Exercising –
Not 101
I did not want to name this starting point Exercising 101. One, because I think that exercising is already way more accepted and integrated to the western culture than the other starting points on this blog. Two, what I actually have been doing as physical exercise, has been out there for several years, if not decades already. I think the added value I can bring as far as exercising goes, lies in the approach of finding the most appropriate way of exercising for oneself. In addition, observing the exercise sessions as sort of a metrics to evaluate how other starting points are affecting the body.
My Personal History with Practicing Sports
To have a sustained exercising routine for the long run has always been a challenge for me.
As a young person I had the opportunity to practice many sports, without being very good at any of them. I always managed to run and walk on a regular basis. I was able to play soccer for about 15 years. Sometimes I’d be playing in amateur leagues, but for the most part I played mid-level pick up games. After leaving San Diego in 2011, I’ve never played soccer again. The problem wasn’t really about playing, but it would take me at least a couple of days to recuperate from a game. This would affect my productivity in other areas. With the knowledge I have today, I have a pretty good idea of what was happening in my body, that kept me from practicing soccer and other sports on a constant regular basis. I think if I had a life-style close to the one I have today, I would have had no problem incorporating an amateur competitive soccer routine into my everyday life.
The Impression of Hitting a Wall
If I had to describe my relationship with sports I would says that I was always motivated to exercise and attempt to improve. All my sportive endeavors have been on and off, because after a while, practicing a sport for a certain amount of time on regular basis, I would hit a wall, and feel some sort of fatigue that kept me from making further progress. I would stay away from that activity for a while, then eventually come back to it, as the break had allowed me to recharge my batteries. The problem with this particular situation was that I would lose my competitive edge, and experience a demotivating feeling of having to start all over again. Continuity in one sport, besides running and walking has been a challenge for me throughout my entire life.
Catabolic and Acidifying Effects of Exercising
With all the benefits that exercising bring us, I learned that exercising has also catabolic effects on the metabolism. This means that when we are exercising our cells are producing waste that needs to be eliminated as well as the other cell waste. This can have an extra acidifying effect on the system. For my personal history, I think in the past, my lymphatic system wasn’t as alkaline as it should have been. I also question my past ability to eliminate waste, especially through kidney filtration. My guess today is that the problem of fatigue that I used to encounter from sporting activities was due to the fact that it was augmenting the acidic content within my lymphatic system that wasn’t very clean to start with. In short, by practicing sports I was adding some extra saturation to a system which was already saturated, and was encountering difficulties to eliminate its waste.
Finding a way to exercise adapted to my reality
As soon as I started adding changes with the other starting points such as incorporating more raw food into my diet, dry-fasting and juicing, my ability to exercise more regularly increased, and the sensation of fatigue diminished on the day after of a physical effort. Progressively, I started to favor milder ways of exercising such as yoga, and long walks, instead of working out intensely at a gym. A part of it was due to my lack of access to a gym for over a eight months period. I think taking a break from working out, and instead favor milder approaches to exercising supported my overall attempt to cleanse my lymphatic system, and favor elimination of waste material.
I’ve been doing daily yoga since November 2016. I don’t remember missing a single day yet. I do it first thing in the morning. I do a session of 15 minutes, or if my schedule allows it 30 or 45 minutes. There are days I do two sessions. I used to have the less flexible body you can imagine. Now I am amazed how much my physical flexibility improved. Lately I’ve been able to stand on one foot and hold my non-standing foot by its sole, extend my non standing leg, and stay like that for over a minute. Never in this life I would of imagined that I’ll be one day able to make a ballerina pose like this one.
I only attended one yoga class in my life so far. The class I took was with a teacher named Fabio Filippi who I’ve met at “Bains des Pâquis” while I was swimming in cold water during the winter. He offered me a free class. It was an amazing experience! Next time Fabio and I happened to be both in the same city, I’ll definitely be taking more classes with him or attend some of his workshops. Other than my yoga session with Fabio, I learned all I know from the web. I also try to be creative and come up with my own moves. yoga jump starts my day every morning. The difference in my mood between the moment I wake up, to when I’m done with my yoga session is very impressive to me. After the yoga session is over, I am 100% ready for work. I consider the time I put towards my daily Yoga session, as one of my best time investments for the past year. It replaced my morning coffee ritual. (Want to know how Coffee Quit Me?).
In addition to becoming more flexible physically , I’ve also noticed that I don’t get small injuries due to sports, or just due to daily physical activity anymore. As if my muscles are of better quality and more flexible now. It’s a great feeling to witness that all the efforts I’ve been putting in so far as my attempt for a healthier life, are slowly but surely starting to pay off.
I have to admit that with all the dry-fasting I’ve been doing since I’ve started this wonderful journey, I’ve lost about 20kg / 44lbs. I look pretty skinny at the moment, and I am conscious that I have lost quite some of my muscle mass. My goal is to keep my morning yoga sessions the way they are, and on top of them start working out again. If not at a gym, I’m planning on working out with my own means at home or at the park.
In Short
I would say that the way I exercise today allows me to get the obvious benefits from it, and at the same time it allows me to monitor my progress on this journey. The key for me was to find the most appropriate way of exercising with my current situation. I was able to find it, and stick to a routine for a year. Now I feel like I have a solid base upon which I can build to become stronger, and more enduring physically. What made the “Exercising” starting point a bit more challenging than the other ones, is that sportive physical activity was already incorporated into my life for decades. Whereas with the other starting points, since I was introducing them for the first time into my life, it was easier to find the very starting point of the actual the starting point. With exercising it feels like I had to take a step back, to find the most adapted way of exercising to my current reality. It’s almost as if, I had to go through an unlearning process in order to find my own ground zero, and start to build something new and more sustainable from there.
AM NOT A HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. I would like to make it very clear that I am only sharing my own experience on this website, and have no intention to give any specific advice on health. Please read the disclaimer section for more information.
