Sunday Morning - “Walk Slowly”
Happy Sunday! :-)
My belief is that repetition is the best way to learn anything. Thus, I am very repetitive in my advice, especially to the ones I train! One of the things I say most while training someone is to move slowly. When someone is getting up from the floor, balancing on one leg, doing a high difficulty move, using heavy weights, being fatigued near the end of a hard workout, all these can cause injury if done incorrectly or done too quickly. Once bad happens, you can’t go back and why I am always saying, move slowly. A client of mine recently sprained her ankle pretty badly. She, like many others, wasn’t sure if she could work out when she was on crutches with a sprained ankle. I explained that it was very easy to do; we just keep you on the ball or on the floor and for her to just show up the following week. So, she did and we worked out. After we finished I was walking her out and I carried one of her crutches and her bag as she went down the stairs. She held the railing with one hand and used her crutch with the other arm. I asked how she does that when she has both crutches and her bag all by herself? She said, “I just focus on moving slowly.” The next week, being the fit person she is, she was already off the crutches and walking under her own power, although very gingerly. After another great workout I was walking her out and as I watched her walking down the steps I asked if it hurt to put weight on her ankle without crutches? She said, “Not if I focus on walking slowly.” We both smiled as I reminded her that she had stated how she focuses on walking slowly twice now and how if so many of us kept our focus on that, how many accidents, sprained ankle’s and bad choices we would avoid. I told her that after she was back to one hundred percent, I hoped that we both remember to walk slowly. She smiled and agreed that would be the test. Once she was healthy, back to her normal routine, work schedule and to-do list, would she start forgetting to walk slowly…? A great question for us all… May we all remember the valuable lessons we have learned so we do not have to be reminded of their lessons again in the future. And walk slowly out there!
- tjd
peace & God bless in two thousand & zen
