Way back when, it was kindly pointed out to me that it’s hard to have MS, a full time job, and an exercise program.
Well, I don’t have a full time job any more, so it’s time to get cracking.
I’ve been either pushing the wheelchair or hand cycling several times a week for almost two years now (hard to believe!).
For the last three months, I’ve had a weekly weight training session with my trainer (Robert), and am doing one to two additional sessions per week without him.
Robert propped me up on a recumbent exercise bike right at the start. The first problem was figuring out how to keep my feet on the pedals. It took me several sessions on the bike to get to the point where I could actually initiate pedalling, but once I got going I could keep going for 5-10 minutes at a time, as long as I didn’t get distracted. Now I can get on, strap my feet in and get going by myself. My endurance is really variable – there must be muscles that work some of the time but not others, and some days I can pedal for 30 minutes and other days it all falls apart in the first 5 minutes.
Robert also coaches Masters swimming – I told him once that I could walk in the water with a float belt on, and he said, “Then why aren’t you doing it?” My usual objection to swimming is that it takes a lot of time and energy to get changed before and after, and the pool is frequently too warm. But summer is over, and I’m not working full time, so I think it’s time to discard those excuses.
So what do you think? Should I swim or bike tomorrow? And how weird does it feel for me to even be able to ask that?
