A couple weeks ago I was talking to a friend who recently stepped up his commitment to his fitness routine.
He went from the occasional class and walking his dog to structured training 2–3 times per week.
He was frustrated and asked: “Why do I seem to have more aches and pains now that I’m doing something good for me than I did when I did nothing?”
It’s a fair question.
Here’s the analogy I gave him.
Pretend your parents have an old country property, and one day when you were cleaning out the barn with your elderly father you stumbled across a beautiful old classic car under a hay-covered tarp.
Just like it’s right out of a movie.
Except in this case, the car has a flat tire, has decades of dust and grime buildup, a family of racoons made their home under the hood, and the engine won’t start.
You replace the tires, evict the racoons, spend a day cleaning and polishing it, and put in fresh gas. Lo and behold, when you go to turn the key, it starts right up.
Let’s take it for a spin!
You and your father hop in to drive it down the laneway. But as you put it into gear you hear some grinding and a “clunk” and it doesn’t want to move faster than a slow walk without making some funny noises.
Neither of you are car people, so your father calls his mechanic friend over. He says you need to replace the rear axle and the transmission needs some work.
Once it’s fixed, you start it up, put it into gear, and everything seems great! Well, it’s a beautiful summer day so you decide to take the car into town for lunch.
But alas, another issue.
As you get it up to regular speeds you notice a weird vibration coming from who knows where and you’re worried the car will start to shake parts right off the frame. Plus, as you slow down for the lights coming into town, the brakes squeak and squeal.
You drop it off at your father’s mechanic friend, again, and he tells you the engine needs work and the brakes need to be replaced.
Once you get it back after this round of repairs, you feel you’ve replaced everything, feel comfortable taking it to pick up a friend at the airport.
Everything is going great for the first part of the drive, and you’re balancing your fear of the next thing breaking with your pride that you took this beat up old car from dilapidated to functioning.
As you hit the 401 and get up to speed, the engine starts to overheat and you hear a new, mysterious, grinding noise.
Luckily, you are able to take back roads and drive slower and pick up your friend to return home without any issues.
At this point you’re beyond frustrated, and feel like all your time, money, and effort restoring this car have been a waste. You drop it off, for what feels like the zillionth time, at your mechanic and ask him what the hell could be broken now.
The mechanic finally says
“None of these problems are new. They were always there. You just never drove it fast enough to notice – starting up in the barn and driving to the airport are very different demands. Plus, a car that sits for decades will always need maintenance.”
You can probably see where this is going.
When you’ve been fairly sedentary, it’s normal for something to feel “new” when you start exercising. And as you get fitter and ask more of your body, something else might speak up.
Like the car, none of these issues are truly new.
They always existed, you just won’t notice them as much on a walk around the block as you will hiking Starkey Hill.
And just like the car, there will always be maintenance – regular strength training, some extra mobility or walking on off days, eating and sleeping well, and managing stress with self care.
The more you want your body to do for you, the more you are going to need to do for it. Even if you don’t feel like you should have to do some of these things, your body will tell you what it needs.
You can absolutely keep the car in the barn and only drive it down the laneway. There’s no judgment in that.
But if you want the energy for vacations, to keep up with your kids or grandkids, to try new things without feeling fragile, you’re going to uncover things along the way.
That doesn’t mean you’re regressing.
If your knee used to hurt from sitting too long, and now it only talks to you after a long hike on vacation, that’s progress.
If you used to be out of commission for a week when you threw your back out, and now it’s only a dull ache, that’s progress.
And if you’re in the “why does this ache now?” phase, remember how far you’ve come.
If you’re in that “why does this ache now?” phase, click here to book a call so we can chat about how we can help.
