Know your limits
Growing up you quickly knew your limitations, how fast you can run, how high you can jump, but many of those lessons learnt followed an A&E visit, it’s what kids did, it’s how I grew up.
Having said that, I wasn’t a very brave child to be honest, I would often just watch as others pushed themselves. Those times I did try to skate down that high hill, or do tricks on my bike, they’d be met with scuffed knees and many bruises, so I was wise to take a backseat.
I made up for this in my late teens and early twenties though, as I went out with my friends to bars and clubs most weekends. However I quickly realised there were limits when it came to alcohol too, and those were also met with trips to the hospital, much to the despair of my parents.
At the time when you’re having such a good night, any consequences seem worth it. My mother doesn’t drink, so she doesn’t understand how easy it is to get carried away, especially when even the bottles of lager tell you to ‘drink responsibly’.
At 34 I still haven’t quite grasped that a whole bottle of wine to yourself when you have work in the morning, is not a wise move, but you had such a good night and it was worth it again wasn’t it?! The next day you tell yourself you’ve learnt your lesson, and you’re never drinking again. How many times have we all said that?
As an adult you know there are limits to many other things, like when you’ve eaten too much food and you’re completely stuffed but you continue to finish that family size bag of sweets anyway. All inclusive holidays and Christmas are prime examples when food seems to have no limits, despite our bellies bursting at the seams. I’ll either tell myself I need to get my monies worth, or that it’s just tradition to justify exceeding those limits massively!
Of course there are more serious limits we’re all aware of, and more importantly, that they carry more serious consequences. Speeding adds risk to your life, passengers and other drivers, taking too many tablets than prescribed can be detrimental to your health, and so on.
However sometimes, it’s not always easy to recognise some limits until we go beyond them, they cannot be measured. When it comes to chronic pain, and it hurts all the time anyway, how do you know when to stop?
I have a hip condition called femoral retroversion, and I’ve been suffering from it's symptoms since I was 25 years old, and it’s a condition that makes you feel about 85 years old. There are now a world of new limits I never expected to have to deal with at such a young age.
I’m aware there are a lot of things I can’t do now, things that I just accept and don’t even try anymore, but then there are activities that can be a bit more subjective dependant on me having a ‘good day’. I don’t suddenly become normal, but my body allows me to be more active without punishing me back for days afterwards.
Before my condition was diagnosed, I used to run around 15 miles a week. I had what I thought was just a knee problem/‘runners knee’, and despite having 3 knee operations, it transpired that it was actually a hip condition feeding down towards my knees.
More often than not, I now learn my limitations through trial and error, I need to experiment and then weigh up if the consequences and after affects are really worth it, sometimes whether I’ll be ‘OK’ the next day is merely a lottery.
Having said that, I wasn’t a very brave child to be honest, I would often just watch as others pushed themselves. Those times I did try to skate down that high hill, or do tricks on my bike, they’d be met with scuffed knees and many bruises, so I was wise to take a backseat.
I made up for this in my late teens and early twenties though, as I went out with my friends to bars and clubs most weekends. However I quickly realised there were limits when it came to alcohol too, and those were also met with trips to the hospital, much to the despair of my parents.
At the time when you’re having such a good night, any consequences seem worth it. My mother doesn’t drink, so she doesn’t understand how easy it is to get carried away, especially when even the bottles of lager tell you to ‘drink responsibly’.
At 34 I still haven’t quite grasped that a whole bottle of wine to yourself when you have work in the morning, is not a wise move, but you had such a good night and it was worth it again wasn’t it?! The next day you tell yourself you’ve learnt your lesson, and you’re never drinking again. How many times have we all said that?
As an adult you know there are limits to many other things, like when you’ve eaten too much food and you’re completely stuffed but you continue to finish that family size bag of sweets anyway. All inclusive holidays and Christmas are prime examples when food seems to have no limits, despite our bellies bursting at the seams. I’ll either tell myself I need to get my monies worth, or that it’s just tradition to justify exceeding those limits massively!
Of course there are more serious limits we’re all aware of, and more importantly, that they carry more serious consequences. Speeding adds risk to your life, passengers and other drivers, taking too many tablets than prescribed can be detrimental to your health, and so on.
However sometimes, it’s not always easy to recognise some limits until we go beyond them, they cannot be measured. When it comes to chronic pain, and it hurts all the time anyway, how do you know when to stop?
I have a hip condition called femoral retroversion, and I’ve been suffering from it's symptoms since I was 25 years old, and it’s a condition that makes you feel about 85 years old. There are now a world of new limits I never expected to have to deal with at such a young age.
I’m aware there are a lot of things I can’t do now, things that I just accept and don’t even try anymore, but then there are activities that can be a bit more subjective dependant on me having a ‘good day’. I don’t suddenly become normal, but my body allows me to be more active without punishing me back for days afterwards.
Before my condition was diagnosed, I used to run around 15 miles a week. I had what I thought was just a knee problem/‘runners knee’, and despite having 3 knee operations, it transpired that it was actually a hip condition feeding down towards my knees.
More often than not, I now learn my limitations through trial and error, I need to experiment and then weigh up if the consequences and after affects are really worth it, sometimes whether I’ll be ‘OK’ the next day is merely a lottery.
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