How Working Out Less Can Still Be a Win

COMMUNITY FIRST

🎃 On October 26th, from 2-4 PM, Sunnyside Mall is having its annual Trick-or-Treat event! You can sign up to hand out candy if you want, too.

🍂 New Book Joy is hosting two events for kids this month, too. There’s storytime on 10/4 and a kids’ book club/chat on 10/5!

📚 Check out this post for other reading-related events, including a boozy book swap, a few mixer options where you can meet authors and other readers, and a WITCH CRAWL!

🍁 My neighbors, the Chicago Clay Co-Op, are hosting a Pumpkin mug crafting event on 10/10. Info here!

🎉 Happy Friday, Friends!

Lately, I’ve been noticing a shift in my workouts. I’m not going as hard in the gym as I used to. In fact, I’ve scaled back a lot, going from 60-75 minute workouts first in the morning to 35-50 minutes total, warmup and cool-down included! And, as always, I’ve had to grant myself permission to let my routine change as my life has changed. 

Because here’s the truth: your body will change. Your obligations will change. Your season of life will change. And your stress levels? Those will definitely, absolutely change.

So why shouldn’t your training change, too?

Like I mentioned, shorter, smarter workouts feel right to me. A big part of this shift is that I’ve had an old lower limb injury act up, limiting my range of motion and increasing my need for rest. Instead of powering through the discomfort and forcing my body to get back on the “right track,” (FYI: the right track is the one where you’re working with your body), I’m scaling down. I’m focusing on rest and recovery. And it’s been incredible to watch my body respond with healing, decreased pain, and increased motion.

Because I work out in the morning, shorter workouts also allow me an extra 15-20 minutes of sleep. It doesn’t sound like much, but your most restful sleep actually happens in the morning. REM sleep becomes longer and more frequent the longer you’re asleep, with the longest stages of REM lasting an hour or so after you’ve been asleep the whole night. That last 15-20 minutes of rest have helped my body heal SO much. It’s been just as energizing as exercise and even a caffeine-based supplement!

Without the need to reach for caffeine to push through workouts and a little extra time in my afternoons thanks to shorter workouts, I have time for reading, writing, and those “maybe later” things that are good for me, but that I don’t always have time for.

My injury hasn’t magically disappeared, but the space it takes up in my head has drastically decreased. That’s the real win. The mental relief from something that’s been nagging at me for years.

This shift got me thinking: so many people treat slowing down like it’s a failure. Like it’s not a natural part of the ebb and flow of life. But when we do that, we forget that life is going to keep on life-ing! 

We’re going to have loved ones to take care of. We’re going to have work that we can’t avoid. We’re going to have periods of grief, injury, and transition that keep us from getting in that full workout sometimes. Even for a long time, if there’s a lot going on!

And that’s completely okay.

With you as we slowwwww down,
Dana