I’m the type of person that has back problems. I’ve had my back go out when I was young and skinny. I’ve had it go out when I was older and fat. I’ve had it go out from nothing at all. I’ve had it go out from physical activity. It really is a mystery what triggers it, but from time to time I find myself in extreme lower back pain where I can’t stand up straight or lift anything. I’ve had it last a day, I’ve had it last multiple weeks. I’ve rested it. I’ve seen a doctor for it. I’ve seen a chiropractor for it. I’ve had pain killers, and muscle relaxers. I’ve self medicated with Tylenol and Ibuprofen. There are 2 constant things about it, it eventually goes away and I feel the same as before it happened, and while it’s going on I can’t do much physically.
I bring this up because it happened right after I published my I’m the Type of Person That post. So while I’m the type of person that exercises at least 3 times per week, I sure haven’t been so far. I have been physically unable to! That doesn’t mean I’m not that type of person, it just means we all have the world to deal with as well as our goals and ideals. Sometimes the world has a different idea that you may have to overcome in order to get there. I’m going to have to build back up to being that kind of person. For now, I’m the kind of person that gets enough rest to heal properly, and doesn’t over exert themselves. When I’m feeling better, I’m the type of person that rolls out of bed and does 5 pushups. Then I’ll be the kind of person that does 5 pushups in the morning, and 5 pushups at lunch. Then I’ll be the kind of person that does 5 pushups in the morning, 5 at lunch, and 5 after dinner. Then I’ll increase those counts weekly until I’m feeling strong enough again to get back into a regular workout routine.
While building back up my strength will be paramount to meeting my goals of being the type of person that I want to be, I’ve also got a fantastic wife trained in healthcare that recommended something that has helped me start getting back on my feet much faster than usual. This Tens Unit found on Amazon is a miracle worker:
I can’t recommend it enough if you have muscle pain. It has truly helped me work out the issues I had going on over the course of the last 2 days. As an adult pushing 40, that’s pretty darn fast compared to a normal recovery time. It’s a heck of a lot better than 2 months of the chiropractor once a week!
I definitely included several I’m the Type of Person That’s in my previous post that breaking down into smaller goals to build up to will be useful. They may also make for great future blog posts so we’ll wait for another time. But suffice it to say, I will be revisiting mine often as I find aggregating small wins into those bigger goals to be useful. I wish you happiness and health in the new year, and I’ll be working on those myself one step at a time.