fookisan
Guest
Written for a 12 step group
Instead of the usual craziness of past Black Friday shopping binges, I now substitute other areas of activity. Yesterday I hit the slopes as they opened early this year and did some skiboarding. The snow guns were running day and night and the snow was not groomed in most areas. My legs were shaky and sore from pushing powder all day. I do lots of leg exercise, but jogging, squats, leg extensions and leg curls are not the same as ski specific movements. I even use a ski machine that simulates the side to side carving motion, but alas it is not the same as real snow. My fakie (backwards) riding was very poor when compared to where I left off last season. In my local, I only get to participate in snow sports 3 months out the year on average. Was surprised my fakie riding was that bad since I have been inline skating backwards almost daily and skate backwards for 15% to 20% of the time that I skate. Apparently skating backwards does not translate to skiboarding backwards. All these issues reminded me of an old post "The less you do...the less you will be able to do" By the end of the day, my fakie riding ability was coming back to me, but still needs more work to get me back to where it was last season.
"The less you do...the less you will be able to do"
The less you do...the less you will be able to do. I was reminded of this truism back in June when the public pool opened up. I generally swim in the pool during summer time and then just quit for the other 9 months out of the year when the outdoor pool closes at Labor Day. I felt that I do many movement related activities that are just as good as swimming such as weight training, jogging, yoga, mountain biking, cross country skiing, etc. Well, the day after my first day back in the pool my back was pinched as well as my shoulder. Apparently weight training, jogging and mountain biking is not the same as doing the backstroke.
I first learned of this concept that the less you do...the less you will be able to do from my Mom. One day she got dizzy while bending over. My dad told her that he would bend over for her, so she would not get dizzy. Apparently he did not realize that the less you do...the less you will be able to do. Well, his well meaning help only encouraged more dizziness in Mom since the fluid in her ear that regulates equilibrium and balance would stagnate from less movement. Mom then complained about getting dizzy when she got out of bed. What was her answer? She would sleep in a recliner at an angle so she would not have to lie down and go through the dizziness. The angle gradually kept getting steeper until she had to sleep sitting almost upright. What is my response to all this dizziness? If something make me dizzy - I do more of it and make myself even more dizzy. (As long as dizziness is not a medical issue. To satisfy the women critics that complain to me, my Mom, has gone to doctors weekly since I was a little boy and is a pill abuser. So pills and doctors are not in short supply. Movent or lack of movent is what is missing from her life not pills and doctors.)
I've seen many MD's that are supposed to be experts at health yet they fail terribly when it comes to themselves. On a walking trail I met a retired doctor the other day. He was bent over and quite distorted. I talked with him at length about his exercise program and diet. He does plenty of walking - but walking bent over in bad form. Gravity keeps pulling him in the wrong direction, so he keeps perpetuating the bad. He did no weight training, no yoga, no stretching, no work on righting his posture through various mechanical methods. He was not distorted due to ill health, he was distorted from years of heading in the wrong direction with his posture and his life. I planted many seed in him for right living, but do not know if they will sprout. this is an area where we are all on level ground whether rich or poor. You cannot pay your butler to eat healthy food for you or to do your exercises. BTW, what was I doing on the asphalt walking trail? I was rollerblading and running my gas powered motoboard. (skateboard) The motoboard. goes 30 mph and provides good speed training as well a balance and equilibrium training.
As we age we seem to lose many abilities. Now, losing some skills is fine, but losing most of them is not. Personally I have to be mindful of many areas as I like to be as well rounded as possible with my health. I was doing some rock climbing a few years ago near Malibu and did OK after I got warmed up. A year later after laying off all climbing, when I returned to the same place to climb I had knots in my stomach when I first viewed the climb. It looked scary to me, but once I got at it and started to climb, the knots disappeared. This also taught me that the less you do...the less you will be able to do. If I cant get some rock climbing in I try to pull out the ladder for some second story work or climb a tree.
This year was reminded this same lesson the first time I got back on the high dive in June. The high dive seemed too high for me, so I stayed off it the last few years. This year I decided to back on the high dive. I do not do anything to brag about on it, but just going off it was a good improvement for me. Was hoping to do some back flips off the less high springboard, but did not get around to trying them this season. My regular springboard diving improved in any case and at my age I am grateful for any improvement - it beats going backwards. Guess I'll just have to dream about the back flips for now. Actually dreaming can help. Psycho Cybernetics was created by Maxwell Maltz and this process of visualizing movents to perfect them helps with many sports.
This weekend starts a local GNCC style dirt bike course opening. It is only opened for 7 days a year for public riding. The 2 places I rode at last year shut down, so have had to curtail my dirt bike work. Dirt bikes provide much in the area of equilibrium, balance and speed training. Also provide much physical exertion and when you ride em you will feel it later. Doing wheelies is also great training for an old dog like me. One young neighbor lady ran out her house to chase me down the street to scold me for doing wheelies in the street. What is the other option that would please her...a rocking chair and slippers? No, I prefer to keep my rocking chair as my 450 Honda thumper that breathes fire and emits thunder and will keep my motocross boots as my slippers. I hope to be doing wheelies down the street when I'm 80 if I live that long. Tonight when I got out my dirt bikes for the first time in months I was reminded of the less you do...the less you will be able to do. My back was sore and wrist got pinched a little when I came down from a wheelie and jump in my backyard while warming them up. When I go out tomorrow will wear some wrist supports and a kidney belt but will keep on keeping on.
Height training, speed training, strength training, mental training, flexibility training, balance and equilibrium training - there are many areas to train ourselves. If you aspire to be a mountaineer there is cold training as well as high altitude training as good preparation for climbing Everest or K2. If you ski then speed training is good. But speed training on skis is different from speed training on snowboards, as I found out last year. And speed training in snow sports is different from speed training while driving a motorcycle as my son found out. And speed training while driving a motorcycle is different from speed training while sprinting the 100 meters. And none of the preceding activities necessarily help with riding a unicycle or learning to juggle.
Cross training is important, but many activities do not exactly replace other activities. So, the moral of the story is do all that you can do, for a day will come when you cannot do it any longer and all you can do is watch. This year will seek out a public indoor pool for the other 9 months cause in addition to doing my weight training, jogging, speed training, mountain biking, cross country skiing, snowboarding and yoga - they are not the same as doing the backstroke. And no matter what physical activity you participate in, don't forget to warm up and stretch. What does this post have to do with addiction recovery work as one lady critic wrote me when it was posted earlier? You can answer that question for yourself. Do you have a better chance at recovery when your mind is clear, you body is healthy and you feel confident and have self esteem? Or do you do better when you are a dizzy mess, depressed, losing mobility and skills, fearful and in poor physical shape?
"Minds like bodies will often fall into a pimpled, ill condition state from mere excess of comfort" ~ Charles Dickens
fookisan
Instead of the usual craziness of past Black Friday shopping binges, I now substitute other areas of activity. Yesterday I hit the slopes as they opened early this year and did some skiboarding. The snow guns were running day and night and the snow was not groomed in most areas. My legs were shaky and sore from pushing powder all day. I do lots of leg exercise, but jogging, squats, leg extensions and leg curls are not the same as ski specific movements. I even use a ski machine that simulates the side to side carving motion, but alas it is not the same as real snow. My fakie (backwards) riding was very poor when compared to where I left off last season. In my local, I only get to participate in snow sports 3 months out the year on average. Was surprised my fakie riding was that bad since I have been inline skating backwards almost daily and skate backwards for 15% to 20% of the time that I skate. Apparently skating backwards does not translate to skiboarding backwards. All these issues reminded me of an old post "The less you do...the less you will be able to do" By the end of the day, my fakie riding ability was coming back to me, but still needs more work to get me back to where it was last season.
"The less you do...the less you will be able to do"
The less you do...the less you will be able to do. I was reminded of this truism back in June when the public pool opened up. I generally swim in the pool during summer time and then just quit for the other 9 months out of the year when the outdoor pool closes at Labor Day. I felt that I do many movement related activities that are just as good as swimming such as weight training, jogging, yoga, mountain biking, cross country skiing, etc. Well, the day after my first day back in the pool my back was pinched as well as my shoulder. Apparently weight training, jogging and mountain biking is not the same as doing the backstroke.
I first learned of this concept that the less you do...the less you will be able to do from my Mom. One day she got dizzy while bending over. My dad told her that he would bend over for her, so she would not get dizzy. Apparently he did not realize that the less you do...the less you will be able to do. Well, his well meaning help only encouraged more dizziness in Mom since the fluid in her ear that regulates equilibrium and balance would stagnate from less movement. Mom then complained about getting dizzy when she got out of bed. What was her answer? She would sleep in a recliner at an angle so she would not have to lie down and go through the dizziness. The angle gradually kept getting steeper until she had to sleep sitting almost upright. What is my response to all this dizziness? If something make me dizzy - I do more of it and make myself even more dizzy. (As long as dizziness is not a medical issue. To satisfy the women critics that complain to me, my Mom, has gone to doctors weekly since I was a little boy and is a pill abuser. So pills and doctors are not in short supply. Movent or lack of movent is what is missing from her life not pills and doctors.)
I've seen many MD's that are supposed to be experts at health yet they fail terribly when it comes to themselves. On a walking trail I met a retired doctor the other day. He was bent over and quite distorted. I talked with him at length about his exercise program and diet. He does plenty of walking - but walking bent over in bad form. Gravity keeps pulling him in the wrong direction, so he keeps perpetuating the bad. He did no weight training, no yoga, no stretching, no work on righting his posture through various mechanical methods. He was not distorted due to ill health, he was distorted from years of heading in the wrong direction with his posture and his life. I planted many seed in him for right living, but do not know if they will sprout. this is an area where we are all on level ground whether rich or poor. You cannot pay your butler to eat healthy food for you or to do your exercises. BTW, what was I doing on the asphalt walking trail? I was rollerblading and running my gas powered motoboard. (skateboard) The motoboard. goes 30 mph and provides good speed training as well a balance and equilibrium training.
As we age we seem to lose many abilities. Now, losing some skills is fine, but losing most of them is not. Personally I have to be mindful of many areas as I like to be as well rounded as possible with my health. I was doing some rock climbing a few years ago near Malibu and did OK after I got warmed up. A year later after laying off all climbing, when I returned to the same place to climb I had knots in my stomach when I first viewed the climb. It looked scary to me, but once I got at it and started to climb, the knots disappeared. This also taught me that the less you do...the less you will be able to do. If I cant get some rock climbing in I try to pull out the ladder for some second story work or climb a tree.
This year was reminded this same lesson the first time I got back on the high dive in June. The high dive seemed too high for me, so I stayed off it the last few years. This year I decided to back on the high dive. I do not do anything to brag about on it, but just going off it was a good improvement for me. Was hoping to do some back flips off the less high springboard, but did not get around to trying them this season. My regular springboard diving improved in any case and at my age I am grateful for any improvement - it beats going backwards. Guess I'll just have to dream about the back flips for now. Actually dreaming can help. Psycho Cybernetics was created by Maxwell Maltz and this process of visualizing movents to perfect them helps with many sports.
This weekend starts a local GNCC style dirt bike course opening. It is only opened for 7 days a year for public riding. The 2 places I rode at last year shut down, so have had to curtail my dirt bike work. Dirt bikes provide much in the area of equilibrium, balance and speed training. Also provide much physical exertion and when you ride em you will feel it later. Doing wheelies is also great training for an old dog like me. One young neighbor lady ran out her house to chase me down the street to scold me for doing wheelies in the street. What is the other option that would please her...a rocking chair and slippers? No, I prefer to keep my rocking chair as my 450 Honda thumper that breathes fire and emits thunder and will keep my motocross boots as my slippers. I hope to be doing wheelies down the street when I'm 80 if I live that long. Tonight when I got out my dirt bikes for the first time in months I was reminded of the less you do...the less you will be able to do. My back was sore and wrist got pinched a little when I came down from a wheelie and jump in my backyard while warming them up. When I go out tomorrow will wear some wrist supports and a kidney belt but will keep on keeping on.
Height training, speed training, strength training, mental training, flexibility training, balance and equilibrium training - there are many areas to train ourselves. If you aspire to be a mountaineer there is cold training as well as high altitude training as good preparation for climbing Everest or K2. If you ski then speed training is good. But speed training on skis is different from speed training on snowboards, as I found out last year. And speed training in snow sports is different from speed training while driving a motorcycle as my son found out. And speed training while driving a motorcycle is different from speed training while sprinting the 100 meters. And none of the preceding activities necessarily help with riding a unicycle or learning to juggle.
Cross training is important, but many activities do not exactly replace other activities. So, the moral of the story is do all that you can do, for a day will come when you cannot do it any longer and all you can do is watch. This year will seek out a public indoor pool for the other 9 months cause in addition to doing my weight training, jogging, speed training, mountain biking, cross country skiing, snowboarding and yoga - they are not the same as doing the backstroke. And no matter what physical activity you participate in, don't forget to warm up and stretch. What does this post have to do with addiction recovery work as one lady critic wrote me when it was posted earlier? You can answer that question for yourself. Do you have a better chance at recovery when your mind is clear, you body is healthy and you feel confident and have self esteem? Or do you do better when you are a dizzy mess, depressed, losing mobility and skills, fearful and in poor physical shape?
"Minds like bodies will often fall into a pimpled, ill condition state from mere excess of comfort" ~ Charles Dickens
fookisan
