Listen to your body! This is a really important part of our wellbeing, and it is something we need to think about when we are exercising. When I am teaching I always stress that we need to listen to our bodies, because we are affected by so many different events that happen in our
lives and each time we turn up to class our bodies will react in a different way, even when performing exercises that we have been doing for weeks — they will still feel different.
I experienced this just last week, I went along to my classes progressing them as I would normally do, and suddenly I started to feel discomfort in my knees and my hips. My legs started to feel really heavy, and I felt it was very challenging to lift them.
Now when this starts to happen with me, it is usually time for me to slow down, not demonstrate as much in class, but also check out what I have been eating. It had been my birthday so I had eaten rather a lot of sugar — chocolate, cake, desserts — because I had eaten out and also I had partaken of the odd glass of alcohol. I had also worn heels which is unusual for me, as I am normally in trainers or bare feet.
The other thing that had
happened was that my sister — who is having a course of chemotherapy at the moment — had experienced a difficult reaction to the chemo and as a family we had been worried and also trying to support her.
All in all, the extra sugar, alcohol, high heels, worry — all of this together — had added to how my body was working. So it is time to slow down, get back to some healthy eating, cut out the caffeine and alcohol, and have some rest and relaxation.
The lesson is we have to listen to our bodies — they reflect exactly how we are living our lives, so we have to feed them with what they need at that particular time, on that particular day.
Be the best version of yourself, right here, right now.
