Day 1: Park-open to park-close? Easy, peasy. Sure, your phone said 18,000 steps, but it’s been a year since you’ve been in the Disney parks and you just had to ride all the rides.

Day 2: You were a little tired to start, but finished strong. And you were running on 5 hours of sleep, but who cares? You gotta make the the most of your time! Your feet kind of hurt though, after… 25,000 steps?! Wow, you didn’t expect that to happen. Your shoes must be really worn out.

Day 3: You slept on It’s a Small World… and Hall of Presidents… and the People Mover?! The second night of 5 hours of sleep must be catching up to you. Oh, and your body was achy all over at the end of the day… but it was so much fun.

Sound familiar?

Not a Disney park goer? Okay, how about this: You decide to work on your New Year’s resolution and start running. The day after your first 2 mile run in 10 years, your legs are so sore you can barely walk. “It’s no wonder running is bad for your knees.”

Or this: You decide it’s finally time to start hitting the gym again. It’s your first time in the gym since high school, and the day after your first workout, your entire body hurts so much that you decide to lay in bed all day. “Maybe I should just try something more low impact.”

Some of you may be thinking, “Well duh Stephen. Of course my body’s going to pay for it after any of that.” Okay, great. We’ve got common ground. But instead of asking why we can’t do something, we should be asking, what can we do about it?

The Human Body is Resilient

The human body’s ability to adapt to different environments is incredible. However, if you don’t give your body the correct amount of stimulus and time it needs to adapt, it just might bite back you like it did with our 3 friends earlier.

Let’s take a few steps back and explain why.

We all have a baseline capacity to withstand various stressors to our body. Because of this, there is a certain level of stressors we can handle before we risk injury. If we at below that level, nothing happens. Say, for example, you go about your normal day-to-day routine, which includes 5,000 steps/day. Nothing more, nothing less. The body maintains itself and nothing is gained or lost.

What if you stay well below that level? Since there’s too little stimulus to your body, you start to see negative changes like atrophy, or muscle loss. Take your normal routine. What happens if you’re in bed all week due to sickness? You’d get weaker, because you weren’t operating at your baseline level.

However, if you hang out just above that level for a little bit, your body will respond a little bit. Let’s call this level the “just right” level. It might feel a little tired or sore, but at this level, your body adapts by replacing weaker muscle fibers with newer, stronger ones. Allowing your body to rest and recover leaves you feeling better than before! Let’s say you started walking 8,000 steps/day instead of your normal 5,000. Your feet might feel a little sore the next day, but if you allow yourself a day to recover, then do it all over again, you’ll likely feel better than before.

What if you hang out well above that level (AKA really over-do it)? You may start to overload your body and potentially increase your risk for injury; we’re talking anything from persistent joint pains and muscle strains to torn tendons and stress fractures.

Keep in mind that the amount of stimulus can be one event or several events over time. It could be one 2-mile run if you haven’t ran in a few years. What about 25,000 steps at a Disney park? Maybe one day is fine. But 25,000 steps 3 days in a row? That might be a different story.

Here’s the kicker: That level we’ve been talking about can change from day to day, week to week, or month to month. Why, you ask? Things like sleep, fatigue, stress, hydration, diet, alcohol consumption, and smoking all affect where your baseline level is.

So… Now What?

Enough of the stimulus business. What the heck can we do about it? 

I get the feeling you want to avoid the situation our runner, gym goer, and Disney park guest went through earlier. Here’s my advice: Start by finding your baseline: the level of activity you can hang out at day-in and day-out without getting too tired or sore. One simple option is to use a fitness tracker or watch to track how many steps you walk every day. Need a starting point? The American College of sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends adults to engage in moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes, 5 days/week, or 150 minutes/week.

Then, figure out your optimal level of activity – that “just right” level where you can challenge yourself but not be down-and-out of the count the next day. If the ACSM minimum guidelines are too much for you right now, don’t sweat it! Start at 20 minutes, 5 days/week. Finding your optimal level will take time and experimentation on your part since everyone’s baseline is different!

Once you’ve found it, work at that level and make sure to leave a day or two of rest so that your body can adapt and get stronger. Take our walking example from earlier: walk 8,000 steps on Monday, walk at your baseline (5,000 steps) Tuesday, walk 8,000 steps Wednesday, walk at baseline Thursday, etc. Over time, as your body adapts, you will get stronger and your baseline will increase. 8,000 steps will feel like a piece of cake and maybe 9,000 or 10,000 steps will leave you a little sore. Start to operate at around your new baseline and readjust again after a few weeks.

Readjust? What do you Mean?

One general rule of thumb to avoid venturing into the “injury zone” we discussed earlier is to increase your activity by no more than 10% every week. Are you starting out at 8,000 steps? Readjust and increase it to 8,800 steps next week and 9,680 the next week. If it sounds like this is a process, you’re absolutely right. This type of lasting improvement does not happen overnight. But before you know it, over the course of a few months, you can handle 25,000 steps easily!

This is just one example of the many ways to safely get yourself to meet your goals: to be active again, to feel stronger again, to be able to handle 3 theme park days in a row. Give this a try. What do you have to lose?

If you like what you read, go ahead and like my post and share it with your friends. If you have any suggestions, comments, or ideas you would like me to blog about in the future, feel free to leave a comment down below!

Remember, these are only suggestions. While I am a practicing physical therapist, it’s always recommended that you speak to a medical professional who knows your particular situation before you travel.