Can progress be made without consistancy?
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 3:56 pm
I've been trying to exercise more recently to make the physical improvements that I know are possible. I have a spinal cord injury and have to use a power wheelchair. But the hardest part about it is what it would actually take on my part to make those improvements. It's not too difficult to go hard 1 or 2 days but to keep at it when your time and energy and drive is depleted is not so easy. But my thinking is the only way to gain anything is to give it everything. I think one day could make or break my chances. My body is used to years of being in a wheelchair and resting and relying on it. The only way for improvement is sweat and tears and consistancy. This month I've decided to as many days as I can give everything to my workouts and do my best not missing a day unless I absolutely have to. 1 Week in I'm off to a great start.
I think if I can put in a solid month that eventually it will be ok to miss a day or maybe go all out 2 or 3 days and miss a day. But right now I think my best chance is to look at this month as a test knowing that no matter the results I did what I had to.
Someone mentioned to me that at my age (37) that I shouldn't do too much without adequate rest because of my muscles breaking down. Their reccomendation kind of put a kink in my all out every day plan because I'm sure I do need breaks sometimes.
I usually listen to my body pretty good but am not sure when to rest. What are the effects if you don't let your muscles rest? With my spinal cord injury I've wondered, if I work a muscle hard and then spend the rest of the day in my chair if that muscle needs less time to recover since I'm not using it.
I know I need rest days. It seems hard to break though, when I take a break I feel like I should have not and that maybe I lost my oppurtunity. I feel like an able bodied person can more easily go by the workout rules and make progress but an sci person needs to fight harder for progress. Finding that effective route that will help me and not hurt me is what I need to learn. I do believe that pushing as close to the max before you need to take a rest period could be effective. Is 1 full day of rest / no exercise a sufficent amount of rest time before you get back at it?
I don't know all the technical terms or even the proper way to do exercises but I know that doing what I can is better than not doing anything. I have this idea, if I could just learn the basics of how the body moved and muscles worked and practice simple routines or movements and divide them into whatever number of "building blocks" that I could follow that I could follow it. I could work on block one and two however many days, for 10 minutes or however long was needed, and work on blocks 3 & 4. But the point for me is focusing on a specif block would be less daunting than thinking constantly about the big picture.
I'm realizing that with spinal cord injury progress can't come easy, but it can come. And what it takes for progress will take everything you have in you and even more. And deciding if it's worth it is a heart breaking decsion. I do believe that it is worth it.
Please give some ideas and plan ideas for how many days would be effective to go hard and then how long to rest. It would be awesome if I could scan my muscles and see the optimal time to restart my workouts.
Thank you again guys,
Ian
I think if I can put in a solid month that eventually it will be ok to miss a day or maybe go all out 2 or 3 days and miss a day. But right now I think my best chance is to look at this month as a test knowing that no matter the results I did what I had to.
Someone mentioned to me that at my age (37) that I shouldn't do too much without adequate rest because of my muscles breaking down. Their reccomendation kind of put a kink in my all out every day plan because I'm sure I do need breaks sometimes.
I usually listen to my body pretty good but am not sure when to rest. What are the effects if you don't let your muscles rest? With my spinal cord injury I've wondered, if I work a muscle hard and then spend the rest of the day in my chair if that muscle needs less time to recover since I'm not using it.
I know I need rest days. It seems hard to break though, when I take a break I feel like I should have not and that maybe I lost my oppurtunity. I feel like an able bodied person can more easily go by the workout rules and make progress but an sci person needs to fight harder for progress. Finding that effective route that will help me and not hurt me is what I need to learn. I do believe that pushing as close to the max before you need to take a rest period could be effective. Is 1 full day of rest / no exercise a sufficent amount of rest time before you get back at it?
I don't know all the technical terms or even the proper way to do exercises but I know that doing what I can is better than not doing anything. I have this idea, if I could just learn the basics of how the body moved and muscles worked and practice simple routines or movements and divide them into whatever number of "building blocks" that I could follow that I could follow it. I could work on block one and two however many days, for 10 minutes or however long was needed, and work on blocks 3 & 4. But the point for me is focusing on a specif block would be less daunting than thinking constantly about the big picture.
I'm realizing that with spinal cord injury progress can't come easy, but it can come. And what it takes for progress will take everything you have in you and even more. And deciding if it's worth it is a heart breaking decsion. I do believe that it is worth it.
Please give some ideas and plan ideas for how many days would be effective to go hard and then how long to rest. It would be awesome if I could scan my muscles and see the optimal time to restart my workouts.
Thank you again guys,
Ian