SilvyrRain
During the past two weeks, I have been trying to incorporate exercise in my life. Before I became disabled, I was an athlete and I had been very athletic my entire life. I played soccer for half of my life, spent a few years playing volleyball, and spent some more years with a daily routine that included high intensity swimming, biking, and a lot of walking. I had recently started to be able to do the butterfly, which I loved since it felt like I was flying! But, then I got sick, which resulted in disability for me. It was almost impossible to do any sort of exercise and the depression did not help either.
My illness has the nickname “the fainting illness” for a reason. Simply standing for more than a few minutes puts me at risk of fainting. I have gone swimming a number of times, and while difficult, I have been able to do a little bit, since swimming allows for exercise while in the horizontal position and the water lifts off some of gravity’s pressure. It does make me a bit sad to swim now as I can only do basic, slow strokes, but I do still like to be in the water. Unfortunately, with finances being a concern, I no longer have a gym membership. Plus, it is difficult to get up and go out sometimes.
I’ve now been working on trying to fit in exercise daily while in my home. It is difficult to find exercises that I can do because any kind of upright exercise is currently off the table. So, I’ve started to create my own exercises, exercises that I do on my back. I alternate exercises with my legs and my arms. For leg exercises, I do a cycling motion with my legs in my air. I also mix it up with some leg lifts of various kinds. For arm exercises, I do punching motions mainly, but mix it up with various other arm lifts as well.
It is difficult. I went through many days of soreness, but my body finally seems to be accepting the movements. My main challenge now is sticking with it. I know how important it is to include movement into my everyday life, whether I am disabled or not. And perhaps it is even more important now that I am disabled. I don’t like to be this out of shape. But, it is hard to beat my own head that wonders if any of this is worth it, since I can do so little. Yet, I’m going to try to keep pushing myself.
Even though I may look like a turtle fallen on its back while I exercise, exercising daily is still important. Perhaps if I keep telling myself that, I’ll feel it one day.
