Step By Step
Most exercise measurement programs today seem to focus on walking steps and counting them. I get it. Walking is good for you. It is relatively low impact and almost everyone can do it. But not everyone enjoys it. I am one of those people who does not like walking. My size and weight makes walking a pain in my lower back. I have tried using walking sticks, which help, but not completely. I have tried using a lower back brace, which helps but is a pain to put on and take off and only works so well. So, I reverted to swimming for my aerobic exercise and I do it quite regularly. The suiting up and showering off afterwards don’t bother me too much and spending 20-30 minutes continuously swimming in the mildly warm pool water at LA Fitness does wear me out a bit, so I imagine that I am getting a decent workout, but it doesn’t seem to help me much with my walking problem.
I was just in NYC for a few days and one always walks more in NYC to get around for several reasons. First of all, it never seems to so far when you say, “Oh, that’s only 5 blocks away”. But then you realize that some of those blocks are long crosstown blocks and there is construction and traffic and before you know it, walking around midtown is getting to be a tiring affair for me with more lower back discomfort than I like. I want to be able to walk around in NYC more than I comfortably can at the moment and this recent trip highlighted that to me once again. Six months of working with a trainer and swimming don’t seem to have done the trick. I know I am simply carrying too much weight and I suppose I have to reduce that in order to not feel that way when I walk, but I am constantly looking for new tactics.
As I have aged through life, since I have always carried too much weight to varying degrees, when it got to a tipping point of walk-around discomfort, I have generally undertaken some sort of weight loss tactic or exercise program and gotten things back to a point where I was more comfortable. In fact, I would argue with the benefit of hindsight that my life path has been one of dealing with my weight and fitness based mostly on level of comfort. The folks at 23&Me have already told me that genetically I am configured to be a performance athlete. I know that brings a smile to everyone’s face since I am the last person people think of when they think about performance athletes. What it tells me is that I have a pretty strong composition. In fact, to be 70 and have lived my entire adult life over 300 pounds and still have all my joints and other parts in tact is, by itself, a strong endorsement of what my creator bestowed on me. I guess I am able to reach a comfort level without going all the way to ideal fitness or weight because I have never gotten there. I would love to, but the motivation to do so seems kind of like that carrot on the string dangled in front of my plodding face. Sooner or later, the donkey gets to the point of frustration and that carrot looks less and less appetizing. So, instead, I address the fitness needs episodically. Last year I had an uncomfortable few days motorcycle riding in Arizona and New Mexico at someone else’s pace. Then my granddaughters came and they reminded me about how tired out I get when I run a around as we did in Utah and here on the hilltop. So, I went off to LA Fitness and signed up for training, bought the necessary equipment to be a regular pool swimmer (goggles and earplugs for me) and started a twice-a-week stretch program. It has done wonders for eliminating some of the discomfort in my right hip and my shoulders. It hasn’t really dropped any weight for me, but I feel like my mobility has improved considerably. Little things like getting up off the soft sofa or walking down and up the back hillside paths have become less painful. I sleep more uninterrupted hours, which is a big plus. But now I feel like I have to take another step in the right direction.
This week while in New York, I happened on an article on Apple News about a 93-year-old man who started rowing program (indoor machine rowing0 at the age of 73 and has now become a phenom in the geriatric sports medicine field. His success at starting a regular and rigorous exercise regime at an older age and getting his cardiovascular system into such great shape has inspired more research into the benefits of this sort of program for others. Given that I am turning seventy in a few weeks and I have been thinking that I need a next fitness step for myself, I suddenly read the part of the article about the especially beneficial aspects of rowing as a whole-body exercise. I know that swimming has less impact and is very much whole-body oriented, but rowing comes close in terms of impact and seems to work up more of a sweat. I even notice that my Apple Watch has a rowing workout function, so everything is telling me I should start doing this. Most people would go to LA Fitness and find a rowing machine to start on, but instead I went to Amazon and looked into “best rowing machines”. They ranged in price from $1,700 for the the wiz-bang high tech version down to much simpler models. I found a particularly well-rated model from Korea for $210 and couldn’t resist. I ordered it (it handles up to 350 pounds, which is a good sign for its durability) and it is price-pointed in a way that I will not feel so stupid if I end up hating rowing. It arrives next week and I have already bought some rubber floor mats to rest it on out on the covered porch of our office, a spot that is largely otherwise unused. That will allow me to easily do a cardio workout in the morning or any other time of the day that it suits me and be close to my shower when I get all sweated up. I have already watched a few YouTube videos about how to start a rowing program and I see there are all sorts of them available that you can put on and go along for the whole workout. I’m very much looking forward to it.
I have no idea if I can or will do this 40 minutes every day for the next twenty years like the nonagenarian in the article. I do not aspire to setting any records or setting any records. What I do hope is that such a program will drop a little more weight and feel a little more fit at the margin. I have spent a lifetime trying to avoid excessive exercise for exercise sake. I now have very real reasons, not just hypothetical reasons for trying to put in more effort to get a bit more fit so that I can walk further and feel better in my daily tasks. It comes at a time when I will be heading off to Southeast Asia in three weeks, so I have a little bit of time to shape up a bit for the tourism walking we will do. Its a later start than I would have ideally liked, but I know by now that fitness realization for me comes when it comes. This is a step-by-step game and by now I know how to play it….just don’t rush the net, but rather wait for the ball to come to you.