Freepik
Since I’m not EVER going to be an ‘exercise afficionado,’ – particularly since it’s a bit late to start at 78 – I’m trying to make the exercise I AM doing do the most for me.
I read an article recently (actually, my friend Marsha pointed it out to me) that the Japanese had done a study that showed that, instead of just getting on the treadmill, setting the speed, and walking for 30 minutes (1 mile) as I have been doing for about a month and a half now, it’s more effective if you start with a warm-up of a couple of minutes, then increase your speed as if you were going to miss a bus, be late for work, etc. for a few minutes, and then go back to slow, repeating over and over for the same 30 minute session.
I don’t really know if it’s really doing me much more good than what I was mindlessly slogging through before, but it keeps my interest and makes me FEEL like I’m doing myself more good.
I’ve been doing what I call, “Old lady yoga stretches” for quite a while now, hoping to keep myself as flexible as possible, improve my balance, loosen stiff muscles, etc. The problem is that I’ve been planning to do my session in the evening after dinner.
I’ve finally recognized a tendency to either shorten my session or just put it off altogether due to my innate laziness. SO – now I’ve changed to doing my session in the afternoon, when I’m still relatively fresh, not sleepy, and more likely to do a full length session, slowly, with intention. (Like as soon as I finish writing this post!)
Last, my doctor here in Thailand recommended three exercises for me to do to strengthen my back when I told her about my ‘mystery debilitating back spasms’ from which I suffered for about a week.
I don’t have weights, but I DO have 1 liter bottles of water. I’m doing two of the exercises using one of the bottles. I’ll increase that to two when this gets easier.
The first exercise is to stand holding the bottle close to your body with both hands in front of you. You twist as far as you can to the left, then back to the front, then twist as far as you can to the right and back again. I’m doing 20 reps.
The second exercise starts with you standing holding the bottle in front of you legs spread for balance. You reach as far as you can up and to the left, hold, then bring it back. Then reach as far as you can up and to the right, hold, then bring it back. I’m doing 20 reps of this one, too.
The third exercise is really a challenge for me. I’m combining it with my yoga stretches. I’m flat on my stomach on my mat, arms in front of me on the floor in a ‘V’ shape. Then I’m supposed to lift up my arms and my head and as much of me as possible from the waist up off the floor and hold.
Yeah, right.
I’m doing the best I can, but I’m barely able to lift anything from my waist up off the floor now. I’m looking at this as the same theory as the lady who created the yoga video for seniors. She said that it doesn’t matter if you can’t touch your toes. If you are TRYING to touch your toes, bend over as far as you can and breathe into it, you are doing the same good for your body as if you DID touch your toes. Your body is stretching toward your goal and will give a bit more each day. I’m HOPING that – if I keep lifting up as much as I can each day – gradually I’ll do better and better. The lifting and stretching will hopefully strengthen my back a bit at a time.
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