It Paid Off to Stay Fit
I want to stay fit and active well into my 80’s. That proved to be a goal that may have saved me from a lot of pain.
I was hit by a car.
I am fine. It was scarier for my husband, who was watching, more than for me. I was busy staying on my feet and hoping the driver would, sooner rather than later, see me clinging to her hood while I was moving as quickly as I could, backwards, ready to jump onto her hood if she didn’t stop.
She did stop. She was apologetic and embarrassed. I told her I was okay and we kept
walking downtown to enjoy food and music on a beautiful Friday evening.
Because it happened so fast. Because I really am okay. Because it was over so quickly, I thought I could let it pass without comment, but I can’t. It is too important that I was able to stay on my feet, stay moving backwards with the car, stay clinging to the hood.
I texted my workout partner that evening and thanked her for contributing to saving my life and/or limbs. I don’t want to be too dramatic, but I could have ended up on my back with a car driving over me if I had not been able to move my feet and hang on.
Finding motivation to make the time and apply the effort to work out regularly can be difficult.
When I first started a “formal” workout routine, I was rehabilitating from a neuro-muscular disease 30 years ago. Realizing that a wheelchair for family outings would be helpful, I drove to an MDA clinic in Indianapolis to see if a doctor there would prescribe one for me. The very astute physiatrist I saw there discovered that the steroids given me for the autoimmune disease had shrunk all my muscles. He told me my disease was in remission. I should wean myself off all meds and begin to build my muscles back up. “You should be back good as new,” he assured. It was slow going at first, swimming one lap of the small, warm pool at the YMCA fatigued me.
Slowly, I was able to build my energy up. I discovered that I really like weight lifting, so I had a trainer show me a good workout. I made myself spend time on a cardio machine before tackling free weights, motivating myself to build up my heart and lungs as well as my arms, legs, and core. Initially, simply feeling better and being able to enjoy activities with our kids was enough motivation. But…life changes moved us away from the Y that was only a few blocks away and our kids were in high school with their own schedules. I needed to find new motivation.
Walking is cheap and easy when you live in the country where we had moved. I found a walking partner and the 3 times a week, early morning expectation of having someone depend on you to show up lasted for a number of years. Later, finding another friend who wanted to take some classes at another YMCA made keeping fit pleasant and constant and made the 20 minute drive there worth it.
Then… growing older, a few more moves. At one point, another member at a gym asked me what made me show up regularly. I wasn’t sure. My enthusiasm for early morning workouts was waning, so it was good timing for me to re-assess my motivation. Both my sisters would say that I was always the most athletic of the three of us. But, as I passed age 40, athleticism was not going to carry me along. A bit of weight gain, a bit of lost muscle strength, it was becoming obvious that I was going to have to come up with a good reason to stay faithful to my commitment to staying fit and healthy.
My motivation to work out (and watch my weight) now has little to do with how I look. I work out purely to stay fit and healthy. My plan is to stay active into my 80’s and beyond.
My family is 1000 miles away in Texas and we traveled there about once a year. I decided that it would keep me in the gym if I focused on looking better than my sisters when I saw them once a year. It worked for a long while! About nine years ago, I fell and broke my humerus (no, not humorous at all!). When I awoke from the surgery to repair it, I could not move my hand. As it turns out, my radial nerve was injured during surgery, never to regenerate fully. I have about 80% function of my left hand and constant numbness. I have regained enough strength to be able to type. That was important to me and I worked hard at figuring out how to type again.
After a few weeks of not working out one Christmas season, I noticed that my hand was closing in. When I had finished the physical therapy, they told me to keep my hand from “clawing in.” While I hadn’t been doing anything special, just regularly attending yoga classes kept my hand stretched out and as strong as possible. Slacking off of those classes, my hand was, indeed, clawing in. I was scared into action! I found a workout partner who is younger and more fit than myself. We aim to work out 3 times a week at the Y, focusing on core strength and balance. She knows what she is doing and I follow along. I can get my cardio in with either a machine or brisk walking in our neighborhood or to downtown an evening a week or so. My hand is back to its 80%.
It is encouraging what I can do now that I couldn’t when I started working out with my workout partner a year and a half ago. My core strength and balance have definitely improved. I can stay on my feet, thanks to that good core strength and balance work (even when a driver is not looking where they are going and bumps into me and keeps driving, pushing me along backwards, and forcing some quick backwards footwork).
