INVESTING IN YOURSELF
Today I completed my 115th workout this year. It’s only May! This has been such an eye-opening experience. I would say that in my conscious mind, I realize there is way more to learn about fitness that I don’t currently know. Somehow, I am still surprised many times when I learn something new and it makes me fall in love with another aspect of fitness. Let me explain.
Earlier this year, I read “Born to Run” and that’s all I needed: The Running Fire Was LIT. If you’ve read the book, you understand. It’s hard to take in all the information about running and the Tarahumara people without starting to at LEAST wonder, “Is there something more to this running thing that I’m missing? Can it actually be enjoyable?” (side note: if you haven’t read this book, YOU NEED TO!) I followed up with reading another handful of ultra running books, listening to podcasts, and watching documentaries.
Not only did “Born to Run” open up a world of running, but also opened up a new world of foot health. I read Katy Bowman’s book, “Simple Steps to Foot Pain Relief” and digested a lot of other information she has put out about nutritious movement. I have started to implement her foot exercises into my life and changed the type of shoes I wear. AND GUESS WHAT! All of these things are helping me be a happier, healthier, more mobile and less achey athlete.
What about running form? This has also been HUGE. I have gone back to slow running so that I can focus on my form, and my body is feeling lightyears better than it used to after a run.
What does all of this have to do with my Journey to 300 Workouts in 2022? With the renewed interest in running, I have gained more fitness activities to do in my added sessions. For a long time, my lower body was not healthy enough to support running, so I didn’t do it. Gaining this renewed passion to run has required me to seek out better foot, ankle, knee, and overall lower body health. Remember, I used to work out 5 days a week, and now I work out 6-7 days a week? Obviously, all of these workouts cannot be done at a high intensity. That is part of the challenge! I have to be SMART about my workouts. What can be smarter than physical therapy, prehab, and rehab for my body? In my extra sessions this year, that’s what I’m doing. I’m making my body stronger for running, which is consequently making it stronger and healthier for daily life as well. For the past 5 months, I have enjoyed running free of pain.
Not only have I gained all of this positive growth for myself this year, but I have also started implementing many of these things with my clients as well. I’ve been able to add new foot health, knee health, and ankle health exercises to their plans to help make them more well-rounded athletes.
Basically, this Journey to 300 is everything I wanted it to be, because it’s helping me be healthier and helping my clients be healthier! I’m learning new things about myself, new ways to bulletproof my body from injury, and paying it forward to Strong at Last LLC in the process. At the start of this journey, my theory was that by investing in ME and prioritizing my health, I would also be able to help my clients. That is exactly what is happening! Isn’t it cool how becoming Strong at Last is helping me teach others to be Strong at Last as well?
