Adopting a growth mindset can change your life. For me, committing to cultivating a growth mindset has improved my chronic pain, my training, my parenting, and my outlook on life. This week I’m showing you how I incorporate a growth mindset into my training to improve my chronic pain.
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I learned a lot from running my first 10k. The biggest thing was that my mindset had been struggling for those two months leading up to the race. I was trying to listen to my body (which isn’t bad!) but it was from a place of fear. Fear of hurting myself.
When fear rules your decisions, you get caught in a fixed mindset. You believe that one wrong step will ruin everything you’ve worked for. Maybe you believe that because you’ve had that experience. The first time I ran a full mile without stopping, I tore my right hip flexor. I couldn’t lift my leg to walk up stairs for several weeks. Then spent the next 10 years working around recurring hip pain. No wonder I believed I’d get hurt!
But I had been doing so well for the first half of 2019! In physical therapy I was learning that I could push myself for shorter periods multiple times a day. Not only could I push myself, but the pushing was actually making me feel better! I was unknowingly cultivating a growth mindset: that my body was capable of so much more than I’d given it credit for.
So what happened?
Looking back, I screwed up two things. I stopped doing my 2-a-day workouts because I got comfortable with being able to do one long workout. And I got lazy with my diet and started eating convenient foods even though I knew they made me feel crummy.
My pain and fatigue came back and I fell right back into my fixed mindset. “If I push myself I’ll get hurt.” While listening to my body was the best thing I could do, I made one huge mistake: I was listening through the lens of fear. I wasn’t pushing my training and I wasn’t doing the 2-a-day workouts that had broken my pain cycle in the first place.
How I’m cultivating a growth mindset now:
Last week, I went back to doing my exercises twice a day.
This week I changed a little more. I signed up for Rachel Ngom’s Infinite Growth Challenge which is about fixing up your mindset and creating habits to help you grow. The timing of this challenge was pretty perfect!
Started a Morning Routine
I’d already planned to recommit to my morning routine. So when Rachel dedicated a whole day of the challenge to the importance of a morning routine, I really committed. I included the first round of my muscle activation exercises right after getting up. Followed by a few minutes of visualizing my growth mindset for the day. It’s crazy what a huge difference this little morning habit makes on my body and my outlook. If you haven’t tried this, you need to read the The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.
Rewriting my beliefs about my body
I started pushing in my workouts again. This means getting my nutrition back on point so I’ll have the energy for my workouts and recovery. And it means changing my fear of hurting myself to a growth mindset.
“I will only know my limits if I push to find them. I can safely push myself by checking in with my body during my workouts. I will learn from how I feel after.”
I also set a minimum activity requirement. No matter how I’m feeling, I will do at least one set of my exercises in twice a day.
Now I need to collect some convenient snack options that will support my health! Because my chip addiction is still nuts and I know I can do better. Any ideas? Check back for that little gem – I’ll share it soon as it’s done!
How do you maintain a growth mindset in the face of your fears?
Training Log: Training with a Growth Mindset
Monday
Warm Up Exercises + Recovery
Since today was supposed to be an “off” day, I stuck with a quick round of muscle activation exercises to start my day. Later I spent some time foam rolling any remaining tight spots after Saturday’s 4.5 mile Hill Run.
Tuesday
Running Warm Up + Long Uphill Run
Most of my runs are on a treadmill because our gym offers childcare but doesn’t have a good track to run on. Today I got a rare opportunity when my Mom agreed to come over early so I could hit the arroyo trails! I took the trail from behind my house up toward the foothills for just over 2 miles. This was a steady uphill grade so it was a great pacing challenge building on Saturday’s run.
Unfortunately, I am so used to running inside on a treadmill where there’s air conditioning, that I did not plan for the New Mexico heat at 8 am. The heat got me before my legs actually wore out, so I didn’t make it to the end of the trail like I’d planned.
Wednesday
Strength Workout
Somehow I managed to roll my ankle by walking down the hall right before leaving for the gym. Thank you hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome! Anyone living with this knows how you can hurt yourself by doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. We zebras have awful body-awareness and sometimes joints give out with no provocation. It’s so annoying.
As a side note, if you don’t have EDS, NEVER suggest that your zebra friend should just “be more careful.” Focusing on “being careful” is a fear-based fixed mindset in my opinion. These kind of injuries happen randomly, no matter how careful we are. Of course, there are steps that can help prevent this injuries, but there’s no guarantee. We just need to practice that growth mindset and manage these out-of-the-blue injuries as they come. Then keep moving forward and do our best to support our health and fitness.
Back to what I did today:
Hubs was amazing (as usual!) and grabbed me an ice pack then fully supported my decision to get my butt to the gym. I modified my workout to include some ankle rehab exercises like a simple single leg balance on a foam pad. And I decided not to try for my normal easy run since I was still limping around.
Did you know for minor sprains, the best treatment is often ice for swelling plus gently walking it off? The more you rest your ankle, the longer it takes to heal! Unless there’s something more going on of course. Always seek professional medical advice!
Thursday
Physical Therapy
Aside from some slight soreness, my ankle was completely better. My PT checked it and cleared me for full activity. Yay!
We adjusted my right SI Joint (as usual) and went through some of my warm up exercises. Then we went through a bunch of balance and core control exercises that will help me better stabilize my ankles, knees and hips. This should mean a reduced risk of future sprains (theoretically…), reduced tendinitis in my right leg, and improved running form!
Sadly, I got a nasty reminder that my upper body is not nearly as well-trained or forgiving as my lower body. During PT, we did a bunch of tricep/lat pulldowns that felt somewhat challenging but totally do-able at the time. A couple hours later, one of my ribs subluxated from my tight lats and it hurt to breathe. Luckily, some lat foam rolling helped and it was resolved by the next morning.
Friday
Strength Workout + Easy Run
I was pretty sore after Physical Therapy. More sore than I would have expected based on the low intensity of the session. Instead of choosing to rest, like I would have a month ago, I practiced my growth mindset and challenged myself to go do the strength workout I’d planned.
I selected exercises that would use my sore muscles and work the soreness out. Then I did an easy run and by the end I felt 100% better.
Saturday
Off
Normally I’ve been taking Mondays and Thursday as my “off” or “light” days. But since Thursday ended up being a fairly challenging day and I had worked through my remaining soreness, I felt safe taking a light day. I still did my minimum exercises. It felt good knowing that I was taking some time to support the recovery side of my training.
Sunday
Running Warm Up + Tempo Run
I was limited on time for my workout today because there were a lot of other things I needed to get done. Like writing this post and coming up with my tip for this week’s email!
I’d hoped to do a long run today, but after my warm up took 25 minutes, I was left with 35 minutes for running. I decided to try a tempo run which, to me, is the scariest type of running workout.
For tempo runs, you run for a certain amount of time at a pace that is pretty freaking challenging. This really improves your endurance capacity so you can run longer. I hadn’t done a tempo run yet because of fear so it felt like exactly the right time to give it a go.
I discovered that the pace that I set for the 1 mile tempo portion of the run actually didn’t feel too bad. If I’d had time, I could have pushed for another mile to really get the true tempo run experience! Now I know that I can challenge myself even more next time!
What training challenges do you want to take on?
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