So a while ago I was falling asleep, when the phrase, “massed practice,” popped into my head.
It’s from the Norman Doidge book, The Brain that Changes Itself, which I was somewhat obsessed with when I read it years ago. One of the case studies was an older man who had a stroke. Conventional therapy—one hour a week—was doing nothing for him. But working at it like a job, 8 hours a day, he got all his abilities back. The concept is “massed practice”—continually working those neurons is what builds them up. Like any kind of exercise, I guess.
And when I go full-on with my various therapies, it is a full-time job, or more. The problem is, after a day or two, I crash, hard. I get nauseated. I lurch around with that on-a-boat feeling. I get brutal headaches. I just can’t keep going.
Part of it, I think, is that I’m a bit underfed—I’m trying this anti-inflammatory diet and between being restricted from things that I love and being bored with things that are allowed, I end up in a calorie deficit a lot of the time.
But maybe I just need to be more deliberate about planning rest days?
Weekend was busy; moved kid home from uni. Monday I did a lot, in terms of all my rehab stuff. Crashed late afternoon. Tuesday (yesterday) I did not do much (mainly walking and tai chi, and my vestibular stretching). Today I feel better, back to my full regime, and went just a lil bit farther and faster on the treadmill for my sub-symptom threshold cardio. Maybe yesterday’s rest is the key to today’s success?
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