Why you should listen to your body and …. (ahem) your trainer 🙁
Week after week I am told to make sure I eat well, get plenty of sleep and most importantly REST in between workouts, give my muscles a chance to recover so they can grow, and above all to rest to avoid injury…. Each week I said Yeah yeah no problem, will do! But, did I really listen??? God no, I bulled on with other activities because…’I’m not tired’…’I want to push myself’… ‘I’ll get faster results’… basically… ‘I’m a stubborn mare’!! So off I went kayaking the next evening, felt a twinge after but put it down to a weird stitch. I ran almost 8k another evening (without stretching after as came home to visitors but thought ‘meh’, no need) and low and behold that wasn’t enough so I done some extra core work too and BHAM!!! I felt like I had been stabbed into the belly, I ended up straining a muscle in my abdomen! Not so know it all now eh? Of course, thick as champ and not wanting to give in I decide to plough on with training next morning until Aidan cops there’s a problem….think the grimace and whines from me trying to get down on the mat kind of gave it away…session over!
If anything, it has taught me to firstly listen to my body, I should have known when I got the initial pain in my stomach that something wasn’t right and secondly….yeah yeah listen to my trainer!! Never again do I want to put my training at risk, 
I have been seriously cracking up not able to do anything in the last week and, just because sneezing wasn’t punishment enough with the strained muscle, life just threw me a big fat lemon in the form of the vomiting bug for the past 36 hrs, so that was a sheer delight as you can imagine. I think my poor children thought I was dying every time I had to throw up because the pain was excruciating due to my strained muscle. Trust me, lesson learned, BIGTIME!!
What I now know is that when you fall into the trap of over training you can end up sabotaging all of your great efforts. I have learned more in the past week from my mistake than I thought possible. Lifting weights causes tiny tears in your muscles, although this sounds bad but this is actually great for your muscle growth as it stimulates muscle proteins but the only way it will strengthen is to allow it to have time to repair and recover. (Hello)!!
Believe it or not, over training can have the opposite affect to what you are hoping for….my concept was, the more I trained and the harder I worked the faster the results…UH UH!!! If you over train, your body can reach a protective plateau therefore you are realistically getting nowhere fast and exhausting your body in the process. Instead of feeling that mood boosting high from exercise you can end up feeling low by being tired and run down….it’s true that sometimes less IS more.
I don’t know about you but if I train hard I could eat like a horse after and while I have been pretty careful of how I refuel, 
if the sessions are intense everyday then my hunger intensifies and truth be told, I am not always so careful about what I eat when I am tired and famished (throwback to the infamous Snickers). There’s absolutely no point burning all these Calories to just consume them back and more afterwards. Like everything it’s all about balance and not forgetting the actual good feel factor. There’s nothing to gain by burning yourself out, we all have busy lives and limited resources so instead of draining myself by over training and wanting to throw in the towel because I hurt and I’m cranky, I will take a step back and listen to what I feel my body is capable of and of course, listen to my trainers advice!!
I have now reminded myself of my initial goals, this is about a lifestyle change and my health is my priority so no more trying to be Superwoman and a little more this….
If you want to make your health your priority then pop in a few details here!
Until next time,
Louise
