I felt the rush today. It was just a tiny hint of a rush, but a rush nonetheless. It was something I have not felt for a very long time.
Let me back up a bit. I have always been,throughout my life, a person who works out. I belong to gyms, I go to fitness classes, I walk, I do exercise videos at home. This has been my way of life since I was a young teen going to Anne Marie's Figure Forum in Westport, CT with my sister. That was where it all started. From there, I moved on to doing Jane Fonda exercise albums at home with my Mom. At college, I ran for one year, and then worked out on and off at the fitness center on campus. After college, I had an apartment and joined a fitness and raquet club and so on and so on. I have done kickboxing, high impact aerobics, (thank you Sue Lestage), walking workouts, weight training, step aerobics, pretty much all of the fitness class crazes up until 4 years ago.
Four years ago, before I had gone back to working outside the home, I was at the Y most weekdays working out for usually an hour and a half. I would do 45 minutes of elliptical/exercise bike, then do some weight training, then I would see a friend and walk on the track and chat for another 1/2 hour or more. Before I knew it, I had been working out for much more than an hour. During this time, I developed a pain on the arch of my right foot. I figured I would need to exercise MORE to stretch this out. I increased my time on the elliptical, Stairmaster, and arc trainers. I was up to about 50 minutes 3-5 times a week when I " hit the wall."
This wall was huge and excruciatingly painful. It had a name. It was called Plantar Fasciitis. It is an inflammation of a tendon that runs from your heel, through the arch of your foot. When you wake in the morning after not using your feet all night, it feels like someone is stabbing the bottom of your foot with a sword. It is very sharply painful to get up and start walking around. All day long I had that pain. The pain was always much worse after not walking for an hour or more.
The Plantar Fasciitis brought my exercising mania to a crashing halt. Not only could I not use the elliptical, the stairmaster, the bike, the arc trainer or take classes, I could barely walk at all without horrific pain. I sought ever increasing levels of treatment. I went to a podiatrist, who sent me home with some stretching exercises and a recommendation to soak my foot in a bucket of ice water. If you have ever soaked your foot in a bucket of ice water, you know what a level of commitment to a cure that takes. It was awful and neither the ice nor the stretching helped. I then progressed to physical therapy, including Iontophoresis where a medicated patch is put on the affected area and an electrode drives the medication into the area in tiny increments using electrical pulses. This also did not work.
I went back to the podiatrist for an injection of cortisone directly into the area....you guessed it. I did not work, well, it did work for about one day and then it wore off and I was back to limping and making awful faces anytime I had to move my foot. The coup de gras was that I had to wear a walking cast for a month...mind you this was in mid July. It was hot, it was heavy (not to be confused with hot-n-heavy, trust me) and it kept my foot absolutely frozen in one position for a month. I was allowed to take it off only to drive and shower. After one month, in mid August, I took it off and thought, hmmmm...maybe this did the trick. I started walking around on it again and after a few days, that dreaded pain came right back. By that point, I had experienced this pain for almost a year. To be completely clear, I had ignored the pain for the first 6 months but it had been with me for almost one year. My only option at that point was to have surgery to sever the tendon. The sad fact though was that the doctor would not guarantee that surgery would make the pain go away and that tendon would be permanently severed. I opted not to have surgery.
At that point in time, I had gotten a job and began to work. I was wearing heels most of the time at work and I sat for many more hours of the day than I used to sit when I was not working. Something weird started to happen when I started my job, my foot began to feel better magically. I was not working out, I was not standing all day on my feet, and I was wearing heels instead of flat shoes. The heels seemed to ease the strain on the tendon...due to the angle my foot was in while I wore heels. I gradually began to gently work out at home...a little walking, a little short exercise video, etc.
That is the fitness situation I have been in ever since 2006. I have not been able to work out strenuously for fear of the return of the dreaded PF. But as a side effect of not working out as much, I have noticed my muscles are not as firm and flab is taking over formerly tighter areas (groan). So, it is with a little trepidation that I strode back to a gym last week. I saw my arch nemeses--the arc trainer and the elliptical. This gym did not have a stairmaster...probably a good thing. I got on the elliptical and did 15 minutes. I could have done more but opted not to push it. I also used the treadmill and exercise bike.
A funny thing happened today on the way out of the gym. I got that feeling. I had forgotten about that feeling altogether because it had been so long since I had experienced it. It is that rush of endorphins you get after you finish a workout. It is subtle to be sure, not like what a long distance runner gets...that is anything but subtle. This is subtle and yet I felt it. It felt great to have a 45 minute workout under my belt today. It felt good physically and mentally. And all in all, that feeling was what I have missed the most.
I am both committed to regain a fitness routine I left behind 4 years ago in hopes of firming and toning, yet at the same time, I will listen to my body and understand that when your body gives you cues that it is hurting, you need to heed those warnings instead of being stubborn and hoping you can will them away. There is a balance to be struck here and I am determined to find it.
By the way, is anyone with me? A lot of friends and acquaintances have told me they are members at Planet Fitness, but do not go very often; you know who you are. LOL Who wants to join me in this quest?
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