Exercise and Goal Setting, oh my!

Jet Rupar, LMT, CMLDT, EP-C, EIM-II

I know we’ve been talking a bit about exercise and goal setting, and how they help when it comes to doing the exercise thing.

While I was in college (ahem) many years ago, I had the ability to go to the school gym building. Which was amazing and I loved utilizing. It was huge and had not only weights and cardio equipment, but an amazing pool area. My biggest goal while doing this was “I want to lose weight” and possibly “I want to be able to fit into smaller clothes”. Which I thought were great goals! Let’s do this!! But I will admit, I didn’t go to the gym nearly as often as i would have liked. There always seemed to be something that came up that was more important. (Especially during the cold winter months when I would use public transit to get to and from everywhere). Because lets face it, there’s always something happening with school. Needless to say, that goal of “losing weight” and “smaller clothes” just didn’t happen.

So, after I got my surgery in April of 2023, I set myself new goals. And none of them were the lose weight variety of goal. All I wanted was to start moving and to help with my recovery. I started small. Lets get 10 min of cardio in. And yes, it was mostly while sitting. There was nothing in the way of weightlifting or swimming (which I love doing). Carrying anything over 5 pounds was not allowed, and it’s generally frowned upon to have open wounds in a pool setting. Which kind of made me sad, but not too overwhelmingly sad because I also couldn’t move too much.

As the days went by, I added a bit more. Most days, I added a bit more time at a lower intensity. And after a time, my body started to recover. I added more time. I stood up instead of sitting down. And then I eventually increased my intensity (one or two days a week, as my body would allow). All of this made me look at my goals and re-evaluate what I wanted and what I needed. What was it that I wanted to achieve with my body?? How did I want to achieve it. I had to make some decisions. I took the time and talked to one or two people that I trusted, and decided what I needed to do from where I was. Increasing my cardio was definitely a good thing, as I want to do more hiking and outdoor activities. I also wanted to be able to have my hip hurt less. (Yes, my hip hurts 90% of the time). So I found ways to decrease the pain in my hip, while building strength, increasing flexibility, and keeping my cardio up.

At this point, I have gone from working out 10 minutes a day most days, to working out 60 to 90 minutes most days. Are there days I do less?? Yes, in fact there are days I may do nothing. I refuse to feel guilty on those days, because I know that my body needs rest days. But I also know that the exercise I do will allow my body to work better for me when I do decide to go hiking, or work, or do anything in my life because I have trained it do work better.

Through it all, I want to use what I have not only learned through my schooling, but through my own trial and error to assist those around me in their own daily lives. Because so many people now have something that holds them back from living their best lives. And we all deserve to be doing what we want to be doing, without pain, and without hesitation.