I used to exercise in order to look “hot.” Things have changed. I have recently surrendered to the fact that being “hot” is the least of my worries. Being upright has taken its place.
I have worked-out regularly for the past thirty-plus years. At first it was six am aerobics classes where I wore cute leotards and leg warmers before coming home to shower and drive downtown to the LA apparel mart to my job in fashion. Next I added weight training and for a short time, took up running. I trained for a 10-k and actually finished, although it was more of a limp than a run.
When I moved to San Pedro in my early forties I was still trying to look buff and keep some definition in my arms, legs and abs. I was single then, so holding my stomach in was of occasional importance. When Tom and I married, I prepared for our wedding by working out with my first trainer, Brad.
Brad was my 5:00 am angel at the Sports Club LA. He met me every morning and had me balancing on the big ball, on my knees, and lifting 500-pound weights with my legs. When I walked down the aisle at the Hotel Bel Air to meet my sweet man, I looked good! I was after all, forty-nine when Tom and I married. From then on it took a team to keep me in shape.
I did Pilates for eight years with Chad, gyro-tonics with someone who had clearly not read the Geneva Convention and another four years of private yoga with Joseph. In between there was a blur of trainers too numerous to name. But let me say, I worked-out! Even after my head injury seven years ago, when I fractured my skull and had a brain bleed, I was up and moving within a few weeks. I knew enough NOT to sit down and let it all settle.
This is what surprises me about today. It is as though I have never exercised! Sure, I pretty much took the months of December and January off from exercise. After all, I was busy with the holidays and then of course I was sick. Five weeks ago I went back to the gym with my trainer of the past three years, Erik.
Erik is one of the best trainers I have ever worked with. First of all, he is a super-cute, 26-year old athlete. He is also, an amazingly focused, knowledgeable, fitness- guru with a respectable amount of experience in working with athletes and old people, for whom he shows little mercy.
The first year I trained with Erik I worked out two days a week and walked at home on my treadmill another four or five days a week. Things were good. Then I dislocated my knee by trying to move an eight-foot sofa the way I had done it all of my life, with my knee. The knee went off to the side the sofa did not. I was thrown to the ground in excruciating pain and feared I may never again walk without a limp and the aid of a cane. Fortunately, I called Dr. Dunham and he said that I could move my knee as soon as I could bear the pain, so I called Erik and made arrangements to be at the gym the following Monday.
I increased my workouts to three days a week. Ten months after my knee was fully rehabilitated, I tripped walking up my front steps while reading a text, (from Erik,) and fell on my chin. That took a while to heal and the gigantic purple bruise exacted a huge dose of pride. The five Kaminski’s and their two big dogs moved in eight months later so I gave away the treadmill to make room. No problem. When they arrived, I enlisted Stephanie to work out with Shelley, Erik and me five days a week. We were up and sweating at 5:30 each morning. I was a stud!
When the kids moved to Alabama, I fell out of rhythm. I had lost my daily exercise buddy and now had no treadmill. My workouts fell back to two or more days a week, still Erik coached me along.
We worked out one day a week at the gym and one day a week on the beach. The beach workouts were the biggest challenge for me. Running and jumping, pulling a weighted ship’s-rope in soft sand means a challenge to stability. In the winter it is cold and in the summer it is cold. In the fall and spring it is hot. A month ago, I hollered “uncle” and resumed my private workouts. I needed to get back into some kind of decent shape.
So here we are five weeks later. I am working hard and definitely getting stronger. My two biggest challenges are breathing, and balance. I arrive at the gym ready to work at 7:45 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I start with ten minutes on the Cybex machine and then go to weights or God-awful footwork. Footwork is my least favorite thing and it’s getting worse. In this exercise, Erik throws down three or more blue rings and asks me to step quickly in and out of the rings using a variation of patterns. I am okay with this, (except for the “quickly” part.) He has me first going forward and then backwards. Okay, I’m good at backing up. Hah! (See previous blog from ten months ago and then judge my “backing-up prowess.)
Now he has kicked it up a notch and has me doing one-foot pattern, either forward or backward, then he calls “switch,” at which time I am supposed to change patterns while moving forward and backward! What is up with that? It requires brain participation and limb participation and did I mention I have big feet over which I can and have tripped? I can’t do this!!!!! It’s hard!!!!! I don’t like it!!!!!!! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!
Erik says this is for my balance. He says I have to know how to change directions in the event of a fall and that I should go so fast as to feel as though I might fall! Oh, that’s it. Ten months ago I tripped over the dog, fell and fractured my cheekbone. Maybe if I had been good at all of this fancy footwork I could have recovered my balance and remained vertical. I wish I could go back to worrying about being “hot!” I would even be willing to hold my stomach in. In the meantime, I’m getting a new treadmill and I’m going to practice walking backwards.
My life is so glamorous! It’s jus not fair, lucky for me!!
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