Sometimes it isn’t what you do or how you do it… it is just “getting started”. Be it a walk around the mall, a jaunt to the store, a circle around the park… walking is one of the best ways to get started. Just think about it. You could walk a few steps.
You could walk up stairs. You could walk 8 miles. You can scale walking back to meet your needs during rehab or recovery or add distance and incline to add intensity. After crawling, walking is on the movements that we first learned in life. Standing, forward movement, footstep after footstep. We learned to use our feet to get to where we wanted to go. As we became better at it, the faster and faster we went! I know the parents out there might be thinking about the distiction…. when one day their little one could crawl… and then their little one could walk. There probably wasn’t a lot of time between the next progression — running. Running here to get a toy, there to see the butterfly, over yonder for a cookie, near the sofa to jump and land on the cushions. As kids, we ran everywhere… and we didn’t get winded. We eased in and only went as fast as our little bodies let us. As we built power in our legs, our little bellies, backs, feet, ankles, spines…. we found we could go faster; and we did. Running became jumping like a frog, running on all fours like a bear, scooting around like a crab. Play was exercise and exercise was play. When we become adults – most of us are far from where we were as kids. We still have strength, but we lost that flexibility. We shyed away from natural movement. We learned to lift with our backs. We learned to walk, instead of run. We learned to carry heavy things, slouched over. We never get horizontal to walk on all fours. And our bodies hate to move. Exercise is work. Exercise is not fun.
The hardest part about all of exercise is getting started. When we start – it feels flat out horrible. It can make us question our sanity. It can make us wonder why we didn’t just stay on the couch. It can make us sore in places we haven’t felt for a long time. But the more we use our bodies in a natural way. The more we move. The more we become active…. the more fun we begin to have. It becomes truly fun to feel your body get stronger. It feels spectacular to walk up stairs without being winded. It feels great to keep up with little kids. It feels sassy to work up a sweat and know that we did the best we could in a workout.
Start now. The difficult part will be over soon. I share this with you so that you can remember that you learned this once before in life… and you thrived. You will learn it and be it again, and you will thrive.
You are worth it…. just take the first step.