Okay, so I've mentioned the triune nature of our beings (physical, emotional, and spiritual) and how we must address each in order to heal and reach a higher level of "wellness". On the physical level, we do this by looking at three areas: nutrition/diet, exercise, and lifestyle. Each is important to helping us reach our goals. As you know, the diet part of my equation is going to consist of a macrobiotic diet and a heavy regime of supplements to help restore my nutrition stores and help my body recover from nutritional deficencies and toxicity. Well, part two--exercise--is the next step to address.
I walked...okay more accurately I hobbled...into our local Gold's Gym back in early February with a simple plea: help me. At that point my daily exercise consisted of extremely slow walking (using the wall as support) around the hallways of our office building. Several co-workers were kind enough to walk with me and encourage me. I was in rough shape but determined to get better. After explaining my situation, the trainers were confident that they could indeed help me. You might think that such bravado was because they wanted my money. I'm sure that had a small amount to do with it. But, I also believe they sincerely wanted to help.
The first two weeks, I worked on the treadmill and stationary bike to improve my mobility a bit. What a sad display I must have been! But, I persevered. Then, I met with Matt, the head personal trainer. He explained that he, and one other trainer there, has a degree in Physical Therapy and has worked in the past as physical therapists. He was surprised to see that #1 on my list of goals for the next year is to backpack in the Great Smokie Mountains National Park. "Doable" said he, "if you are willing to work hard." I'm willing. Matt and Randy are now my coaches and, along with lots of encouragement, they redesign my strength training workouts on a monthly basis.
No, I'm not in the free weights area with the muscle bound guys. Nor am I spending all my time on the fixed weight machines. I do a few here and there but mostly I do exercises using the balance ball, medicine balls, and a torture chamber monster called PURmotion (functional fitness). Functional fitness is a fitness program that trains your body to function in real life. Rather than isolate muscles, all muscles get involved including all the little balance and stablizing muscles. Thus, I will be a stronger backpacker with better balance and stability. Functional fitness will also help us as we mature to have fewer falls and less chances of breaking bones.
I can not take pictures at the gym so I found a youtube video for you to see what this torture chamber looks like. I'm still a rookie so am only doing a few exercises on this thing but as time passes, I'm sure they will increase the number of exercises I do on it.
Oh, and I also took my personal balance ball to work and am using it as my chair for all or part of each day! Seems so simple but it is amazing how it works your core muscles without you even noticing!
No comments:
Post a Comment