Exercise with medical issues is hard, but worth it.

Through the Get Moving classes we run, I have some experience with exercising with medical conditions (in the classes, we have stroke survivors, people with MS, Parkinson’s and in rehab after injuries or surgery). When I was learning about coaching stroke survivors, I was told a fantastic story about what it is like when people start and continue exercising. And I want to share that story with you here…

Imagine you are on one side of an overgrown forest and you want to make it to the other side.  There is no path and you just have to hack your way through. Cutting back and trampling down brambles as you go.  It is hard work with lots of stops and starts and doubling back. It is a difficult, slow and grinding process. There are times when you don’t think you will make it and you want to give up.  But after a lot of hard work, you eventually get to the other side.

But the next day, you have to do it all over again!  But this time, you realise that your pathway from yesterday is a bit clearer, a bit more open and a tiny bit easier today.

And each day you come back to do it again, that pathway gets a bit more beaten down, it widens up a bit more and becomes just that little bit easier to follow.

So remember, it is hard work, but each and every time we come back and do some more, it gets easier and better. We just need to keep on beating down that pathway, time and again.  And we are all here to help each other do it!

So if you want to give it a go, take a look at what we do at Get Moving classes for people with mobility issues.

And if you want a friendly group of people in the same boat as you, there is the Get Moving facebook group here. Come join us and we can all help each other along!