I’ve been going to the studio a lot more this month. With increased visits to the studio, it means more wear and tear on your body, meaning being sore a lot more often. It’s important to listen to your body when you’re sore but if I’m being honest I’m not always the greatest listener. I’ve always had the mentality that I can just power through it and by doing that, my body will recover quicker. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I am still learning how to properly take care of my body and listening to it when it’s yelling no at me. As I learn to listen to my body so it can recover faster than just powering through things, I’m also learning that I don’t need to do everything in classes either. ‘
I was in class earlier this week and we were trying some fun bendy and splitty moves as our assisted move with the instructor and it required some shoulder and back flexibility as well. Well turns out I was pretty sore from the day before doing a hammock and bendy class, and it was a mixture of trying some pretty strong moves in hammock and then intensely stretching out in bendy that made me so sore. So, when I went to pole the next day and wanted to try everything that was being taught, I had an inkling of a thought that I might not be able to do it all. Or the fact that I had a pretty big knot in the back of my neck/shoulder that was bugging me. Couldn’t be that! But low and behold when I was in the start of the move doing my outside leg hang to prone and had to do a reach around to grab the pole again and whatnot, my back shoulder was screaming NO.
I tried the move a couple times on both sides and while my other shoulder wasn’t as sore, my back definitely wasn’t flexible enough for what we were trying to accomplish. I had to NOPE out of all my attempts and it bummed me out. But ultimately I am more glad that I didn’t try to force my body to try something I knew would hurt it more than I already had. I wrote down the sequence of the move to try again at another practice and when I know I’m in a better condition to try it.
So if I can offer a small piece of advice, if you are not feeling well, are sore, don’t feel comfortable or safe in a move, it is okay to say no to trying said move or sequence. If you’re not ready for it yet, that’s okay, if you’re just not feeling it today, that’s okay too. You showed up to practice and that’s the biggest step, but if you want to take it easy and work on the things you know that are safe for you, that’s okay too. There will be plenty of other days to try the fun moves you can’t today.