"Home" Improvements

Not always the case, but again today, the current post begins with a footnote related to the previous one. The new bike seat I purchased yesterday I immediately installed, which became the catalyst and motivator to get to the gym in the afternoon. My suggested strategy to get out and exercise - whatever it takes and whatever form you choose. For me, later in the day creates increased challenges as I seem to think/feel by then, any need to exert myself has passed. So this opportunity to test drive my new seat provided the needed boost to come home and get back out the door again.

What a difference! Such a simple alteration, it's like night and day! Now in addition to the exercise, wind in my face, commuting ease, and heightened sense of connection to my surroundings; I can add comfort!

Don't get me wrong, when I say sometimes a profound transformation is dead easy! I'd be the first one to say some aspects of transformation are anything but easy. But some significant changes are just on the other side of the veil - albeit a veil that might present as a stone wall. I'm reminded of a period of time (quite extended period I might add) that I "had to" mop up my bathroom floor after every shower. No matter how I arranged the curtain liner (even had one with the magnets to hold it in place) there was still puddles on the floor. Damn curtain is too short! That was the sum total of any action I took! From that point forward showers continued with varying degrees of frustration or at best, courted the permanence of resignation. Then one day in a flash of brilliance (God knows where that came from) it donned on me - I could lower the curtain rod! Unlike many that are fixed in place, mine was adjustable and telescoped so that it wedged between the two walls. Why didn't I think of this before? Probably because I was too intent on focusing on the "problem." As you may have guessed, the simple "fix" was highly effective, no more mopping!

I began this post addressing exercise and it is there that I will now return. As it happens what exercise and my digressive story have in common is: "you can't think yourself into better results." (at least I can't - if it were possible, I'd have moved mountains by now!)

Today I don't work until quite a bit later in the afternoon so I decided to get out for some exercise early! I rode my bike again - oh it's a beautiful thing; and got to the rec. centre between 8:00 & 8:30 a.m. This meant I could do whatever I felt like in terms of exercise before all the seniors arrived for their group fitness classes. On the one hand seeing these folks out staying active and engaged is inspiring; on the other hand the gym gets congested and I prefer to be able to get in and get out, without my flow be disrupted.

Staying active, seniors, fitness, action (inspired or otherwise) all themes that will continue through the remainder of this post.

I allowed myself today the opportunity to receive some reflection on the progress of my vision of resurrected fitness. I chose a route for the trip home that included a fairly long steep hill. I rode the entire hill sitting down (on that glorious new seat) - previously it had not been possible to make the hill without standing and pedalling after about halfway. It's very gratifying to experience these performance improvements; particularly when resuming or just starting a new fit commitment. Thought there can be some degree of rebound feel good in the early going - by and large it is just hard work.

Why the rekindled interest in exercise? Well.. to borrow a phrase that the fitness industry used to toss around (maybe they still do) my interest centers around being "functionally fit." Aesthetics don't float my boat in a big way (at least not enough to keep me showing up) sure it's great to look healthy etc. but I want to continue to perform and enjoy activities with low to moderate physical demand, without undue strain. Essentially in order to continue to enjoy an active life, I must "train" actively.

Given my extended focus on such sedentary activities as reading, writing, meditation, until recently netflix and recreational navel-gazing, my once able body was becoming increasingly un-able.

When I got home I was eating breakfast and reading an article in a "Hospital Employees Union" newsletter which cited seniors care facilities as some of the "most dangerous workplaces in terms of violence and strain-related injuries."

As it happens over the last year I have resumed working in these very environments. One floor is focused more on residents with head injuries or other cognitive impairment that lends to the potential for the violence (via aggressive behaviour) and as many have a variety of physical impairment the risk to caregivers, for strain-related injury, is high. The other floor is moving toward a focus as a seniors rehab, so while the cognitive impairment might not be as prevalent, the physical demands are ever present.


I watched the senior at the rec. centre going through their circuit training and/or individual programs with physios/kinesiologists; they are working on strength, balance, stabilizing, endurance, flexibility. All these factors are every bit as important for someone my age and none of them can be thought into existence or maintained; let alone improved.

Those being "pro-active" can lessen (but not eliminate entirely) the likelihood of joining the ranks at the rehab facility; of course one could still injure themselves in daily activity or even while exercising. If they are among those that require "hospitalization" then I will be working with them as one of the team of caregivers that participates in their return to their own homes. In order to perform the daily requirements of my job, I must bend, stoop, squat, lunge, reach, stretch, lift, carry and push. As this is part of my livelihood currently and for the foreseeable future, I need to be able to withstand the very physical demands of the job. If not, the caregiver can become the cared for, very abruptly. Over the course of my long-standing career I have seen many of my co-workers go off (some with career ending and life altering injuries). This is not going to be me - but it could be.


As said, I have had phases of inactivity and they have had a corresponding detrimental effect. I remember a P.E. teacher in grade nine - lecturing us about inactivity and poor eating habits; I can still hear his South African accent as he states "the next thing you know you have a rather large corporation around your mid-section, your range of motion is decreased, your spine and hips are pulled out of alignment you experience low back pain and you lack the energy you once had. You know what - he was right!

I was experiencing the back pain, the decreased flexibility, I developed agonizing pain in my feet and indeed my stamina and endurance were on the decline.

The decline that leads to hospitalization for some seniors doesn't happen over night - it is an accumulative decline that begins years prior to an acute onset of some trauma or injury. The body is "designed" to be in motion. Maintenance of it's many functions calls for activities that take it through many planes of movement. Muscles intended for balance and stabilization simply atrophy in a lifestyle where the only balancing involves; keeping a tray containing chips, salsa and a soda upright while folded in the recliner chair.

The bottom line for me was I was much too young to feel so damn old. I can accept the impermanence of my human existence etc. but I don't intend to orchestrate an accelerated decline. So a comeback trail is in the works. To all my yogi/yogini friends, I love you, but it might be some time yet (if ever) that I join you on the floor for extended sits. From here on in, I will ask my body what it wants and needs; I will not place demands on it based on what others "can do." I have experienced innumerable cycles of relative wellness and then injury. I have asserted demands on my body beyond what was reasonable, I have demeaned and criticized my body while comparing it to that of others, I have hurt and neglected my body; it is enough!

It is time that I honour my beautiful body, that which has carried me through life, provided my soul a residence - allowed me to experience so many facets of what it is to be human; the reverence and respect, that is it's due.

I want to do everything in my power to withdraw from the zombie apocalypse of the walking wounded and to celebrate life from the temple - my body!