Chronic Illness Recovery: Move When You Can, But Keep Strengthening Even When You Don’t Feel Like Moving
I’m 25 days into my 99-day pericarditis recovery challenge. Here’s what I’ve learned this week.
Okay, first the disclaimers. I am not a healthcare provider of any sort, nutritionist, physical therapist, or physical trainer. I am simply a chronic pericarditis patient on the cusp of what I hope is my second remission.
If you started here, you should definitely read the introduction first. It explains in detail where I was in my recovery when I began my 99-day journey. You can read that here.
If the last few years of fighting pericarditis, loss of vision in one eye, skin cancer, and now osteoporosis, have taught me anything, it is that there are times in life when slowing down is the only way to survive.
Ever wonder who those people are that watch pre-season NFL football on television? Me! I’m a Dallas Cowboy fan to the core, but I enjoy the strategy and athleticism of any NFL game, even those lame pre-season tryouts. There have been years of my life when I was far too busy for football, but this year all my energy is focused on healing and that means slowing down to watch a few football games.
This past weekend, as I sat watching the Chiefs play the Cardinals, I noticed something worth passing along to all my chronic illness buddies. I learned another lesson during the game between Dallas and Houston on Saturday, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
Just squeeze the little ball
Almost anyone, football fan or not, can tell you something about the Chief’s quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. But far fewer people have heard of the young Texas-born, Heisman Trophy-winning QB for the Cardinals: Kyler Murray. That will change someday. The thing that caught my eye Friday night was the squeeze ball in his hands on the sidelines, long after his brief playing time ended in the team’s second preseason game.
That, my friends is a professional football player teaching us that every second counts when it comes to building and maintaining strength. It’s funny, because I keep a bright red foam squeeze ball on my desk as a reminder of my broken shoulder from eight years ago and another one next to my end of the sofa.
Both have been collecting dust lately, but that wasn’t always the case. Those squeeze balls have been instrumental in my recovery from physical adversity. For me, they represent the first step toward improvement.
Squeezing those foam balls was the one thing I could do when everything else seemed too hard.
But after watching Murray last night absently squeezing a ball while watching his teammates finish the game, I understood that they should have a bigger purpose. They should be part of every step of my recovery.
They are always there, why not use them? Obviously, my hand strength is not as important as that of an NFL QB, but as a writer, my hands help me make a living. I depend on keeping them strong. And if you think you don’t need your fingers, hands, forearms, and shoulders to remain strong, contemplate life without any of them for a moment.
Perhaps the best reason for squeezing a ball is for stress relief. The act of crushing a firm piece of foam in your hand can be an integral part of letting go of whatever stresses you have carried around during the day. And while I have been angry more than once at doctors who have tried to lay the entire blame for my chronic illness on stress, I do know that stress makes it worse.
For the remainder of my 99-day recovery, and probably beyond, you’ll find me emulating Mr. Murray — with my squeeze ball in my hand.
How strong do I need to be?
The answer is simple: as strong as is humanly possible. All. The. Damn. Time.
The other thing I learned this weekend was gleaned from a conversation between announcers Babe Laufenberg and Daryl “Moose” Johnston. They were discussing one of the returning Cowboy players who they said had “reshaped” his body during the offseason. They both agreed that even though top-level college players spend time in the weight room during their college playing years, until they reach the NFL they often grossly underestimate how strong they need to be to play professionally.
What that did for me was add a bit more importance in my strength training. My previous thinking was that strengthening was merely the lead-up to greater activity levels.
But the reality is that, especially now with the osteoporosis diagnosis, I need to concentrate more time on the strength of my entire body, not just the muscle groups I need for managing greater activity levels. I need to re-shape both my thinking and my body. It is literally the only way for me to move forward.
I had a rather tough week physically. I spent time outside in the heat on Tuesday against my better judgement. That left me feeling weaker most of the week. What I realized from that one conversation on TV was that even when I don’t have the energy to be up moving about, I could be continuing my seated strength training work.
So out came the resistance bands that very minute. I did ten minutes of leg stretches and ten minutes of arm pulls on each side during the third quarter.
And during the fourth quarter, I watched my Cowboys lose to the Texans — squeeze ball in hand.
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