I have to break up the sitting and do two sets of my exercises at different times during the day to manage my chronic pain and feel my best. Even if you don’t have chronic pain, learning to break up the sitting will dramatically improve your health! Read on to learn how!
I really like breaking up my exercise into two or more sessions each day. Initially, that’s how I had to do my physical therapy exercises since my muscles were so weak that I couldn’t do more than one set at a time. This also helped my hypermobile muscles “remember” what they were supposed to be doing. Those poor, untrained, extra-stretchy muscles would forget how to hold my bones together after just a few hours and I’d start getting the pain I know now comes from unstable joints.
The last couple of months I went through the biggest pain flare up I’ve had since starting physical therapy. Looking back, I realized I’d gotten lazy and was taking my newfound strength for granted. I had gotten strong enough to do hour-long workouts, which is really exciting! But I had fallen back into the mindset that one 60-minute workout a day was all that I needed to be “healthy.” So I stopped doing my exercises twice a day.
Even though my muscles are stronger, they still need to be reminded how to work throughout the day.
Not only was I only exercising once during the day, I was spending more time sitting since I’ve been working on this blog. This is obviously a horrible combo for my body, but it’s also a recipe for chronic diseases for EVERYONE.
You have to break up the sitting.
Sitting for extended periods is directly correlated with increased risk for heart disease, cancer, diabetes and death. And exercising for the recommended 30-60 minutes a day doesn’t reduce that risk if you spend the rest of your time sitting!
If you want to dive more into the science behind this, Dr. Sarah Ballantyne has an amazing article on the Benefits of Gentle Movement.
Break up the sitting periods of your day by getting up and moving to improve your health by:
- Boosting immune function
- Regulating fluid balance in your body (aka bloating!)
- Helping with fat and sugar absorption (improves heart health and blood sugar)
- Removing toxins and waste materials
- Improving bone strength and density
This week I made a conscious effort to do some of my exercises twice a day and break up the sitting. I started doing a variation of the Pomodoro Technique which is a method to boost productivity. You set a timer and then focus on the task at hand – ONLY that task. When the timer goes off you get up and move for about 5 minutes. Setting a time limit and taking these breaks to move actually improve your ability to focus, making you much more productive. And when you break up the sitting you’re doing something great for your health and overall well being!
Read More:
The Benefits of Gentle Movement
Monday
Recovery Foam Rolling + Mobility Work
I was SORE after Sunday’s 10K! While I planned to take it pretty easy and just recover, I needed to do some active recovery work. Several times throughout the day I had to stop and foam roll some extremely tight muscles and do some mobility exercises to combat the crazy tightness. I also made sure to eat plenty of healthy food and drink loads of water to speed my recovery.
Read More:
5 Things You Need to Know About Water and Exercise
Tuesday
Full Body Strength Workout + Easy Run
My general approach for managing soreness is to take the first day off and do recovery and mobility work. If I’m still sore on day 2, I do a light workout to really boost blood flow to the sore muscles. This gets more nutrients flowing to the sore spots to speed recovery, while also removing any leftover toxins that are contributing to the soreness.
So when I was still sore today, I got my butt into the gym and did a nice long warm up followed by a light full body strength workout. I didn’t push very hard – just enough to get my heart rate up and feel my muscles working. This left me with enough energy to do an easy 1 mile run.
The run was what really helped me work through the last of the soreness. Initially I could feel all the sore spots whining, but I focused on my breathing and relaxing into the rhythm and within minutes, I felt amazing.
Read More:
Getting Started with Cardio when You Hate Cardio
Wednesday
Warm Up + Run
When you’re living with chronic pain, it’s easy to let yourself believe that your body doesn’t work. There is a huge difference between believing that your body is limited and knowing your actual limits. I’m still learning the difference. But I can say with certainty that I spent the last two months allowing myself to believe that I was limited and could not overcome those limitations.
I know that listening to my body and not pushing too hard in my workouts was the right call. But at the end of all of that, I still found the strength in my body and mind to do my first 10k. Clearly, my body is capable of much more than I believed was possible.
Moving forward I will continue to listen to my body, but I refuse to let fear of pain dictate what I believe I’m capable of. So I got back on the treadmill today after trying out a new warm up and rocked out a few miles.
Thursday
Recovery Day + Physical Therapy
Had my check in with one of my Physical Therapists today. The joint where the right side of my pelvis attaches to my sacrum (the SI Joint)is constantly slipping out of alignment so we sorted that out. I also got a few new exercises to work into my workouts to improve my glute activation (which will help prevent that SI Joint from slipping) plus improve my control over my knee and hip joints. This will also ideally help reduce the tendinitis I have in my right inner thigh.
Friday
Full Body Strength Workout
I incorporated my new exercises into today’s full body workout. Between the ball squeeze bridge and these exercises, I’m excited to report that my right leg has been feeling much better than it has the last couple of months! I’m guessing that doing my exercises twice a day and breaking up the sitting is also helping big time!
Saturday
Warm Up + 4.5 mile Hill Run
The soreness from last Sunday’s race was completely gone and with my new overcoming limitations mindset, I was ready to do a treadmill workout.
I did one of Laura Norris’s Treadmill Workouts: Stamina Inclines. This workout is designed to help improve your endurance and control your pace. It basically simulates running over hills. I could only do 2% inclines (her workout calls for 4-5% inclines) but modifying it enabled me to control my breathing and challenge myself just enough. Everyone has to start somewhere and I’d rather start by listening to my body and work up to the 4-5% inclines than try to push it and exhaust myself.
I felt awesome and just a little tired after. I ended up needing a nap after lunch. As I push myself with workouts like these, I’m just going to need to plan to take a little extra rest to allow my body to recover.
Sunday
Quick Core and Glute Workout + Foam Rolling Recovery
I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t very sore at all after my run! I think doing these new glute exercises twice a day combined with breaking up the sitting is really helping!
There was a lot going on today, so I didn’t have time for my usual 60 minute workout. I still did a 20 minute core and glute workout doing one set of each of my glute-specific exercises. To break up the sitting throughout the day, I did some light foam rolling for some tight spots on my hips and legs.