From Dragonfly: Sore from One End to the Other

When I was on the outside, I was told that I should exercise, even if it hurts. Since everything hurts, the docs recommended walking and swimming. I keep going to look for a swimming pool, here, but alas I have yet to find one. So, walking is what I have been doing. On an almost daily basis, I walk around the track. Some say 4x around is a mile, some say 5x. I don't walk fast, but I walk what I can - sometimes two laps, sometimes six. I usually walk with a friend, sometimes on my own.

As I wrote yesterday, I decided to try the yoga video for people with arthritis. Now I know exactly why I was recommended walking and swimming, and not other types of exercise. OUCH! I think every joint I have is inflamed at the moment. Obviously, when you start in yoga, you find muscles you didn't even know you had, but these are not my muscles hurting. It is all joints.

The thing that sucks the most about this, is that I really enjoyed doing the workout. I went with Cali and it's always better to have a "workout buddy," than to go it alone. She even chose to do my video with me. I learned poses - like Warrior I and Warrior II; Standing Mountain was by far the easiest. I enjoyed part of the warm-up, the standing poses, and the reclining poses. The video shows ways to do it with a chair, which would help some with bad balance (like myself), but we don't have chairs in there. So, I grabbed a large blow up "thingy" and used that to help with my balance. It worked. Until last night, when the expressions on my face led everyone to wonder what the heck was wrong with me... "ouch."

Red asked me to avoid the yoga today and to just try it on days I'm getting my injection or just after. It's not a bad idea. I don't know if my injection will help, but perhaps it would. I just got an injection on Monday, though, so a Wednesday workout should be close enough. It sucks when you no longer can make the healthiest decisions concerning your body. I want to be active. I want to run. I can never really run again. At least, that's what the doctor's and websites about my condition, say. I watch softball, kickball, and basketball. I can not play any of the three. I used to play all three. Well, I "could" play anything I want, but paying the price right away during/after, is just not good decision making.

Anyway, it is not going to stop me from trying to be more active. Even if I don't do a video today, I will go with Cali to Inside Rec this morning. I can just do some stretching, or basic mat exercises I learned in physical therapy back home. There's are exercise balls that I know some exercises for. There are steps, where I can continue to strengthen my walking up/down stairs. There are 1 pound weights, that I can use for toning - although I prefer my exercise band for that purpose (it's working, too!). It's been a long, long time since I've been active. I'm going to keep trying to find the right exercises and even stick with the yoga if I can, because being active feels good, even if my joints hate me for doing it!