Posted 4/17/2014 1:17 AM (GMT 0)
Gigi,
No, I do not mean postponing exercise until you're anxiety-free. There are many reasons for that, but one major one is, if we keep procrastinating and avoiding doing things until that magical moment when we're free from anxiety, we'll never get much of anything done.
Anxiety is, as S.C. mentioned, a chronic condition. It's always with us. But it's up to us to learn the best ways, for us personally, to handle these episodes.
What I am specifically referring to with regards to not being "fit enough" for running is this: Imagine if, regardless of your past fitness level, let's say for the past several months, the extent of your "exercise" has been doing housework, walking the dog, doing chores....
In all honesty, do you believe that by "tomorrow" you could go out and run a half-marathon?
Do you believe that anyone could, (if they haven't been in training for some while before-hand?)
I've learned that most people have their own definitions of "fitness" and "exercise."
As for "waiting" until you are "more fit?" Waiting for what? More fit for what?
What I suggested in my post was not waiting, but rather, getting yourself fit so that,--if you're intent on having to run, you have a deep-seated enjoyment of running,--that for the moment, you respect your body's current fitness level and don't walk out the door and try to run.
Whether people are doing yoga, walking, weight & strength training, biking, climbing, martial arts, swimming, tennis, playing sports.......absolutely NO ONE "starts out" by doing the activity at full capacity, jumping into whatever activity....
.....not without warming your body up, and not without training your body to safely adapt to whatever you're trying to get it to do. We can't run before we walk. We're not going to play Wimbledon against Venus Williams the first time we hold a racquet. Right?
Same thing.
Set yourself up a schedule to where you exercise, starting now (don't wait for any reason, like for anxiety to go away,....the only reason to wait would be doctor's orders).
Start off small. Just as I wrote in my previous post above....(remember, I don't know how fit or active you are, so I'm offering suggestions based on being anxiety prone and being hyper-aware to your body's physiological changes when you're active)....
These are only a few RANDOM examples, only to illustrate the point:
1) If you agree to exercise for 30 minutes,....begin by walking briskly for 10 minutes to warm up, then run, if that's what you're adamant about doing, for 2 minutes,....then walk for the next 2-4 minutes to let your heart rate and breathing slow down a bit,....then run for 2 more minutes,.....then walk for the next 2-4 minutes,...and so forth....until you near the end, and walk at a slower rate for the final 5-7 minutes.
2) If you're exercising in a gym, do one strength training exercise, like a leg press, at a weight where you can comfortably do 15 reps....then for the next 60 seconds, do something cardio-based, like march in place, jump rope, jumping jacks,...anything. Then go to a 2nd strength training exercise, this time for the upper body, like a chest press....at a weight you can comfortably do 15 reps for.... When you're finished, spend the next 60 seconds, again, doing some type of cardio/aerobic activity,.....then do another lower body strength exercise....
See the pattern? You exercise, your heart rate elevates,....then before it can get "too elevated" (to you), you do something to bring it down....and you keep flipping back and forth between the two....until your 30 minutes of exercise is done.
Start small,...30 minutes....easy/moderate work...and G-R-A-D-U-A-L-L-Y work up from there.
M.