Walking Wellness: Knowing When Your Body Needs a Break

I’ve always been a naturally competitive person—but not in the typical way. I don’t really feel the need to compete with other people, but I’m constantly competing with myself. I have this constant need to push myself harder—to walk faster or farther or longer. When I started walking regularly, I thought it would be really cool to do a 5k—and once I accomplished that, the goal became a 10k…and then a half marathon. And now that I’ve finished a couple of those, I’m trying really hard to refrain from signing up for a full marathon. But, knowing myself, I’d say you’ll probably see marathon pictures in another year or two.
I’m a big fan of pushing myself and working toward that next goal. But I really hate having to slow down. I can go for a leisurely walk with a friend—but if I’m on my own, I struggle to keep myself from cranking up the intensity.
For people like me, there’s no worse torture than illness or injury—anything that prevents us from giving it our all.
But, back in November, I came down with some kind of mystery illness. I felt worn out, and I couldn’t stop coughing. Still, I got up in the morning and put on my walking gear. I told myself I’d take it easy, but I didn’t really take it easy. But it was…fine. If you’re a mom, you can probably relate. Life is crazy—and it doesn’t stop when you get sick—so you just work through it, right?
Well, not necessarily. There are just times when you shouldn’t be working out. Obviously, if you’re injured, you should rest until you’re healed. But your body needs to rest when you’re sick, too. Of course, if you have any questions or concerns, you should always check with your doctor to guide you in the right direction, but there are just times when you need to listen to what your body is telling you.
According to The Healthy (“12 Times You Should Absolutely Skip Your Workout”), working out while you’re sick won’t make you better; it can, in fact, just make you worse. Sure, there are some times when a little bit of slow movement will actually help. But if you’ve got a fever—or if you’re suffering from the flu or any respiratory illness—working out will just make it harder for your body to recover.
When I didn’t listen, then, things just got worse—just in time to make the eight-hour drive to visit my in-laws for Thanksgiving. I wore a mask while traveling and slept the whole way there. I was miserable. Still, when we got to our rental that night—and my husband and daughter left to visit family—I just couldn’t sit anymore. I decided to do just a little bit of a workout, climbing up and down the many, many stairs in our Airbnb. I made it through maybe three tours of the home’s staircases before I realized that my evening workout may have been a terrible idea. I stopped climbing stairs and did laps around the living room instead—until even that was uncomfortable. My body was crying out for mercy, and I hadn’t been listening.
For many of us, it’s natural to stick to our routines, no matter what. Life is busy and noisy, and sometimes we hardly have a minute to stop and think about what’s going on around us (or inside us). But it’s important to take a minute to listen to what our body is telling us. If you’ve been walking for a while, you should know how your body feels when you’re healthy—and when you’re not. So before you work out, take a breath or two and gauge your general condition. How are you feeling? Is your body hurting? It is hard to breathe? When you’re active for a little while, does it wear you out more than usual? These are the times when you should consider taking a rest day to allow your body to recover. And if you’re in the middle of a walk and you start to notice that things aren’t going well, do what needs to be done: get off that treadmill, slow things down, cut your workout short.
After that night, I realized that I needed to listen to my body. During our days in the Airbnb, I spent a lot of time on the couch with a water bottle and a box of tissues by my side. When I felt like I needed to move, I’d get up and do a few laps around the living room. But there were no more stair-climbing workouts—and, despite the fact that I’d packed my walking gear, there were no outdoor walks. When I got home, I forced myself to take a whole bunch of rest days. It was excruciating, but I knew that I needed to let my body heal—and then recover.
More than three weeks (and five days of steroids prescribed for bronchitis) later, my cough started clearing up, but my body still begged me to take it easy. I stayed inside, avoiding the cold air outside, and stuck with treadmill walks. Though it almost killed me to keep the speed down, my body was very good at reminding me. When I walked too long—or too fast—things started to hurt, and I knew it was time to stop. And, although I really didn’t want to, I listened.
It took several weeks for me to start feeling like my old self—and weeks more to get back to normal. But through that time, I learned to listen. I learned to slow down. To take it easy. To rest. I hated it, but I know that I would have done more harm than good if I’d kept to my normal routines.
Once I felt better, it took time to get my pace and my distance back up, but I did. And you will, too. I promise.
