Dear Pamela,
I’ve fallen off of the workout wagon and I can’t get up.
This time last year I was at the gym taking classes four times a week, sometimes five! I loved it for the workout, camaraderie, and how it set the tone of my week to healthy mode.
It’s been five months since I set foot in the gym or even laced up my shoes for a walk.
I feel like an absolute slug. My sleep is horrible, so I crawl through the day in a fog and the last thing I want to do is workout. My joints ache all of the time, especially my back and shoulders, so I never feel like getting off the couch.
Am I depressed? Is it perimenopause? How can I get moving again?
Send help and a hot trainer with a crowbar to get me off the couch.
Sincerely,
Move Ring Score – Nill
Dear Nill,
You can bet Perimenopause has her foot hard in your back holding you trapped under that blanket on the couch.
She is a witch at smashing workout mojo by thwarting our best efforts at sleepy time and kicking our inflammation into high gear until our joints feel like they are grinding with rust.
Movement Begets Movement
Here is the crazy thing, the best cure for not exercising is….wait for it…..exercise.
As you’ve experienced, the less we move, the less likely we are to have the mental and physical reserves of get-up-and-go.
Here’s why:
Exercise boosts our mood
In perimenopause, when our estrogen drops, it pulls our happy-making serotonin with it.
This dip makes us less likely to want to move, but once we get going, our brains celebrate by boosting serotonin production.
You might crawl into your workout like a Eeyore, but by getting those neurotransmitters flowing, you can bounce out like Tigger.
Movement lubricates our joints
Those aches and pains in your inflamed joints make moving sound like a raw deal.
But after a warm up, your moving blood will help flush away lingering inflammation and your joints will spit out synovial fluid, which acts like lube to keep everything sliding as smoothly as possible.
Before long, you will have the momentum of a boulder rolling downhill, or at least one of those mini grocery carts on a freshly waxed aisle seven.
How can you flip from couch slug to crunch star?
Force it.
Do NOT wait until you feel like it and the stars align for perfect conditions. It will not happen.
Show up when you feel like a$$, it is take-your-breath-away cold or hella hot outside, you hate your outfit, and it means you have to go to that dental appointment without taking a shower.
The 1988 marketing exec at Nike nailed it: Just DO IT.
Do NOT, not, not rely on meeting a friend
It’s tempting to grab a buddy and pinky swear a workout pact. This approach is a fantasy. In reality, it’s hard enough to align one adult female schedule with a regular workout, let alone two.
You don’t want your friend’s emergency zoom call keeping you in your Uggs and Snuggie when you could be tearing it up.
Do yourself a favor and learn to go it alone. Let occasional workout collabs be the optional sprinkles on top of you own robust workout sundae.
Best Bet: Pay For It
Hate the idea of feeding stacks of cash directly into the paper shredder? Turn your wallet into the crowbar that levers you to your feet.
- Buy a book of classes with an expiration date.
- Pony up for that Bougie gym you have always thought was too extravagant.
- Make an appointment with that personal trainer all the ladies in your neighborhood swear by, but scares you just a little.
Think you don’t have the funds? Did you ever pay for club sports, private singing lessons or sleep away camp for your kids? Thought so. Now it’s your turn. Dream big and pay for it.
Work your workouts around your work
Yes, you need to keep the lights on, the college tuition flowing and the sixteen streaming services pumping, so work might be an obstacle.
Here are two proven hacks:
- Book out workout time as Physical Therapy. No one needs to know you are hitting a boxing class. They can believe you’re working on your carpal tunnel, and mind their own business.
- Walk at work. Grab a cheap walking pad for under your desk. No need to huff and puff at a fast clip. Just slow simmer at a saunter while you work. No standing desk? Use the giant walking pad delivery box to give your laptop a boost.
“The only bad workout is one you didn’t do”
Chuck the idea of moving like you did last year. Start right now with an absolutely crappy, short, weak-sauce workout.
If you make that bar so low you could just roll under it, I bet you get her done, feel good and show up again tomorrow.
Now go, get out there.
Sending you all the endorphins you can handle,
Coach Pamela
