It’s hard to start/resume a good habit. I’ve been struggling to resume my home physical therapy (PT). And then I remembered my 10 minute micro walk hack. And I realized I didn’t have to do an entire hour-plus of physical therapy. My exercise ball therapy consists of 5 exercises that are 2 minutes each – a perfect 10 minute micro PT session.
I don’t have to start with the whole routine; I can start with 10 minutes on my exercise ball. That’s not daunting. All I have to do is 10 minutes of exercises – while sitting on my exercise ball. I can even do it in front of the TV. All I need are the exercise ball and a timer. I don’t have to wear exercise gear – I don’t even have to wear shoes. Nothing special, fancy, difficult, or time-consuming.
Hopefully it’ll be a building block, and I can eventually add back other exercises and work my way up to a longer PT session. But even if all I do is resume a regular practice of 10 minutes on the exercise ball, it’s still strengthening my core muscles, which are essential for a healthy back and probably help keep my shoulders in their sockets as well.
And it’s so much easier to commit to a daily 10-minute routine. So that’s where I’m starting. I know PT is essential for maintaining/improving my health. But I also know that pacing is important for maintaining my health. And I know that it’ll be much healthier, psychologically, to try to take it one baby step at a time and amass a series of small victories than to attempt to resume an hour-plus-long physical therapy session all at once and fail.
So here I go (partly inspired by @bennnesb and her PT streak). I’ve done my 10 minute micro PT tonight, and I hope to do it again tomorrow. Baby steps. Micro hacks toward better core strength and muscle strength, which is so crucial when one has connective tissue issues.