SBN TERRI: Two steps forward, one slide back

I have been going to physical therapy since the middle of June.  Sometimes I feel like I am getting better, other times I feel I am just resigning myself to living with the pain.  I have been learning so much about how everything is all connected -  particularly the nervous system since it is the sciatic nerve, the largest nerve in the body.  The physical therapist I have been working with has referred to several things about the nervous system. I found this article that has helped me to understand and thought I would share it.

The Nervous System

The body is intelligently designed.  Its built-in mechanisms allow the body to handle and adapt to episodic (acute) stress.  The body’s sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) balance each other out.  The SNS is catabolic and mobilizes the body’s resources to help the body “fight or flight” threatening situations.  The PNS is anabolic and helps the body rest, digest, and recover.  The body is designed to spend the majority of its time in the PNS.  Ideally, it only uses the SNS for true life-threatening emergencies.

However, the body interprets all stress (mental and physical) as a reason to activate the SNS.  While most people are not faced with life-threatening situations on a daily basis, their bodies perceive that this is the case.  Their hectic lives filled with adrenaline rushes from caffeine, too many deadlines, and rush-hour traffic trigger the SNS. 

Worry and mental stress add to the physical stresses and compound the issue because the body cannot differentiate between a real or imagined stress.  Thus, a person who constantly worries and thinks about stressful situations (i.e. being behind on bills, rehashing an argument at home, or layoffs at work) activates the SNS through imagination alone.  Optimal recovery from exercise, and from stress in general, requires techniques to reduce the dominance of the sympathetic nervous system from physical and mental/emotional stressors and activation of the PNS.

So, this has emphasized the importance of state of mind and recovery.  The physical therapy has really been invoking a lot of emotional responses as well as physical.  I have been coming face to face with my fears, issues that stress me and those that make me sad..Very little of this is associated with my martial arts activities.  Matter of fact, it is my martial arts activities and people that bring me joy.... make me laugh.   I didn't want these things and physical pain to be haunting me the year I finally get to test for 4th degree.  But, I guess this is all part of the test.  As KJN has said over and over, it is the test is about as much about your state of mind as it is physical abilities.  

This weekend, I am in Portland visiting my son and friends.  We all went to a ropes course which was very physically challenging but fun.  

In terms of my training and push ups.... I find the push ups are very beneficial for the my upper body and core.