Get Moving: Exercise is Essential in Recovery

When someone first enters into recovery, it can be tough to get motivated. When most of your life revolves around alcohol and not taking care of your body, it can be extremely difficult to break that cycle. Addiction gets us comfortable in an unhealthy cycle of sitting around abusing substances and not moving our bodies. Someone in recovery may have no idea how close they are to feeling better if they just started to get out and move.

The start of recovery is difficult. Sobriety seems like an overwhelming task and it can be easy to not exercise for weeks or months and continue to feel stuck. However, if you find a way to get out there and move, you are already putting yourself on a good path to a healthy and sober mind and body.

The most important thing about starting to exercise in recovery is ensuring you are comfortable. You don’t need to dive head-first into high-intensity workouts. You or the people you love just need a little nudge to get out and get moving. You don’t have to compare yourself to other people in recovery, you just need to work with someone to help you find a starting exercise point that you can build from. Go at whatever pace you are comfortable with. It is better to go slow and exercise instead of going all out and sustaining an injury that will once again put you in a lethargic position conducive to drug and alcohol abuse. The whole point is to start getting your body and mind right to help you sustain sobriety.

Sobriety is overwhelming. You are in this newly sober life and it will throw you stressful events and moments of boredom, to which, in normal circumstances, your brain would tell you to numb yourself. At the start of your journey, these feelings are frequent and exercise keeps your mind active, which is helpful during your first year of sobriety.

Just tell yourself that you are going to go outside and exercise. It doesn’t matter how long. Establishing an exercise routine in recovery is a little step that builds into a big step, which builds up to big changes.

Continuing to find the time to exercise in recovery will lower your stress levels, help you sleep better, improve your mood, increase your energy and help prevent cravings. All of these things together help prevent relapse by showing someone in recovery that they can, in fact, feel good sober.

Getting out and exercising is one of the best ways to start and maintain sobriety in recovery. It shows a newly sober person an activity that they can complete that makes them feel good and is a tiny first step in finding fulfillment without drugs and alcohol. FBN

 By Roy DuPrez

Roy DuPrez, M.Ed. is the CEO and founder of Back2Basics Outdoor Adventure Recovery in Flagstaff. DuPrez received his B.S. and M.Ed. from Northern Arizona University. Back2Basics helps young men recover from addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Back2Basics is an adventure recovery program, up to six months, for young adult males ages 18-30 with substance abuse issues looking for a positive and meaningful life. In our program, clients are exposed to a weekly combination of both wilderness adventures and residential programming. For more information, visit back2basicsoutdooradventures.com, call 928-814-2220 or email rduprez@b2badventures.com.