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People recovering from drug and alcohol addiction can use exercise and fitness to boost their physical and mental health on their way to recovery. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, those in recovery can achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle and normal level of social functioning. Creating and relying on a daily routine that includes both physical and mental fitness can increase wellbeing and quality of life when recovering from addiction. Liftnwander invites you to consider the three tips below to create one that works for you.
Use Technology to Improve Workouts
One of the biggest hurdles to establishing a solid workout routine is boredom. Use tech to take your workout to the next level, at home or outdoors: Invest in a high-quality pair of headphones to bring energizing music, engrossing audiobooks, and funny or informative podcasts with you wherever you walk, run, or lift. Don’t let your budget hold you back — you don’t have to spend a lot of money to create a comfortable workout experience. Additionally, try using a step counter or another type of physical fitness tracker to motivate yourself and to see a real-time breakdown of your progress.
Consider Unconventional Exercises
Consider yoga, Pilates, and lifting to break up a workout routine that consists of running around the block a few times or sweating it out on your basement treadmill. Liftnwander not only shares functional and effective workouts that you can do at home or in the gym but also ways of making sure that you do them right. You can lift weights and combine them with cardio and dance for a whole-body workout.
Recruit a Workout Partner for Accountability
Although working out in groups has been shown to help people persevere through difficult exercises and has been suspected to help people recover from addiction, group fitness is not everyone’s idea of a good time. If you dislike working out in groups, simply having an accountability partner can help you stick with the exercise you’ve chosen to make your body and mind healthier. You and your partner don’t even have to work out together. Instead, keep track of each other’s fitness goals and hold each other accountable for missing a workout — in a fun and encouraging way, of course! Try this for a week or two and you may see positive gains in both your fitness level and your motivation.
If you would like to work out with another person and don’t know anyone who would love to spend a morning riding a bike or running along the beach, you can turn to apps or meetup groups online to find a partner. If you participate in an addiction recovery group, ask around to see if anyone is similarly using fitness as part of their addiction recovery plan. By working together toward a common goal (re: fitness), you may discover that it benefits your recovery process and helps you remain focused on overcoming this problem.
Mental health is extremely important to focus on when recovering from addiction, and mental and emotional health exercises can be combined with methods of physical activity as part of a whole-body method of recovery. Look for ways to connect with others, use breathing to regulate anxiety and stress, and consider meditation as a way to start your day or end a workout.
As a caveat, make sure that your home is an environment that truly supports your recovery and fitness goals. Make sure that it is physically clean, but also that it’s free of bad energy that could negatively influence your mindset. So while cleaning and decluttering your home is a must, it also helps to burn sage to ‘smudge’ your home and even use crystals on your windowsills to absorb and keep out bad energy that will not serve you at all in recovery. It’s possible to recover from addiction, but the pursuit of freedom takes time, patience, and a plan that fills your life with positive people, a supportive environment, and meaningful activities that make you healthier.
__________________________________________________________________________________About the Author:
Jason Lewis, has a first hand experience as a senior caregiver, in addition to a background in personal training. He's passionate about helping seniors stay healthy and injury-free.
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