If you’ve ever:
– Felt “fine” to workout, but during the workout you start feeling irritation…
– Felt “good enough” to workout, felt fine during the workout, but afterward your low back/knee/shoulder hurts…
– Felt like “I’m too young to be stuck in this cycle of random pain that seems never ending”
Good news!!
You’re not alone. All of these are common occurrences for many people.
Better news?!
You can learn to manage this type of problem by understanding load vs. capacity.
Load can be considered any stress; anything that takes away from your body’s overall capacity.
For a visual, imagine your body’s capacity is a water bottle. It accidentally overflowed a little bit with all the water (load/stressors) being poured in there. This is like when you may get sick, injured, or stuck. It might not be actively overflowing right now. Still, it’s filled to the tippy top.
Your decisions will either help you take little sips of the water, slowly lowering it from the top and away from overflowing.
OR
Your decisions will add more to the already full amount, potentially causing another overflow.
It’s not going to totally empty right away. It takes time and hard work. Your body will continue to communicate with you about how “full” it feels.
Slowly, as you improve your recovery through sleep (quality and quantity), stress management, nutrition, and exercise, you can find a good balance of filling up your capacity and not overflowing.
Then, you can start the process of increasing your capacity – but that’s for a different post 😉
