Day 4, Thursday, July 9, 2015
Everyone keeps asking me how the exercise is going. I'm going to a class specifically for Parkinson's patients, called The Climb. Let me sum it up.
BLAAAHHHHH! YUUUUUCCCKKKKK! OUUUUUCCHHHHH!
To put it in perspective for you, let me share a conversation I had with myself during today's exercise class.
"Ow, ow, ow ... I better not do any more of this exercise because I strained by lower back in class on Tuesday." Stephen said not to do anything that hurts it, and this doesn't feel good.
A few minutes later, "Ouch! I'm getting knots in my neck. I better take a break from this exercise and work out the knots." I roll my neck back and forth, somewhat dramatically, while everyone else keeps going on the upper arm workout.
Two minutes later: "Oh, I hate this. This motion is causing my left arm to shake." Okay, I actually looked around the room to see if anyone saw my arm shaking.
It was in that moment that I realized I was surrounded by about 15 Parkinson's patients: 2 women, both older than me, along with about 12 men, all probably in their late 70's, 3 of whom arrived on walkers. And every one of them was doing all the exercises ,,,,, and shaking.
And, the worst realization was that I had no excuse not to participate in all aspects of the class. I further realized I was being a baby. Discomfort is apparently what it's all about when exercising. You know--feel the burn, and all that baloney.
So, that's how it's going. It makes me feel crummy while I'm doing it, I dread going, it makes my tremor worse, and it makes me aware of how weak my muscles really are. Plus, I have to face ugly things about myself.
But I'm going. I'm doing it, so don't give me a hard time! My first day off was Monday, and I went to class on Tuesday, and again today (Thursday), and will go again on Saturday. When I go back to work, I'd like to see if I can get off work every Tuesday at 3:00 so I can make the 4:00 class. I should also be able to make the Saturday class 3 out of 4 weekends.
I do have one positive thing to say about exercise: I generally have more energy when I finish. Today I had so much energy that I tried to do too much, and wore myself out. After The Climb, I went to the grocery, then came home, put away groceries, made supper, and cleaned it up. I was worn out after all that! But, again, I'll say it: I WENT! The doctor wanted me to go 4 days a week, but I'm at least getting 3 days in -- that's improvement, right?!
It's late and I'm tired, so that's it for tonight. True confession before I go: I spent too much time trying to create this blog site, and now I don't have any energy to write my post, so this is all you get!
1 comment:
Way to go! Hang in there! Random thoughts on your workouts...
--- There's another positive thing about exercise you forgot to mention - it might save your life.
--- Don't workout to stave off PD. Work out to improve your body and general health. Your goal isn't to delay PD's onset. Your goal is to thrash your body into peak physical condition and make it your servant, not a master. Once you achieve that, handling PD will just be a positive side effect.
--- You're going to quit work. One way or another, you WILL stop working. So the only question is... will you do it in time to change course or will you wait too late?
Post a Comment