Embody Change Structural Integration

 

Newsletter - February 2010

Loving Your Inner Athlete: Learning to listen to your body

Whether you are practicing yoga, working out at the gym, or simply running or walking for exercise, it is not easy to balance pushing yourself to improve and honoring your body’s messages of pain and discomfort. How much discomfort is okay? What kind of pain must be avoided? Am I wimping out if I don’t heed my teacher’s instructions? Maybe if I work harder and endure the discomfort I will get stronger or more flexible.


Many of us are inspired by the beauty of form and strength of character that we see in the Olympic athletes. We have all seen them endure discomfort with fortitude and grace, and we have come to believe that enduring a bit of discomfort can help almost anyone to excel and grow stronger. Perhaps we think that if we push ourselves, we will in some way emulate the champions, for each of us has within an athlete who is that noble and strong. And most of us who have even a bit of training experience know that cultivating tolerance for a bit of “muscle burn” is okay when we are being coached, for example, to do just a few more repetitions of abdominal exercises. “No pain, no gain.” “Work out ‘til it hurts.” Right? Do these messages inspire us to work harder and get stronger? Sometimes, yes, though they sound contradictory to the messages delivered by my yoga teachers.


I have several favorite yoga teachers, all of whom encourage students to listen to their own bodies’ messages about whether a stretch needs to be modified. “If it hurts, don’t do it—back off, or come out of the stretch. Ask for alternatives.” This is a message I firmly believe in. And yet, I still sometimes tweak my knee in pigeon pose or triangle, or I stress my ankle as I try to sit in half-lotus. Why do I do this? Perhaps I am testing my limits, or I am trying to do better. I want to make it work, so I endure the discomfort, fussing with subtle adjustments to try to make the pain go away. Sometimes I am simply confused about how to make a pose work for my body.


At some point, we all find ourselves struggling with this inner conflict. How far do I push myself? Should I keep going, or should I back off and seek help? Listening to your body’s messages of discomfort and then responding appropriately can help you avoid serious injury and ultimately gain more pleasure out of your workouts. The rest of this article is devoted to helping you understand better your body’s messages of pain, so that you can make good choices and take the best care of yourself as you move around in the world.


How do you recognize the kind of pain that should be avoided?

First of all, you’ve got to take care of your joints. If you start to experience pain repeatedly near a joint, cease and desist! Do something else until you find a solution. Repetitive movement that causes joint pain may lead to permanent joint damage. Figure out an adaptation that helps you to avoid pain, seeking help from a coach, teacher, or body worker if you can’t find something that works. Even joint pain that has been with you for a while can sometimes be reduced or eliminated with the right kind of care. Pay attention to your form—you might find a modification of the exercise that seems to take away the pain, but it may be exporting structural distress elsewhere. It is a great idea to ask for feedback from someone with experience who can watch you move.


Second of all, learn to recognize the kind of pain that could be caused by an impinged or pinched nerve: 1) pain that is sharp, 2) a rapidly increasing ache that makes you feel weak, 3) numbness, or 4) any “referred” sensation, for instance a buzzing or shooting pain traveling down an arm or leg. A nerve can be restricted where it emerges from the spinal column, or it can simple be impinged within the tissue of your muscles and fascia. If you repeatedly annoy, pinch, or overstretch a nerve, it will become inflamed and perhaps damaged. An irritated motor nerve can either cause hypertonicity of a muscle (making it contract partially so that is less responsive to stretch), or it can cause hypotonicity (making the muscle weaker in contraction). A chronically inflamed nerve also tends to become “reinforced” with extra fibers of fascia, because the body is trying to “shore things up” and relieve strain on the nerve. This reinforcement reduces a nerve’s extensibility, which can limit range of motion and/or negatively affect posture and alignment.


Can you understand why an athlete would want to avoid such kinds of pain? Tolerating these kinds of pain can be counterproductive. The more you ignore these messages, the greater the negative consequence.


Lastly, be sensible about noticing and respecting signs that your bodily systems are being overtaxed. Nausea, dizziness, headache, an overwhelming urge to stop, escalating emotional distress, all of these are signs that you should stop, slow down, take a break, rest, moderate your activity, and/or seek help.


When I am struggling with my own bodily discomforts, and trying to balance caring for myself with my desire to “improve,” I like to remember the opening lines of “Wild Geese,” one of my favorite Mary Oliver poems:


“You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves….”


So, love your inner athlete, and the soft animal of your body. Be tender with your desires and your internal conflicts, listen to your body, and ask for help and support when you need it.



© Kirstin Schumaker 2010