1000 Steps

Have you hurt any part of your body by too much exercise like all day skiing, hiking, biking or snowboarding? Have you had any injuries like a twisted ankle from salsa dancing or landed on your shoulder while skiing? These overworked or strained muscles are damaged by accident resulting in heat and inflammation. Acupuncture can help to heal these types of common accidents.  

It is beautiful outside this summer and I would like to know what kinds of exercise you do when you come in for a visit. 

My exercise experiences have been intense over the years. My mother was a swimming coach and I remember being in the swimming pool when I was just two or three years old. I joined a swimming team not long after first learning to swim and trained for competition until the age of 18. I was also a ski instructor for about ten years during my 20s and remember day after day of being on my feet and pushing my abilities. 

I was already starting to have knee and wrist pain in my early 20s. Now, I have back pain too, and anytime these joints flare up, I give myself acupuncture treatment. Even swimming is known as very low impact to joints but I still over trained by using my knee and wrist repeatedly under the water.  

Once I became a college student, far from my hometown, I stopped swimming and quickly became depressed and fatigued all the time. That’s when I realized exercise had a great impact for not only overall health but emotional stress.  Recent research in Japan recommends 1,000 steps more of walking per day to prevent depression. On average, you can do 1,000 steps in only 10 minutes of walking.  

For me, including exercise as part of my lifestyle is FOREVER the key. Push yourself to do it regularly, no matter what excuses come into your head. It is YOUR time. I try to make it simple and try not to push too hard. The key is to keep it up regularly. Always remember the benefits you are getting from it. Alternate between aerobic and resistance interval training for the same muscle group. For this, I swim a couple times per week and I always try not to push myself too hard.  

You can get creative too. In the morning and night, I do squats while brushing my teeth to give my biggest muscles a separate workout. This is about three minutes of resistance training twice per day. It helps strengthen the lower body muscle groups and the core. Part of my goal is to really pump blood into my heart. And I feel it helps generate energy all day.  An exercise routine that is just a few minutes of short duration can have high impact, also improving metabolism rate. These positive effects can last a few hours to all day. The afterburn effect.

Other meditative exercises should also be considered. I practice Yoga and Taichi and look for other new and interesting exercises to try out. Find ways to keep yourself from getting bored. Be creative and find ways to make it fun! Look for online videos with instructors who have a personality that you like. Do your exercises with a friend or relative. Be sure to stick with low impact exercises to prevent harm to joints and find a way to make your exercises nice and easy.