Listening to my body

I feel like my body has been screaming at me for the last couple weeks. I’ve had a lot of muscle and joint aches and pains. I always feel a bit sore, but it’s been exceptionally noticeable the last couple of weeks.

I felt muscle tightness in my shoulders a couple weeks ago. Last week, my lower back felt tense and cause issued. My legs and knees feel like they’re laboring much more than normal.

The combination of feeling just generally sore and tight all the around has also accompanied declining performance in my workouts. My usual 5 mile run on Mondays has been a lot harder. It’s been harder to get through my interval running class on Wednesdays.

Besides an injury, I’m not sure there’s much else my body can do to tell me to chill the hell out. I know it’s time for me to take a week off to rest the body and I plan on doing just that.

Despite knowing this, it’s not something that is really easy for me right now. I’ve programmed myself to have a lot of guilt for missing workouts. Going on a run or going to the gym is something I look forward to break up my workday and take a break. It’s been a great mental hack for me.

I’ve been telling myself that next week at this point, I’m going to be happy that I took the week off.