Fitness Motivation

While leading a couples’ retreat on wellness, I discovered that four couples out of 20 had maintained a regular exercise program. Why? Because they had dogs! Come rain or shine, they were walking their dogs. They had what I call a lifestyle "kickstart." For two other participants, encountering a medical crisis was the kickstart they needed to get started and maintain a regular exercise program: one was combatting heart disease, the other was a cancer survivor. If you live with a disability and you experience chronic pain, this may be the kickstart you need to adopt a regular exercise program.

Experts in pain management agree that one thing is crystal clear: Exercise is extremely important to improving general health, but if you have chronic pain, exercise should be a fact of life. If you want to feel better, suffer less and have more energy in the coming year, you may want to start your own therapeutic exercise program. Making the right kind of resolution can be the kickstart you need!

Seventeen years ago, I received my kickstart. I had been diagnosed with a rare, progressive neurological condition that had already claimed most of my central vision, made walking difficult and caused painful muscular hypertension. My doctor told me, "Exercise is going to be imperative if you want to stay out of a wheelchair and manage your pain without drugs." My physical therapist explained, "When you are in pain, your muscles tense and cramp up. Your tendons draw up. If you do not stretch and strengthen your muscles, your limbs will atrophy and may even become permanently twisted. But when you stretch and strengthen your muscles through exercise, you can relieve painful muscular tension, increase circulation and bring healing into your tissues."

It was clear to me that if I wanted to feel better I needed to adopt a regular exercise program. I made a New Year’s resolution which I have kept. I joined the YMCA and started working out twice a week. I began learning what it was going to take to maintain a lifelong exercise discipline.
My workouts have changed and expanded over the years, as I worked with physical therapists and personal trainers to combat the progression of my disease. Today, my daily workout takes about an hour and a half. I divide my routine into two 45-minute sessions. I begin my morning with a standing, toe-touching yoga routine. Then I do towel stretches to further release the tension in my hamstrings before doing a yoga-style floor routine to loosen my hips, pelvis and back. I then conclude with a traditional calisthenics routine to strengthen my legs, abdomen and arms. In the afternoon I go into my eight-station gym and do my aerobic workout and weight training.

Now, at age 47, I must use arm crutches to walk, but I am in better physical condition than I was at age 18! Every day I release my pain through exercise. I remain drug free. And I have astonished medical authorities with how strong and flexible I have become in spite of the progression of my neuropathy.

I would like to share my ten secrets for making and keeping the right kind of resolution - one that will help you to cope with your disability, manage your pain and improve your physical condition for life.

Entertain a vision.
It is not enough to resolve to join a gym at New Year’s and to promise yourself that you are going to work out. Making the decision to adopt a lifelong exercise program requires a change in self-image. Stretch your imagination. Imagine that you are going to be an exercise freak! Make up your mind that you are going to surprise yourself, your family, your friends and your doctors with your discipline. Envision impressing them all with how flexible, strong and pain free you are going to become.

Bite the bullet.
Don’t think that doing housework or yardwork is a substitute for doing your therapeutic workout. Commit the time. Do what is necessary. Your exercise program should include stretching and strengthening exercises such as calisthenics and weight training, and aerobics such as walking or biking, which strengthen your heart and your circulatory system.

Get help.
In designing your exercise program, don’t assume that you should do the kind of exercises you learned in high school. Have a physical therapist or a personal trainer show you what exercises to do for your specific condition. Get instruction in how to do them with the proper form. I have probably lost some physical capacities permanently because even though I was working out, I was not doing the right exercises to address my particular condition. I have also spent years making periodic trips to see the chiropractor, but my lower back problems went away when a physical trainer suggested that I put my curl bar up on a stack of cinder blocks so that I would not have to bend over and pick the weights up off the floor.

Pace yourself.
Especially when you are getting started, take it slow. The number-one reason people do not stick with their exercise program is that they go too fast and push too hard. They get sore, pull tendons and injure joints. I once showed an out-of-shape friend how to do towel stretches. For the next two months I watched him hobble around on a cane because he went too far, pulled a tendon in his knee and practically dislocated his hip. Unfortunately, you seldom know you are overdoing it until the next day. If you are committed to a lifelong exercise program, why be in a hurry?

Adopt the "before" principle.
If you work out at a health club, do your workout before you go to work, or before lunch, or before you get home. If you work out at home, get into the habit of doing your exercises before eating, before taking a nap or before your spouse comes home from work. I do my morning stretching and calisthenics routine before breakfast. I divide it into two parts. Weather permitting, I do my standing stretch routine on the deck before I shave. Then I turn on the music and do my towel stretches, floor yoga routine and calisthenics before I take my shower. By the time I am dressed and ready for breakfast I am loosened up, am feeling strong and have a sense of accomplishment. Then, I do my aerobics and weight training in the late afternoon before supper.

Establish lifestyle or social kickstarts.
Get a dog! Come rain or shine, your dog will need a walk twice a day. Get a paper route. Other lifestyle kickstarts include walking or riding your bike to work, to the post office or to see your grandchildren. If you use a wheelchair, join a wheelchair basketball team. Social kickstarts include meeting friends at your health club or talking a friend into being your walking, jogging or workout partner. I knew five middle-aged men, each contending with their own health issues, who met at their gym for more than three years. I also knew three retired women with arthritis who regularly met at the YWCA for water exercise classes.

Create a time-space-sound "workout bubble."
If you work out at home, find a time and place to do your workout when you won’t be interrupted or observed. In my house, the living room floor is the only space big enough for me to do my morning routine. So, in order to create a time-space bubble on weekdays, I do my morning workout after my son has gone to school and my wife has her first massage therapy client. On weekends, I do my morning workout before my wife and son appear for breakfast. To create a sound bubble, turn on the music. Especially when you are doing your weight training, make sure you turn up the volume enough to cover up your grunts and groans, and to give you additional energy for your workout. Play the same CD for a month, then change it. I have found that if I am having a "down" day and just cannot get started with my exercises, all I have to do is to put on a CD I used two or three years ago, and my body begins to remember the workouts I did at that time. Suddenly I get a rush and I can hardly sit in my chair!

Give yourself physical rewards.
Treat yourself to weekly massages. No matter how complete your exercise program may be, you will not be able to relieve all muscular pain and tension through exercise. If you experience chronic pain, you should get regular massage therapy as part of your pain-management plan. Besides, if you work out regularly, you will get stiff and sore from time to time. A good massage will undo such kinks. And it feels great! Other physical rewards include relaxing in a sauna or soaking in a hot tub. Why not treat yourself to a delicious, high-protein dinner? It will not only build up your body, but lift your spirit.

Turn on the "automatic pilot."
Everyone who struggles with chronic pain has down days. You may have very low energy, or you may hear what I call "negative thought tapes": whiny voices telling you that you are too tired to do your exercises, or that you are never going to be able to overcome your pain. But I have found that if I simply get started, then, regardless of how I feel, I will finish my workout routine. After you have been working out for a while, you will be able to turn on the automatic pilot. Your negative thought tapes may keep on talking while you go through your routine, but turning up your favourite music usually blasts them away. By the time you have finished your routine, those tapes will have shut up for the rest of the day. You will have a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Remember that every dawn brings a new day.
It is impossible to be absolutely perfect in keeping an exercise discipline. A bout of the flu, unusual commitments, and vacations all can interrupt your regular exercise routine. Don’t get compulsive. I have learned not to try to make up for a missed workout by doing it late at night. It is at times like these that I am most likely to injure myself. Don’t feel guilty, either. The next day will bring new opportunities to go through the motions and improve your physical condition.
If you have chronic pain, give yourself a kickstart. Make your resolution and follow these 10 principles. Within 90 days you will become addicted to the pain relief and the "body high" that you will get from doing your exercises. You will also find that becoming an "exercise freak" has great spiritual benefits: You will know that you are a person of willpower and that you can rise above your circumstances, no matter how difficult they may be.

(Dr. Daryl C. Greene lives in Richmond, Indiana, where he writes and speaks on coping with disabilities. He is the author of You Can Feel Better: How to Cope with and Overcome Chronic Pain and Physical Disabilities from a Holistic Christian Perspective, available through Amazon.com or the publisher’s website, www.densmorereid.com.)