WHEN YOU TRAIN, TRAIN PROPERLY

Hello everyone I'm baaaack (",) Some of you may have noticed I haven't posted in a while and some of you probably haven't lol! This is because last Tuesday as I was making breakfast a plate fell on my big toe and made it into an even bigger toe. My extremely big red and black toe has been giving me so much excruciating pain that I haven't been able to sleep at night for the last week and involves me having packets of frozen peas on my foot for at least 20 hours a day. I was supposed to be launching my Christmas card range this week but I've only finished one and there are meant to be five, I hope to have them ready before Christmas but I can't promise. Sorry to those of you that have put in orders, you will be receiving gift certificates in the next week and will still get first priority when they are finished (",)Well the pain is a little better so I thought I'd post you something that is associated with another injury I had incurred over this spring/summer.
I like going to the gym and love the cross trainer. I can move on it easily for 45 minutes on quite a high level sweating loads and loving every minute of it. Buuuuttt, when it comes to running on the treadmill I can't even do 3 minutes without getting a stitch, getting out of breath or feeling like I am going to fall off. I think it's probably a psychological thing but everytime I try, the treadmill somehow pushes me off lol. Well, since having gg, I've stopped going to the gym and started training at home doing various exercise dvds from boot camp style, to yoga, to belly dancing (which gg absolutely loves doing with me). I came across a dvd called Brazilian Butt Lift workout which involves loads and loads of squats and lunges in every which way for 30 days straight. Well I impressed myself by sticking to it for the whole 30 days and noticed my booty gain in size and shape which was great but I also noticed a niggling pulling pain at the top of my right thigh and groin area. I thought I may have over stretched my muscles because I started to skip the warm up and cool down (naughty me) so I stopped this regime after the 30 days and after a few days the pain was gone.
After a few weeks I was reading my monthly Zest mag and I got inspired to start running. Now me and running don't work at the gym and I've tried running outside with my fiance a few times but never got past 5 minutes. But this time I was going to do it; not only run but accomplish a 5k in 6 weeks. I had the daily schedule from my Zest mag and even went out and bought myself a new pair of trainers because I was so dedicated and so determined nothing was going to stop me. So I set out my first day gg in her pram new trainers on warm ups first then of I went running for 1 minute walking briskly for 1 minute for 10 minutes. I was so tired my calfs were burning but I pushed through it and I pushed all the way through the rainy days up until week 4 when I was running for 8 minutes walking for 1 and running for another 8 minutes without any tiredness. Nothing was going to stop me. Or so I thought!
Would you have guessed a wedding would have stopped me in my tracks? Well when we went to the wedding I wore my 6 inch heels like I always do and have for many years (even when 9 months pregnant) without any problems.

But this time my feet couldn't bear the pain my heels were giving me. My feet were swollen, my toes and heels were burning and the groin pain I felt a few weeks before was back with a kick. I couldn't take the pain I had to take my shoes off like so many others did and danced around like a Greek gypsy lol. My shoes though still got danced in, by gg of course who had everyone around her in shock as she danced to single ladies in 6 inch heels with no problem.

I kept having pain in my upper thigh and a feeling that felt like paper was stuck in my leg joint for a few weeks up until I started Sadie Nardini's 21 day yoga body. When I was on either day 17 or 18 she introduced the pigeon pose. Boy, was I glad. This pose stretches the thighs, groin, back, and psoas and opens the chest and shoulders. After I did this pose I didn't feel my usual pain for a few hours which was a first in a few weeks and after the third day doing this pose, the pain went completely and has not returned again. Whenever I do my yoga I always feel stretched, lighter and in a happy mood and have so much fun doing it with gg. I try and get gg's daddy to join us but he only does if his shoulder is hurting and that is normally a one off.

Regardless of what exercise regime you follow be careful with your movements and make sure you warm up properly and cool down too because like me you could end up with an injury. If you have the time, you can add from as little as 10 minutes a day to stretch your muscles. This will not only protect you from injury but also leave you with long lean muscles and a better posture. The straighter you stand the more open your chest is and therefore your lungs have more space to fill up with oxygen delivering the maximum amount of O2 to your organs enabling them to function to their peak performance.

I can't keep up any exercise regime at the mo because of my toe, but once I can bear the pain when pressure is applied I'll be back on it. I'm looking for a new exercise regime to start so if any of you have got any ideas I'd love to hear about them. Also have you encountered an injury from not training properly, or from something silly like a plate (",)