Post #31
Some say the world is made up of two kinds of people: those who exercise enthusiastically and those who don’t—although maybe there’s a third category of those who occasionally exercise, maybe even enthusiastically for a few days, get busy for a few weeks or months and then realize they need the exercise and do it again for a short period of time and so on. I definitely fit into this third type.
As a child I was an enthusiastic bicyclist, spent hours outside playing dodge ball and tag with the neighborhood kids, and often jumped for hours on my bed (since we didn’t have a trampoline). However, I was never athletic. I was picked last for team sports in gym class, almost drowned during my first swim test, and (for obvious reasons) never joined a junior sports league. One reason I didn’t get into physical activities may have been because my parents weren’t into sports much— although we did go to baseball games as a family . . . as well as practiced shooting hoops in the driveway (even my grandma joined in). By the time junior high and high school rolled around the only aspects of P. E. I enjoyed was the trampoline and modern dance.
Dance and gymnastics have fascinated me since I was a child. I hadn’t been allowed to take classes in either (Mom believed I was too clumsy). Yet my love for both continued. Cartwheels and backbends aside, for me gymnastics is a spectator sport—the only sport on TV (besides ice skating/ice dancing) that I will to this day willingly sit down and watch. On the other hand, I’ve been lucky enough to participate in recreational dancing at different seasons in my life. During my college years I took care of the required P.E. credit through a semester of square dancing and a semester of folk dancing, but as a young adult raising children, dancing sort of fell by the wayside . . . except for a few special occasions. Instead I had a few years of physical activity through gardening and taking care of goats . . . (believe me, keeping goats out of trouble can be a full workout!). . . and then my activities became more indoor with very little time for regular exercise.
I took up regular dancing again later in life and, fortunately, married someone who also loved to dance for recreation. From the beginning of our marriage Ron and I took biweekly ballroom dance lessons and usually went to a dance once or twice a week. After a few years, however, his knees hurt, and my feet couldn’t stand on hard floors without pain. Regular dancing became a thing of the past. Yet we knew that as we aged we should be exercising .. .We tried walks, but I found sidewalks extremely painful. Unfortunately, we didn’t live anywhere near a beach where the soft sand would have been a welcome surface for walking. When we decided to move, I insisted on a two story house, so that at least we would be forced to do some step aerobics as a natural part of our day. The stairs did help, but my physical health demanded more — Alzheimer’s had consumed both my Mom and Dad, and on top of this looming possibility, I had pain issues.
By the time I tried water exercise, I was experiencing a lot of muscle pain and I couldn’t tolerate most forms of exercise. (Eventually I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.) The water was very soothing to my muscles, especially the warmer therapy pool. However, I found that I couldn’t do the repeated movements without pain and had to adapt the instructor's exercises to my own physical condition. After a couple of years, I decided to water exercise independently rather than taking classes, so that it would be easier to create a schedule and work at a pace suited to my own needs. Eventually I was working out for 50 minutes 3 times a week—for the first time in a long time getting the 150 minutes of weekly exercise recommended .
Of course, nothing stays the same forever, and in spite of the exercise, I was having more physical problems. The biggest setback to my exercise schedule was that I would get a pain in my leg when driving to the YMCA therapy pool. Our solution was to buy a hot tub so that I could do my exercises at home. Yet it was only a partial solution. The hot tub is great for exercising the legs and arms, but it is not suitable for aerobic or weight bearing exercise. Before too long I realized that I would need to come up with a solution for these exercises because I was becoming weaker. I tried following YouTube videos for people with fibromyalgia, but I was not consistent. My massage therapist and chiropractor would suggest exercises to do, but I would forget.
Then I heard about a phone app called 7 Minutes, which gives you a series of 7 exercises 50 seconds each with 10 sec. rests in between. I have to admit that I still have to adapt the exercises because of fibromyalgia. My chiropractor (who suggested the app) recommended that I do push ups against the wall and adapt the other exercises as needed. I found that this app really works, and off and on I’ve been consistent. (Yes, I see the irony in that statement.)
The 7 minute app has helped me to build my strength up so that I can do other types of exercise again. There was a time that I could not muster up the energy to jog or to do jumping jacks (which are both in the app’s routine). So I started out with marching in place—slow, high steps. Now I’m able to do a few jumping jacks or jog around the downstairs. . . . most wonderful of all, however, is that some days I can dance to a whole song . . . maybe even two . . . before collapsing. Naturally, my exercise these days usually consists of a mixture of aerobic and dance moves at home on the carpet, along with stretches in the hot tub. I look forward to these activities because I really enjoy them, and I’m more likely to be consistent with exercise.
I’ve given you a short history of my own exercise struggle to encourage readers in case you have difficulty incorporating exercise into your daily life. Doctors and other experts tell us repeatedly how important an exercise routine is to our hearts, our brains, our muscles. . . Yet many of us haven’t found the exercise strategy that will keep us on a routine. I want to encourage you not to give up. Instead try to think beyond the regular recommendations for exercise. Maybe something I’ve mentioned in my story will work for you. Or it may be that you need to give yourself an incentive or reward each time you exercise— put on your favorite music or movie as you move. Perhaps you are the type of person that needs a partner—even virtually or by phone. What about a challenge to one or more of your friends?
If possible, encourage exercise in those you care for as well as yourself —either demonstrating or participating with them. Dance, toss a ball, do chair exercises, play ping pong . . . be realistic about the care receiver’s abilities and consider the things they enjoy. Encourage them to try something new . . . but be willing to switch exercise strategies if they don’t enjoy it after multiple attempts.
I’ve come to realize that our body is meant to move—and to enjoy the movement! To make it easier to stick to a regular routine, each of us needs to find the movement that gives us joy and just do it! (Shake it, stretch it, bend it, mooooove it, Baby!)
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