Day #329 Exercise

Mary Esta Marcille (2004) speeding along while using her arms to hold her body ABOVE the chair. I sit IN the chair, not over it, when I use the pedal exerciser, and cannot go that fast. I'm the turtle, she's the hare.
Mary Kaizer, a reader of my blog, asked me if I exercised regularly and kept in good shape.
Fraid not. Wish I did, but I suffer from a proverbial laziness in that regard.
Here's what I do.
Every morning before I get out of bed, I lie on my back and bring my knees up towards my chest, clasp my arms around them, and hold it for a minute or two. Only bring the legs up as far as the pain will allow. Do not go 'into' the pain, but stay on the periphery. The Picton sports injury clinician suggested this for me two years ago and now I rarely have back pain. Proir to this, I could not roll over in bed, nor get out of bed and walk to the bathroom in under 10 minutes and, even then, with great effort and pain in the getting up and the walking. When I did the PEI trail, I had the same problem. After I got moving, cycling, I was fine.
Once in a while, as well, I use the small weights and lift them up and down in various ways. This warms me on a cold winter day, and arm-lifts also strengthen the heart. Most days I forget, though.
I do have a manual exercise pedal machine that you pedal from your own chair that I remember occasionally to use. (pic above)
And a great exercise, other than walking or cycling the trail, is to sit on the floor, now that I no longer have much trouble getting up again because of the first exercise I mentioned, and do a yoga exercise that came from a book that my daughter, Josie, gave me. I modified this exercise. Simple. Sit flat on floor, lean forward with your hands on your knees, and slowly, almost imperceptibly, inch or 1/2 inch forward down your legs as far as you can go without pain, stopping in between each movement for a minute to just be there in that time space. I imagine summer on a trail or swimming at Pt. Petre.
Every day I go to work, I do the stairs rather than the elevator. These are higher than normal stairs which go up the distance of 3 normal floors, while actually doing only 2. After four years, I still find them hard.
My very favourite physical activity, which is definitely making my arms and back stronger, is picking up my 3 yr. old grandson, Trent. Twice a week, I do this exercise many times, and luxuriate in doing so.
So, make up your own ways to exercise in an enjoyable fashionable and go for it.
Karen