an answer lol.
 
yeah the back doesn't send mix messages. It also doesn't take no for an answer lol.
And the bad thing is, it will only get worse. Oh well, c'est la vie.
 
I can usually tell by my back if I need to rest or not.
When I felt back pain, I would hang myself from a bar so my body weight could open my spine. I haven't felt any back pain in the last 20 years.

When you hang from a bar, it's good time to think:

- Who am I?
- Where did I come from?
- What's the meaning for my existence?

hang_from_bar.jpg
 
When I felt back pain, I would hang myself from a bar so my body weight could open my spine. I haven't felt any back pain in the last 20 years.

When you hang from a bar, it's good time to think:

- Who am I?
- Where did I come from?
- What's the meaning for my existence?

View attachment 31096
Doesn’t help. My back pain is not from old age, but from being ejected out of an armored vehicle by an IED. I do appreciate the advice though.
 
Doesn’t help. My back pain is not from old age, but from being ejected out of an armored vehicle by an IED. I do appreciate the advice though.
It has nothing to do with old age. It has to do with spine disk press on nerve. The bar hanging can open the disk and don't let the disk press on nerve.
 
It has nothing to do with old age. It has to do with spine disk press on nerve. The bar hanging can open the disk and don't let the disk press on nerve.
My spine is no longer straight, and hanging can’t stretch it out. Maybe if I was heavier…🤔
 
Some people may say you should listen to your body. But your body can fool you. I have worked out 5 days non-stop. Today I felt tired. I decided to take a short walk. In the 1st mile, my body still felt tired. During the 2nd mile, my body started to feel normal. For the 3rd and 4th mile, I felt I had a lot of energy. If I listened to my body, I would quit during the 1st mile walking.

Do you have similar experience that your body may not tell you the truth? Sometime your body tells you that you need to rest. But the truth is your mind try to find excuse for your laziness.
You are, IMO, missing part of this. Listening to your body also includes understanding your body. Pushing through can benefit, or can be detrimental.

One says tired, pushes through and feels better. One says tired, pushes through and has jount pain for a week. No two people are alike so one NEEDS to listen to ones body. But you also need to understand it.
 
When I felt back pain, I would hang myself from a bar so my body weight could open my spine. I haven't felt any back pain in the last 20 years.

When you hang from a bar, it's good time to think:

- Who am I?
- Where did I come from?
- What's the meaning for my existence?

View attachment 31096


I used to have a bar in my exercise room (and Dojang) specifically for this. My right elbow was dislocated and injured during rolling some 25-years ago. That hurt like h*ll The last 3-4 years, it refuses to fully straighten and hanging is no bueno. I have been thinking about getting an inversion table.
 
One says tired, pushes through and feels better. One says tired, pushes through and has jount pain for a week. No two people are alike so one NEEDS to listen to ones body. But you also need to understand it.
Agree that "No two people are alike". This is why I just share my personal experience and I won't expect others to do the same.

MA training to me is like battery charging. I may feel lazy to start. But I'll feel great after I finish. The great feeling could make me happy for the rest of my day.
 
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