A Friendly Nudge - We're Not Broken

Pain can shut you down. I saw a friend last night who’s having his hip replaced this week and it reminded me of how miserable I was prior to having my shoulder replaced. My buddy was following his doctors pre-surgical orders which included no anti-inflammatory pain meds the week before surgery and even though he isn’t a complainer, I could tell he was miserable. Even the slightest movement produced a silent, but visible, grimace.

When you’re hurting like that you want to do everything you can to avoid it. It was interesting to hear that the only thing that seemed to help my friend was the one hour that he spent in an exercise class lifting weights. The relief wasn’t long-lasting but at least for that hour he had some temporary relief.

After I had my shoulder replaced I had to change how I interpreted pain. The first few times I had pain around a joint, it took a little convincing to prove to me that not all joint pain was chronic or required surgery. And the big breakthrough for me came when I began to understand how essential loading was in helping injuries to heal and for bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments to get stronger.

Since my shoulder replacement my PT has helped me rehab some nagging injuries including insertional achilles tendinopathy and some type of knee issue that was probably meniscus irritation. Both of those had me hobbling around, but in the old days they would have been all the excuse I needed to take a break from exercise.

It turns out that the pain in my achilles and my knee didn’t mean that I was broken or that anything needed to be replaced or cut on. But it did point to a need for some appropriate loading to heal and to build greater load tolerance. My knee is once again happy and even though there’s still some arthritis, most of the time the pain is at a mild nuisance level and there are days where it’s completely pain free. My achilles is well on its way to recovery but that particular injury takes forever to completely heal but there’s no more limp and day to day activities don’t light it up.

And if I’m honest about it, that’s really what I’m looking for. I want to have the capacity and the strength, mobility, and resilience to be able to live an active life without limping around or being miserable for days afterwards.

A smart, measured approach to exercise is essential for that, but it also means that my diet can’t be building an inflammatory bonfire. And I could have those two things really dialed in and throw a wrench in the works if I don’t pay attention to sleep and recovery. I’m not worried about getting any of those things perfect but I care enough about being fully present for the people and the things that are important to me. And so, I’m going to put the effort in to make sure those habits are trending in the right direction.

I’m being a lot more intentional about including some additional warm up exercises in my workouts and the workouts you see here and I’m adding some level of warm up sets to the strength exercises you’ll see going forward. It adds a little extra time to the workout but it amplifies its effectiveness.

My intentionality about warming up and being better prepared for more intense exercises doesn’t deprive me of some of my morning exercise snacks. I’m just not trying to max out a set push ups or goblet squats without doing some prep work first. I’m keeping it easy and I’m trying to incorporate more balance work and maybe a few easy sink squats or tib raises while the coffee is brewing.

My goal is to do a better job of being patient with the process of building the capacity of my body with all of its moving parts so that the easy stuff keeps feeling easy and the challenging stuff feels more doable. I invite you to join me on that journey.

Now let’s make something tasty.

Nectarine Feta Chicken

I love feta, cucumbers and nectarines so this one was a no brainer. I was surprised how much difference the mint makes. I’ve already made this one 3 times and as long as nectarines or peaches keep looking solid at Costco, I’ll keep making it.

Ingredients:

For the chicken:

2-3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 lemon juiced

½ bunch mint, leaves chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp dijon or whole grain mustard

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 pinches chili flake

1 fat pinch salt

2 nectarines, sliced

1 large seedless cucumber, smashed and sliced

4-8 oz feta, crumbled

For the dressing or sauce:

1 tbsp honey

½ bunch mint, leaves chopped

1 tbsp dijon or whole grain mustard

1 tbsp olive oil

½ lemon, juiced

Preheat the oven to 415℉ and combine 2 tbsp olive oil, juice from 1 lemon, 2 tbsp mustard, 2 tbsp honey, 2 minced cloves of garlic and leaves from ½ bunch mint, 2 pinches of chili flake and a fat pinch of salt in a bowl and combine. Add the chicken to a large bowl and add the marinade and combine well.

Spread this out on a rim baking sheet and place in the oven and set a timer for 35 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, smash the cucumber and rough chop, then add a pinch of salt and add to a bowl. Add the sliced nectarines.

Prepare the dressing or sauce with 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp mustard, juice of ½ lemon, pinch of salt, and chopped leaves from ½ bunch of mint.

When the chicken is cooked through in 30-35 minutes, transfer the chicken to a serving platter and top with cucumbers, nectarines and crumbled feta and the prepared dressing.

Enjoy!

Now that we’ve dialed in something delicious, let’s give you some exercise options for the week.

I’d encourage you to give yourself a little extra time for the warm ups and with the weighted exercises we’ll also be doing as warm up sets. Those extra few minutes are important to help your body acclimate and come up to speed. Think of them as an access ramp for an expressway– our goal is to progressively come up to speed instead of flooring it and hoping for the best.

Skip any exercises that you don’t feel ready for and be patient with yourself. Rushing into an exercise that feels iffy is counterproductive. You have to trust your intuition and give yourself time to get more comfortable with the movements and gradually build strength and confidence.