Visitors Now:
Total Visits:
Total Stories:
Profile image
By Towards A New World
Contributor profile | More stories
Story Views

Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

New Hiking Buddy

Thursday, October 11, 2012 21:13
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

(Before It's News)

Joanna and I went out on our first hike together today along a local trail just a couple of miles from where we live. It was an excellent brisk walk– and lasted for almost 2 hours. Not bad! She's shorter than I (but then, most women are, as I'm 5'8″) but in pretty good shape and we actually walk at the same pace comfortably. I sort of lope along while she works it like a piston next to me. It was a level walk, which is good for getting back into shape. I prefer real hiking in forested hills and mountains– but that is HARD hiking when you've been out of commission for a couple of months! So– yeah, gotta work my way up to that.

The walk was gorgeous: upper 60s, sunny, slight breeze, fall colors in full splendor, along a trail of rolling hills, farms, and adorable mixed homes (and incomes) along a walkway that was separated from roads or much cross traffic. Very nice.

Yesterday I danced for an hour and a half– but an hour of that was very easy movement stuff, not too strenuous. Stretches and just sort of walking in place to music on headphones. Still a good start though. I came out of my flare doing mostly yoga type exercise just to pull myself back into some sort of semblance of flexibility again.

Chronic conditions that effect physical functionality do a double whammy on the body, because there's the initial issues stemming from the illness flaring up– but then the longer it goes on, the worse the muscles become de-conditioned and tendons and ligaments get shortened from lack of stretching. It makes coming out of prolonged flares extra tough– as you are now facing dealing with a body less cooperative than it was before the flare began. Which, in turn, exacerbates issues with pain and it just makes for a miserable mess.

Over the years before my prolonged remission, I became used to trying my best to dance, walk, bike or otherwise get out and be active on days when my body actually worked. However, that gets tougher the older you get. I may have been ill much more often in my 20s than now, but my body didn't deteriorate as quickly during flares.

I look at it this way though– I have 2 things going for me:

1) I'm stubborn. I don't like to give up. I know what happens when I don't MOVE for prolonged periods of time and I hate to give up on being active and succumb to a life as an invalid. I have so many limitations as it is, I refuse to allow further ones to take over my life if I can help it.

2) I actually ENJOY many forms of exercise. I hate gym-type stuff, but I love many other things. I love dancing– just giving in to music and letting my body talk for me. And hiking and biking outdoors– I love nature, and I love being in it actively. The actual process of movement, even with some discomfort and low-level pain brings me so much pleasure that I'll go through a lot to experience it.

I'm not a natural “couch potato” in other words. Which is why I get so offended, I suppose, when ignorant, biased people accuse me of being lazy when I'm suffering through a flare. I'm all, “Ex-CUSE me!?” Because, look– um… NO. I know many other people as well that have issues of a similar if not identical nature, and they're very active people before their illness hit and afterwards keep trying to be between flares again.

ANYWAY-! =^)

Point being Joanna likes to walk and we pace together perfectly, and we're right next door to one another so that's handy. We both want an exercise “buddy” and so maybe we both just found one! Woot and stuff! Winter is coming, but autumn walking is my favorite kind, actually– not too hot or cold and beautiful– and not crowded. There should be another month or 2 of walking before it gets too cold for a few months again. Enough time to get back to a reasonable state of things.

And no post-exertional fatigue after dancing yesterday or hiking today– so things are looking up right now for sure. I'm so grateful.



Source:

Report abuse

Comments

Your Comments
Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

Top Stories
Recent Stories

Register

Newsletter

Email this story
Email this story

If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.