Monday, February 7, 2011

Keeping Fit

I like working out to build up my muscles and to increase my physical ability. I want to challenge myself every Monday and Wednesday when I'm at the YMCA. How much farther can I bike than last time? How much can I lift and how many times can I do it?

I'm always happy and feel great after a work out, but I usually arrive feeling lazy and tired and not wanting to do anything. I show up because I have seen other people who are in wheelchairs and they can't do a lot; I don't want to be like that.

Exercise is nothing new to me, I had to work with a physiotherapist doing exercises for most of my life. Now I can do what I want and I'm not sure what would help the most so I need to get a work out plan. I want to exercise my arms but I don't know what what's best for me so I'll ask an expert to help me with my goals. I would like to start physio again. It frustrates me sometimes how my muscles don't move the way I want them or it takes a little more time. My muscles can stay tense and I think massage would help relax them.

When I was in school for web design, I wasn't working out. I kept feeling lazy and thinking how I needed to start being more active again. Right now I work out twice a week and have activities that I would like to try. But I'm bad because I'm waiting to try new activities until after I move out of the group home. I know I can start now but part of me doesn't want to in case the activities don't fit in my new independent life. One thing I can try is participating in a group class to see if I can handle it. There are drop-in classes at the YMCA when I'm usually there so it already fits in with my schedule. I may need to try more than one class to find the best fit. I think I might start out with less exercise than normal because my effort is being spent learning all the moves and switching between them. I hope it improves later on.

I don't like all of it. I stopped using one leg weight machine because it always hurt my upper legs. I've always wanted to try kick boxing because I think it would be fun. I've tried yoga, it was different. We moved fast and sometimes it was hard for me to keep up with the class. I would like to try one where we spend more time in the different poses so I have time to get into the pose and keep up. I was involved in swimming growing up and want to get back into it. I have a wider range of movement in the water and I feel better after it. I competed in the special Olympics. I love being in water because it makes me walk and helps my legs.  

2 comments:

  1. Hey Shawna, keep up the good work! Sounds like you have the motivation and determination to achieve your goals, so good luck with that. I'll be interested to hear what programs you decide to follow up with. I've done kickboxing before and loved it, great stress reliever!

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  2. I just put another post up about doing Y-Bo, check it out!

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