Exercise...healing, calming, and empowering... By, Aaron Stites, MS

There is beauty all around, enjoy it!

A good family friend is an avid runner. She runs on most days and uses her running time to plan her day and take in the beauty around her. A couple of years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age and some of her greatest concerns were how it would impact her family and how she would handle the treatments and the unknowns of cancer. She began her treatments and learned to schedule her high and low energy days with all her activities. Once again running and sometimes just being able to walk was enough to lift her spirit and help her still see the beauty around her even through her challenges, pain, and fear. Exercise, movement, and activity can have a healing, calming, and empowering effect.

There are 3 keys to exercise that are powerful tools to positively affect health – physical, mental, and spiritual.
1.    Look for opportunities to move, even just a little bit, be consistent. Move a little every day.
2.    Listen to your body. It is good to work hard but don’t push hard enough to have a negative effect.
3.    Make it fun. Do what you love and then do what you can.

Exercise and movement causes many positive effects to our bodies. Aerobic and resistance exercise increases heart, lung, blood health, joint and muscle strength. It increases circulation, burns calories, and helps strengthen muscles and bones and improves mood. When we exercise and listen to our bodies we generally make better nutritional choices and stay more hydrated. Bottom line…exercise helps improve health and outlook on life.

The key to making exercise effective and a positive impact is to listen to our body. This requires an honest assessment on how everything is feeling and making the appropriate exercise plan. Just as exercise can be a positive force, recovery is just as important to keeping the body at top performance level. When beginning a new training program or during treatment no more than a 10% increase in training each week, don’t overdo it. More is not always better. Do as much as you can and reap the benefits of exercise.

Sometimes training programs are set up based on what we used to do or on a recommendation from someone else. This can be good or bad. When making the decision to begin or increase/change training it is important to think about what you need and like and customize a program. It needs to be fun! Something you are looking forward to doing. This is one of the best ways to stay consistent with exercise. Move and enjoy the fact that you can.

There is beauty all around us and the greatest individuals still look at life with awe and wonder regardless of the circumstances they are in. There is so much to experience and enjoy in the world, sometimes it means taking a few small steps to see it.

Aaron Stites, MS
Wellness & Performance Director
Therapeutic Associates - Kennewick