When you are disabled, exercising is more difficult because you have limitations that most people do not have, but if you are able, it is so important to make exercise part of your routine. Most people who start exercising do it to lose weight, and there is nothing wrong with having your goal be weight loss, but not everyone needs to be on a weight loss journey, and some people don’t need to lose weight. I have been exercising consistently for over a decade, and although that was my goal when I started exercising, it’s not now because I have achieved my weight loss goal and maintained it. Weight loss is a great goal, but you should still exercise even if you don’t need to lose weight, because there are a lot of reasons to exercise that have nothing to do with weight loss. Why do I exercise? In this post, I am going to talk about a few reasons why I exercise as a disabled person that have nothing to do with weight loss.
It makes my life easier- When you are disabled, the smallest task that comes easily to non-disabled people can be difficult for disabled people. You can’t exercise your disability away, and it doesn’t matter how much I exercise, I will always need more help than non-disabled people. Exercise does not change my disability and does not miraculously fix muscles that I don’t have, but it does make my life as a disabled person a little easier. Life is hard when you have limited mobility and always will be hard, but improving the strength in the muscles you do have can increase your endurance and make every day tasks a little easier. As a disabled person, I think it’s so important for me to exercise even though it’s harder, because if you don’t use the muscles you do have you’ll lose strength in those muscles and may not be able to get back, which will make your life harder than it has to be. I strength train because the more muscle you have the less likely you will be to fall and break a bone.
It lowers your risk for heart issues- I started walking and doing more cardio because it’s great for your heart, and people who exercise regularly have a slightly lower risk for cardiovascular problems than someone who does not exercise. Heart problems run in my family and although it’s mostly on the male side of my family, that does not mean the women are immune. Some heart problems cannot be prevented because you can’t change genetics and you can still develop heart issues while exercising regularly, but I am going to do my part and exercise regularly to lower my risk. My disability makes me want to exercise more because I have enough health problems and don’t want to add more preventable health problems that are caused by not being active enough. Exercise can help lower your risk for certain diseases, and if there’s nothing worse than getting an illness that you can’t cure that could have been prevented.
It helps regulate bowel movements- When you have Spina Bifida, having a bowel movement can be difficult because often your bowels do not work properly and there is nothing you can do to change that. There are ways to manage constipation with Spina Bifida, but you can still be doing everything right and still get constipated because laxatives don’t always work. I exercise to help prevent constipation because people who don’t exercise often struggle with constipation more than someone who does. Painful constipation is a miserable experience, and although I can’t always prevent constipation because I can’t change that my bowels don’t work properly, I can prevent it most of the time with regular exercise. Since being diagnosed with endometriosis, I have struggled with constipation even more, so I make sure movement is a priority. Exercise can be more difficult for people who don’t have use of their legs, but if are able to exercise and get constipated easily I highly encourage you do so.
To feel confident in my body- When I exercise, I am not doing it to achieve a certain weight, and most of the time I don’t even know what my weight is because I don’t get weighed often, since most doctors’ offices do not have accessible scales. I do not need to know my weight to feel confident in my body, and actually I feel more confident in my body when I am not obsessed over a number on the scale. Exercise makes me feel confident in my body, even if the scale isn’t moving, because it is always amazing to me what my body can do, and I get so proud of myself when I achieve something hard. I don’t always love the exercise, but I do feel more confident in myself when I have finished it and when I don’t exercise a lot of the time, I feel lazy and hate my body.
It helps improve my energy- When you have chronic pain, often you experience a lot of fatigue. Exercise doesn’t always completely get rid of your fatigue and the only thing that will do that is to not have chronic pain. It does help slightly improve your energy levels so you can do more things. Endometorios causes a lot of fatigue and if I don’t exercise I will never be motivated to do anything and all I will want to do is sit in bed all day. I am not able to extent to the extent someone without chronic pain can but it does help slightly improve my fatigue levels so I can be somewhat productive.
Get some mobility back- When I had hip replacement surgery, I lost a significant amount of mobility and because of that, a lot of tasks are harder than they used to be. A few years later I still do not have full range of motion in my hip and don’t know if I ever will, but I still exercise with the hopes of improving my strength and getting some mobility back. Exercise is so important after hip replacement surgery because, as hard as exercise is, you can’t expect to get more mobility by sitting on your couch all day long. I have gained a lot of mobility because I exercise regularly and it’s one of the main reasons, I am very consistent with my routine.
Weight loss is a great goal to work toward, but not everyone needs weight loss as their fitness goal because sometimes you are at a healthy weight and it would unhealthy to lose more weight. There are a lot of health benefits to exercise, and it helps slow down the aging process and lowers your risk for certain diseases. Diet culture often makes people believe that everyone should be trying to shrink their bodies as small as possible, but the reality is weight loss isn’t the only reason you should exercise. My fitness goal has not been weight loss for a very long time, and I mostly work on improving my strength because doing simple tasks sometimes requires more effort, and I am going to do whatever it takes to make my life easier. Exercise is more difficult with a disability, but I still do it even though I am not working toward weight loss because it benefits your health in so many ways. Why do you exercise? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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