Apples and Oranges

I'm sure it's true for other things, but it has certainly struck me this week that my kiddos have surpassed me in the acquisition of a few skills I don't have.  Sis can go all the way across the monkey bars.  Bud can do one-handed cartwheels.  I'm just really amazed, impressed, and proud.  In this case, the apples have fallen into a completely different orchard

Tread Carefully

The exercise curse exists! I posted awhile back, in a post I can't find (nor can google), that I tend to injure myself within a week or two of starting a new exercise regimen, from walking after Memorial Day almost 3 years ago to swimming this summer to the elliptical I got just a week before herniating my disk.

Unrelated? Though I was bound to blow that disk doing something, my physiatrist has confirmed what I suspected: ellipticals can be bad for people with disk trouble (or, as my PT put it, special sensitive people like me. In her Australia accent, "your body just doesn't like fancy!"). The timing was too coincidental in August and I've had pain after using it since then (before I knew it was something I shouldn't be doing).

And so yesterday we bought a treadmill. I've used treadmills at the physical therapist's office and tested it extensively before deciding on one. And I got the doctor's approval, even though walking was already my only approved activity but I wanted to be sure treadmills aren't different somehow. I'm hoping this will solve some of my problems, mainly my inability to exercise when it's cold and icy, like it has been for almost five weeks. Why not a gym, you wonder? Because I can't get there with slippery parking lots and sidewalks. That's right, I don't get out much these days unless I'm with other adults, who can drop me off up front or hold my hand, even in my snow cleats. It would be one of the worst winters in years--it's 8F outside now, with two days of snow, maybe a blizzard, coming around Wednesday.

Come on spring . . . . and hopefully the end of the exercise curse!

My Enemy, My Friend

Exercise.

I have a hate-tolerate relationship with it that has never approached anything like love.

The only B I got in junior high was in P.E. And I always failed the Presidential Fitness tests we were subjected to. But did I get a remedial class or any investigation into why I wasn't good at it? Nope. Just teasing (and bad grades), though mostly minor.

And now, decades later, exercise, I believe, has led to at least three injuries. In truth, I should admit that I probably began each exercise unprepared for it, even though I was under doctor's orders. When I took up walking in the summer of 2007 as part of my WW regimen I threw out my back a week later and only realized after I was diagnosed with a significant leg differential, that it was probably the burst of exercise that put my muscles over the edge. Then this summer, when I began swimming, my thoracic gave out within about a week. This led to the discovery of scoliosis and my two curves, one lumbar, one thoracic. I didn't put two and two together until much later because everyone said you couldn't get hurt swimming. Then, I replaced swimming with an elliptical, and while obviously other things were involved, I can't separate the beginning of my use of my elliptical with the herniation of my disc. Yep, less than a week later.

Of course, every doctor and PT I've seen says exercise is the key to back recovery because I need to strengthen my core (after diastasis, hernias, c-section). So I've been walking. Everyone tells me I can't get hurt just walking (now that I have orthotics and a lift, of course). That it might be the only thing I can do with my overly sensitive musco-skeletal system. So I have been walking since the second week of September. Long past my one-week-of-exercise-injury track record. They might be right this time.

Let's hope. Because I'm back on my elliptical a little each day--no more than 5 minutes--trying to gear up for the winter when I won't be walking outside in the snow.

And it's been about a week . . . .

. . . . . .

We bought an elliptical workout machine today, upon the advice of my PT when asked about the best exercise for me--low impact cardio. Sure, swimming is great--and I'm still walking my laps in the pool (not allowed to do strokes right now)--but I can't do it at the end of the day when I haven't gotten to exercise yet. And so the elliptical is my back-up exercise insurance, so to speak, so that I do it everyday. No excuses. Of course, it's huge and expensive, both motivations not to ignore it.

Now, I just need a big screen tv to put in front of it!

(Get the post title now? Ellipses? Hee hee hee.)

My New Lexus

I've been playing on the Lexus of treadmills at my workout place these last few days, the Gait Trainer 2 by Biodex, which is intended to help rehabilitate people but can also be used as a plain old treadmill. Except there is nothing plain about it: my favorite part is the heart rate monitor---through the handles!!! I love to watch my heart rate change. In fact, the whole screen, with it's faux track to indicate my "laps," other measurements such as calories burned, distance traveled, and miles per hour, all in neat-to-read digital format, makes it fun to "play." In fact, just being on it has me doubling my workout time without really noticing, mainly because I get so bored on the regular treadmill, even with my music headset. But this thing is great. Almost makes me want to go back to the gym everyday!

Walk this Way: On Exercise and Kinhin

While the kiddos triked around the cul-de-sac and sold me food, I walked around in circles, enjoying the gorgeous fall day with light breeze, bright blue sky, overhead red-tail hawk, and brilliant New England autumn leaves.

At first, I was exercising, continuing the pace I set on the treadmill this morning. It felt good to walk outside for a change, warmed by the sun, cooled by the breeze, with more to look at than a wall or other exercisers. And then, I remembered what I'd read about walking meditation, or kinhin. I couldn't remember the exact posture described in Three Pillars of Zen (I've just looked it up and I think I'll have to see the arm positions to understand it fully), but I thought I remembered that you stepped on your inhalations and exhalations (though, the book doesn't quite describe it that way). It is so much harder than it sounds. Maybe it was me, with my PT issues, but walking that slowly really through off my balance. I couldn't manage to count and breathe and balance at the same! It also reminded me of yoga--it doesn't look like you're doing much--here, you're just walking really slowly--but you are using every muscle. I could feel each muscle engage as I stepped. Amazing how it slowed me all down, brought me right back into my body and the moment. I wasn't zoned out but very attuned to everything (of course, I had to be: the kids were still riding around in the streets). So, I might not have aspects of it "right," but what I did manage to do was pretty amazing.

Do You Woot?

Mama checks Woot shirt! every morning (it will change by Saturday, so check today). Today's was perfect--"Exercise Motivation" with a T-Rex. If it hadn't sold out before dawn, I would've gotten one for my 5K walk. Bud liked it, of course. Anything to keep me going on the elliptical and treadmill. I got my walking plan from my PT yesterday and am starting it (but not on my stairs, Lambeth!). Wish me luck.

5K Mania

No, not $5K mania, though in this day and age, I imagine $5000 could create some excitement for almost anyone. But I can understand your confusion. I never talk about exercise.

Yep, I'm talking the walk-run kind.

I don't even know how it started. And I was there. It was playgroup, moms were chatting, and the next thing I knew, it was like we were in a huddle getting ready to break. Everyone was gung-ho about getting in shape and training to run a 5K this May. I listened, not being one of those standing around swearing she used to love to exercise, to work out, even to run; I'm just not one of those people.

That afternoon, I laughingly, jokingly mentioned the hubbub among my friends about running a 5K to my physical therapist. She forbade me, laughing at the prospect along with me. But then she did qualify that by saying she would be in full support of my walking one. Uh-oh. I should have seen that coming.

And so, I'm thinking about it. I've half-heartedly googled "how to train to walk a 5K" and come up with these bizarre-looking calendar charts of WU, Rx2 (5), CD and other incoherent abbreviations. But I wrote my PT a note asking how she would do it, if she were me. And, here now, I'll ask Lambeth how he trained to walk the Thames (loving those pics, Lambeth!). And I've even looked up which 5Ks in the area I can walk. See, I'm a joiner, like being with my friends, so even though it's exercise we're talking about, I'm thinking about it.

Actually, cynical me gives it 3 weeks. I think we'll all realize we don't have a ton of spare, non-child time to actually do any real training for a 5K. I mean, I don't have a few hours daily to practice walking 3.2 miles. But then, novice that I am, I don't even know if that's how you do it. But I'm looking into it. Mama was so shocked when I mentioned it--not in an unsupportive way, just in a you've-never-mentioned-exercise-voluntarily-before way--it might be nice to do something completely outside of my little sedentary box.

A Family that Exercises Together . . .

What is it about a mommy on the floor that is an irresistible draw to toddlers and cats?

I've been trying to do the new exercises my PT gave me yesterday and everytime I start a clamshell or the like, I find an extra 27 lbs on my legs and fur in my face. While resistance training (is that even a concept?) is great for tip-top shape athletes, I'm sure, it isn't quite what my therapist ordered. Besides, it's not like I never sit cross-legged on the floor playing trains or animal farm, or throwing foily balls and catnip mice, but there is something about the supine position that is just too much fun.

You should see how excited everyone gets when I pull out my stretchy band!

At least they're getting excited about exercising, right?