I tend to love spring and summer best, and one reason is very simple; it’s more fun to be out in the world when the weather is nice. My yard in the Springfield home has been my saving grace through pandemic; I can work in the garden, shovel gravel for the back area, pressure wash decks and furniture, plant flowers and vegetables, and enjoy working as a substitute for exercising, which has never been my favorite thing. Once it’s fun to be outside, I have fun outside at whichever task I choose in the moment. I really enjoy the Zen of my yard!
On any regular day of the year my morning routine consists of a few vitamins, then a 20 minute walk inside the house to get in the first mile of the day. I choose to walk in the house simply because it’s less easy to talk myself out of the walk; who cares if it’s raining, snowing, too hot or too cold? I have no excuse and that’s the way things work best for me. After, another supplement taken, then I move on to my ‘workout room’ which has a sit up bench, a rebounder and five pound weights. I spend roughly another 20 minutes moving in this style.
In the summer however, I’m giving myself a bit of a break from the workout…if I know it’s a day to shovel gravel, I’ll probably forgo the twists with weights…I know the purposeful movement of accomplishing a task will also accomplish the stretching and movement of my body parts. At the end of the day in this fairly tired and very injured old body, as we sit to watch a bit of TV, chances are I’ll get on the floor for stretching as I listen in. Even though I believe in the adage, “Use it or lose it” I still have trouble motivating myself to move enough, and I pay attention. I grieve for those trapped at a computer for hours at a time, or sitting in a cross country truck, or on a ladder painting nonstop, or any of the many ways we get stuck in a specific movement to the detriment of a flowing movement pattern in the body.
My nearly 98 year old father in law passed recently. He spent only about 3 months on the actual death process after years of living alone in a two story house with his bedroom and bathroom upstairs and his laundry in the basement. He claimed those steps were his exercise. Towards the end of his life, here was the story: “I know I need to move, but it hurts too much!” To some degree, this is too many of us. When it takes more energy to just move than we feel we have, we stop. That’s the absolute worst thing we can do.
I emulate my grandfather who died at 92 (my father, an angry man died at 60 so I don’t want to mimic that behavior!); a farmer and gardener. I seem to remember he had a heart attack around the age of 75—78, but he never stopped! He simply slowed down a bit more each day, and he remembered to take frequent rest breaks. I find myself doing the same thing. I’ll still weed a flower bed intensely, but I’ll remember to get up and stretch. I’ll still shovel 1000 pounds of gravel occasionally, but I’ll remember to measure how many shovels of gravel suggest it’s time for a short rest.
So for me, a key to movement is first, make the movement have a good purpose, whether it’s achieving health and flexibility, or needing to accomplish a task. Second, don’t overdo, and remember to try to add breath into the movement. Third, don’t stop! Slow down if you must, but keep moving as much as you can do so. And last, we all fall off a bicycle occasionally! No shame there…but get back on it. If you find you’re criticizing self for not getting enough done, get back in there as much as you can, and work to create the right habits instead of letting yourself get stuck in the bad ones.
I have a chapter in my book The Self-Care Guide to Surgery (Singing Dragon, 2020) titled Mindful Movement, Where You Are. The concept is good: anything around you can be your exercise equipment, be it the stairway, an armchair, the kitchen sink, a desk or table…all these things can serve as exercise tools if you allow yourself to see them that way and explore the movements. So, whether you choose to invest in fancy equipment or a fitness center membership, or just practice walking circuits of your home, can you see the goal as exploration of movement instead of feeling you must achieve something? Move for the joy, not the must-do!
Use it or lose it…that says it all, but do it with joy and enth