In January’s cold snap, I tackled the distasteful (to me) task of re-joining the gym. I much prefer to exercise outside, but it was too damn cold. So packed the old gym bag, charged the tiny music player, and got back on the rowing machine. Wow, did that feel good! My muscles loved the movement. Besides, I’d forgotten what an awesome playlist I’d crafted, last time I took this approach.

I started easy, not to overdo it. For comfort, schedule, and motivation, I’m limiting my workouts to 20-25 minutes of low impact cardio and 15-20 minutes of stretching with light weights. Even with time for friendly locker room conversation, I’m can be in and out in under an hour.

Then, a few weeks in, I fell into my own attention trap.

The green free weights felt heavy that morning but I figured I was tired or sore from the renewed routine. Either way, I wasn’t going to stop and check. When I put the weights back down, I saw they were twice as heavy as intended! I’m not talking serious weight, either – 4 lbs rather than 2, but my hyper sensitive shoulder felt the difference.

Did I listen in the moment? No.  Did my shoulder have to shout for me to listen? Yep.

I share this not for sympathy, or self-flagellation but as an honest example of how hard it can be to listen to our bodies. Even for me, with all my training.

So be kind. Listen. And start again.