Because what’s going on in the world is so very prescient right now, I’m going to post a few links for your perusal, two of which should be inspiring because they are calls to action (the first and the third). The second is what a lot of people have been saying all along: basic immunology is still true. If you catch Covid-19, you development long-lasting immunity to it. I was floored anyone was arguing otherwise at the start of this pandemic back in 2020. 1. http://The Road to Totalitarianism – OffGuardian (off-guardian.org) 2. http://Harvard Epidemiologist Says the Case for COVID Vaccine Passports Was Just Demolished – Foundation for Economic Education (fee.org) 3. http://What the Church Needs to Know about Covid-19 – by Jeff Childers – ☕️ Coffee & Covid 2021 裂 (coffeeandcovid.com)
Now that I’ve gotten that over with, I’m going to proceed writing about something I enjoy and forget about the state of the world for a few minutes. Is that possible? I believe it is. What do I enjoy? Exercise! But like anything else one can do, it comes with its own set of challenges and moral quandaries. In my case, the two are related.
I started exercising regularly in high school to get outside my mind and to develop my muscles so that I was no longer just the skinny girl, but the skinny muscular girl. I didn’t have a ghost of a chance of putting on weight back then. Trust me, I tried. Since then, exercise has become a point of pride for me. That is, unfortunately, my moral quandary. I’m prideful about my ability to continue exercising after thirty-odd years.
Not everyone can or will. Many get sick, tired, or suffer from an injury and give up. I’ve suffered from multiple injuries over the years and haven’t given up. When I observe the world around me, I see that the people who injured themselves and gave up have deteriorated beyond their initial injuries, while those who didn’t give up have not. Because I’ve managed to “fix” my injuries through continued movement, I tend to fall into the kind of pride common to those who can crack codes that others can’t, even if that code doesn’t take a lot of brain power.
I was thinking about this because it was hard to get back into exercise after I was sick. I didn’t exercise for three weeks, and when I started again, I could only manage short walks and twenty-minute workouts made for women who are above the age of fifty. It felt as if I’d advanced in age five or more years. It was frustrating. It got me wondering if I’d ever be back to normal. And then I wondered what normal was when life isn’t static and age progresses into degradation rather than strength. While it’s possible at any age to improve one’s situation, that situation is constantly in flux.
Now that I’m back to my normal exercise routines, the front of my mind has largely forgotten these philosophical thoughts. Meanwhile, the back of my mind is still processing them. I suppose this is the hazard to sliding too close to fifty for comfort. But to the core of my being, I still believe that giving up at any point, at any age, will be worse for my body and mind than continued movement. So for the moment, I’ll do what I can manage. And then if I arrive at a point where I can’t manage it, I’ll adjust my exercise to meet the new reality, and then I’ll readjust as necessary. The chiropractor is also useful at times.
What does it mean to readjust? It means finding exercises that are specifically meant to strengthen and stretch injured areas of the body so that the body can heal. Sometimes the body will need a rest, but if that rest goes on too much longer than a week (in my case), it’s going to be harder and harder to heal. I’m obviously not talking about broken bones, here, but I did break my tailbone when I was about thirty while rollerblading, and after an adjustment at the chiropractor, it felt better to walk than to sit until healing was complete. I’m not sure the same would hold true for a broken leg or foot bone, however. That is not the kind of injury I’m talking about. I’m talking about strained ligaments, spills that might dislocate something (a couple of years ago, I dislocated my shoulder and fell on my hip while I was at it), aching knees, hips, or backs, and pinched nerves.
Clumsiness aside, many of my injuries have been caused by exercising too much in one specific way, improper stretching, and ditching all my stability work for cardio because I was bored of strength and stability. This string of errors caused an injured knee, an injured hip, and sciatica. For the injured knee, I stopped doing exercise that put stress on my knees and wore a knee band for a while. This took me several years, but I no longer have to wear the knee band, so I guess it worked. For the injured hip, I did flowing stretches rather than static stretches. Although I no longer do yoga because it’s a religious practice associated with Hinduism, at that time, I did yoga for two months straight. The pain passed, but it does come back from time to time, and I have to address it once again through fluid stretching. For the sciatica, I had to do exercises that were focused on stretching and strengthening the back, abs, hips, etc. After about two weeks, I’ve had no reoccurrence of pain associated with a pinched nerve. The sciatica was very painful, by the way. I don’t ever want to have a reoccurrence of it.
My focus right now is on accomplishing a rotating series of exercise types: cardio, strength, and stability (this last is usually core and balance work). Since I exercise six days a week, I simply repeat this series of three twice in a week. Also, I believe walking is very important to maintaining health and will walk seven days a week. This seems to be working for me again, now that I’ve recuperated from my illness. I can’t change my clumsy nature, but I can try to keep my body from becoming cramped and gimpy. I should add that I recently invested in an expensive pair of workout shoes, too.
The problem with accomplishing healthful activities (that work) is that they can be a source of pride, as I already noted. E.g. I don’t eat garbage food, either, like those people do. God does not want us to compare ourselves to others. The opposite of envy is smugness, which is frankly a trait most people find intolerable. The Bible has a lot to say about both envy and pride. On the other hand, healthful living can be a source of satisfaction instead of pride. No human being is invulnerable, but exercise has kept my lab numbers normal for cholesterol, triglycerides, etc. I’m also never been out of my BMI range, not even close. I’m not chiseled, to say the least. I wish I had a slimmer waist, for example, but I don’t. I didn’t when I was eighteen, and I certainly don’t in my forties after giving birth to four children. That is, I guess, where the envy might come in…except I’m at an age when I don’t care nearly as much as I used to.
There you go. I wrote about something I enjoy instead of Covid-19 and the creeping totalitarianism. I know — all I have to do is reach out my hand just a little, and I’ll touch that topic with this one. Exercise. Obesity. Immunity.… Nope, I’m not going to do it. Exercise is fun. I recommend it. Just don’t give in to the kind of pride that will deceive you into thinking you’re invulnerable…because even if you’re not a clutz like I am, your pride will eventually cause you to fall. That’s the state of life and its degradation until we arrive at the end. (But exercise is still fun!)
Jill Domschot 