Let’s talk about the reality of having chronic pain, and how sometimes, it’s a little bit funny the things we get up to. If you are new to my story, you may not know this, I love to exercise. It is a stress reliever and I love the feeling of accomplishment I get from it. Like many of you who have chronic pain, but also try to maintain your fitness, you understand that we have to alter how we achieve the results were after.

The Problem

Well, not long ago I had gotten a little too big for my britches and ignored the needs of my legs and I was pretty sore.This happens from time to time. I began my normal workout and realized about 3minutes in that I was not going to be able to complete what I had planned. 5years ago I would have let this become a barrier to my physical activity and my fitness goals. That was not the case this time.

Initially I got a little frustrated because I was just trying to do the right thing by my body and be active and my body was trying to stop me. Once I got over that I asked myself HOW I was going to exercise today with my legs hurting the way they did. What I came up with in itself is not the funny part of this story, the funny part is how I managed to make it a full workout. I decided that the cardio portion of my routine that day would be biking. My husband has a mountain bike that I use on occasion, but man does the seat hurt the gluts!

The Solution

I started trying to problem solve again, how was I going to make the seat comfortable enough to manage a full workout? A genius, albeit outside of the box and silly looking, idea came to me. My husband doesn’t bike much anymore and I remembered that he had padded bike shorts! So I set to cutting out the padding on his shorts and strapping it to the seat with rubber bands! I had a good laugh at the plan I had come up with but got straight into my workout.

And guess what? It worked! Sometimes we have to think outside of the box when we have chronic conditions. Sometimes we have to alter the plan. And that is ok! Instead of asking IF you can do something, start asking yourself HOW you can do something. It is all in the perspective. I hope this story can inspire you to tackle something that has been holding you back.

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