Oct. 23, 2002 - 19:43 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Volga Boat Song

A whole new world for Heather and I has opened up. Our HMO has the Silver Sneakers Fitness thing going. The membership is free and attendance not taken.

How could we go wrong ? Well maybe we did, maybe we didn't. Time will tell. We are starting out in the MROM (Muscular Strength and Range Of Movement) class. It sounded do-able to us when we checked on it. We sat on the side and watched a class one day.

Today we made it to our first class. What looked easy to me from the sidelines turned out to be somewhat difficult for this old man. First off trying to coordinate my motions in imitation of the leader. There is a tape playing and the exercises seem to be run at the pace of the music. One thing we were told, "Work within your capabilities and sit something out rather than mess yourself up." Good thing I think. There was a spot or two I sat in the chair and went through the motions as my back doesn't twist too well. About an hour of class was enough for this old dog with new tricks boggling his body.

Remarkably although I am dragging tired, but even from this one session I actually feel better. I believe it will be more beneficial to us than our walks in the park were in the summer.

It also showed me that my right arm and shoulder have not recovered completely from our auto accident in 1997. I think if I am judicious my strength will come up to equal that of my right side. I can see many benefits possible to me if I just hang in there before I get hung up there.

Not too bad a deal, our class is at 10:30 AM which gives me time to eat a bite and have just a sip or two of coffee, take my pills and head out getting there enough ahead of time to avoid panting up to the desk to check in.

Holy Moly, I haven't done any formal exercise since our drills in ROTC which were mild to what the jocks did back then, yet were tiring and brought up our heart rate. Other than that sweating out a new job involving heavy physical activity until I adapted, I exercised not. Jobwise, the physical activity was not done to music guided by a leader. The pace of our class was a bit more rapid than I liked but maybe the adaptation process will make it seem okay.

That class showed me once again that no matter how bad off I think I am there are those worse off and are hanging in there doing the best they can.

I think we are going to like it. Chuckle, toward the end of our class today it seemed there was some slow music playing background in my head, one remembered from years ago, the Volga Boat Song . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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