Jane’s hematology report was ace, except for two things: blood pressure and weight gain. So she’s supposed to walk. I volunteered to join her—I’ve got muscle pain like you wouldn’t believe, with a lot of the symptom-pattern of fibromyalgia. This is not good. They do say walking is good for that. And our neighborhood while excellent does have a few stray-ins from the not-so excellent area a little further on, so two is better. So…we walked. I felt pretty good. I even volunteered to keep walking, and then volunteered for one more really long block. And then I began getting tired, so we shortcutted a wellkept alley and headed back. Well, Jane’s complaining; I’m complaining, both of hip-muscle pain.
We get home and the pastor of the church across the street overtook us, just to chat; and I went indoors to collapse, while Jane undertook another tour of progress on the garden; and we gifted the pastor with another 20 lbs of iris roots—they’re raising money to do a house-build in Mexico, a church to church thing. So, well, I was exhausted, went in and collapsed.
An hour later I could hardly get out of my chair and walk. Walk Idid, to the medicine cabinet and the Advil. Those nice trainers we wear—the Reebok Easy-Tones that we use to keep our feet in shape for skating? That cushion your feet so nicely and make walking very soft and fast?
They also give your butt a heckuva workout. We are applying ice, and wondering whether we will be able to get out of bed tomorrow. Ow. Ow. Ow.
Figure skating?! – wow! What I’m aiming to do is get fit enough to climb local hills more easily, eg Kinder Scout, Win Hill/Lose Hill, etc (I’m in England, living on the edge of the Peak District). I loved to watch skating in the past but was never very good – I’ve a not-great sense of balance – so well done!
Lol. The trick is to get a good instructor. 110 pound Joan can literally keep 180 lb me on my feet with her pinky finger, correctly applied. The posture most recreational skaters learn, based on hockey stance, is asking for a fall and tricky balance at that when on figure skates or rental skates. So first get good instruction, and learn where to center your weight and what edge is which!
And wear crash pads (discreet gel pads tucked into the spandex: pros don’t wear them—they have so much muscle they hit their rumps and bounce, but they’re real good;) and a helmet. Most really serious injuries on the ice are head injuries. I’ve taken some falls that could have sent me to the hospital or worse, and just gotten up relatively unscathed. It’s as good as a trip to the chiropractor’s: it loosens all those calcium deposits at once. When you land flat out while moving slowly is, I swear, the worst, because you don’t skid off much of the force, you just pancake, and if your head is involved in a backward fall, that’s not good. I’m a staunch advocate of helmets for beginners and older skaters. And training—so as not to throw your arms and head back when you fall: that’s asking for a broken arm AND a concussion at once. The correct answer is: curl like a kidney bean with your arms forward and your chin tucked. If your rump is padded, you’ll shake it off.
ms. cherryh, the mechanical thingy your chiro uses may be an activator, my chiro has this thing that looks like a mechanical hypodermic that i have him use on my neck instead of the manual manipulation. the activator my chiro uses is spring loaded and pops the point he puts it to.
i had to laugh when i read your post. i wear fitflops almost year ’round – hotlanta is warm enuf most of the time – and even have a pair for the studio. aside from being the best thing for standing for long periods of time on concrete floors like my studio or convention centers, they are supposed to be engineered to work the muscles in your legs, especially the glutes. have walked the dogs a few times after too much couch office time and noticed sore muscles in unexpected areas ;P
D
He has the activator, but this thing is stronger, and delivers a stronger kick. Gotta find out what this one is called.