The following post, “Tackling a Fitness Challenge Living with Cerebral Palsy,” contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a commission on qualifying purchases.
Temptation lingers to pursue a fitness challenge. At the same time intimidation leaves you frozen in hesitation. “Could I really do this?” “Am I capable of such a feat?” Your inner critic questions. Such a reaction proves natural. The cause exists in the term “fitness challenge.” Challenge!
Challenging yourself means expanding beyond your current comfort zone. An intimidating task. Add to the mix living with cerebral palsy (CP), a neurological disability which creates numerous physical obstacles, and the uncertainty heightens. You can either let the uncertainty tower over you or you could rise to the challenge. Deciding, “I am going to tackle this challenge!”
Trust me. I speak from experience. Learning ways to accommodate my spastic hemiplegia CP in effort to conquer fitness challenges like walking 10,000 steps a day throughout September for the initiative STEPtember and walking 26.2 miles consecutively to become a marathoner.
Wait! Before letting those lofty fitness challenge examples scare you away, at least read through the first section below. Give me the chance to reassure you that you too possess the power to tackle a fitness challenge.
Setting Sights on the Competition
If my STEPtember or marathon examples caused you to think, “I can’t do that,” good news. You do not need to. Thinking you do stems from our mind’s natural tendency to compare. However, comparison will only leave you doing a disservice to yourself. Cerebral palsy affects everyone differently.
An appropriate fitness challenge for you depends on your current abilities. Full disclosure, I am not a doctor or medical professional. Instead, I speak based off my own experiences. Consult with someone on your medical team to determine a fitting fitness challenge for you.
Going back to my experiences, I learned to focus on myself after completing my first 5K (3.1 miles). As the other runners passed me, I started feeling disheartened. Disappointment and frustration filled me when I crossed the finish line, dead last. In time though I realized comparing my finish time to anyone else’s finish time did me no favors. My cerebral palsy leaves me with balance and gait issues others do not face. Therefore, any comparisons prove flawed.
By focusing on yourself, you can determine a fitness challenge appropriate for you. Continue to work on said challenge and you will eventually progress. The way I went from descending the last three steps on my home staircase without handrails to gradually descending all 13 steps without handrails. The power to conquer a fitness challenge starts with recognizing your current abilities and building from there. If you remain ready to accept such power, keep reading.
Harnessing the Power
Too often you and I short our own power by concentrating on the what involved. The first time I thought about doing a marathon, I swiftly dismissed the idea. With the way I walk? My balance? I deemed such a feat “unreasonable” for me.
The way I walk leaves me with sizable calluses on my feet. My less than stellar balance makes me prone to falling. These whats became manageable though when I refocused to how. How do I neutralize the calluses on my feet? How do I counterbalance my balance?
Adopting a consistent foot care routine, which included shaving down my calluses with a pumice stone, enabled me to reduce my calluses’ sizes. After finding myself frequently falling during 10-plus mile training sessions, I decided to use my cane to help maintain my balance. Those provide just two examples with my marathon journey where I benefited by asking how rather than concentrating on what.
Once you determine the fitness challenge you wish to pursue, work to define how you can meet the challenge. If you commit to doing a certain activity daily, pick a particular time in the day to complete the activity. A regular time will help foster success. Plus, if you need to rely on another person for aid, that person knows when to work you into their schedule. Overall, the routine creates a natural rhythm segueing to my next tip.
A Marathon, Literal or Metaphorical
Achieving a fitness challenge takes time. Every step in a marathon, whether a literal or metaphorical one, matters. Learning to pace yourself positions you to conquer whatever challenge you decide to pursue.
My STEPtember experiences exemplify this well. Moving the equivalent to 10,000 steps a day, or in my case for 2024 with my super stepper goal of 12,000 steps a day, proves daunting. The need to stay active day after day, week after week, for an entire month fueling the difficulty.
Enter the need for strategic pacing. Thanks to the Labor Day holiday, I started off September with two days off from work. I used those days to go above and beyond my daily step goal. Putting me half a day ahead of schedule when the work week began. By continuously utilizing my days off from work like this, I gave myself a buffer zone to counteract the workdays where I only managed 9,000-some steps. Ultimately, leaving me averaging 12,430 steps a day.
Exactly what pacing yourself looks like depends on the fitness challenge you choose to pursue. If pursuing a formal challenge, research to prepare. Get to know the ins and outs. For instance, by exploring the STEPtember app prior to my first time participating, I discovered other activities count towards steps. The app converts time spent cleaning the house, in physical therapy, dancing, and much more into steps for your step total. So, conduct a little research and pinpoint the different pathways to success.
Ready to Head to the Start Line
At a race someone will get on a microphone and call everyone to the start line. Consider this blog post that announcement for you. Head over to line up at your fitness challenge’s starting line. Determining what fitness challenge to pursue begins with focusing on your competition, yourself.
Assess your abilities. Figure out the how rather than dwelling on the what. Then go forth, pacing yourself strategically.
Admittedly, I know today’s post remained brief. In case you would like more in-depth experiences to learn from, checkout my marathon memoir Slow and Cerebral. Within I dive into great details about not letting my cerebral palsy stop me from becoming a marathoner.
Whether you decide to read Slow and Cerebral, or move ahead with the abbreviated wisdom contained above, do tell me.
What fitness challenge will you pursue?
Comment below to let me know. If you wish for more specific guidance, please contact me through my “Contact” page and I will get back to you with my thoughts. Just let me emphasize I am not a doctor or medical professional. I am simply one guy sharing his experiences living with CP.
Until next time, remember. Do not blend in. Blend out!
-Zachary
