You all heard about the assessment process I went through as a re-joining member. The next step for me—as it is for all new members—was to return to go through what the assessment revealed, with Caitlin the exercise physiologist. At my request, Caitlin had reached all the way back to the year 2000 to find my very original assessment, so we could compare it with the one I had undergone last week. Big mistake. Okay, let’s just say that the numbers she presented to me should give me the incentive I need to get myself back on track. Should.
After my three-year hiatus from the Wellness Center–three years in which I got very little exercise and spent more and more of my time just sitting–the numbers were mostly all bad. In those intervening years I had gained rather too much weight and my cholesterol had gone up slightly. My aerobic capacity, however, was only slightly deteriorated from my last assessment and my flexibility had diminished, indeed, but had not returned to my pre-Wellness Center level of 2000 which, to say the least, was laughably bad.
I recall quite clearly taking that original flexibility test—sitting on the floor, legs straight in front, and bending over to push a lever to a certain distance. I barely moved that lever back in 2000. I’ve since learned that such tightness was, indeed, the unfortunate byproduct of sitting at a keyboard of one sort or another for more than 30 years. Sitting, we learn, is simply not good for one’s body, as evidenced in this article.
Back in 2000, when I first enrolled here, I took up yoga with a vengeance in an attempt to bring some elasticity into those leather-like limbs. Consequently, at my first six-month recheck back then, I had improved so much on that flexibility test that the staff thought their machine was broken. I intend to take up yoga again this time around because I fully remember how much good it did me last time. Today I feel as flexible as a piece of sewer pipe.
This new assessment was a bit disconcerting in another way. I learned I had lost a bit of height since I was last measured. My doctor hadn’t mentioned this and so I made a mental note to bring it up to her during my next physical. Could this be osteoperosis? Maybe. Or, maybe just my bad habits of slouching and not exercising (see this article from Harvard) — two things I think I can actually do something about. I hope to stem that particular tide of decrepitude if I can. I don’t need to be any shorter, thank you very much.
For each piece of the assessment that Caitlyn had done, the computer program spit out a goal for me to shoot for based on the measurements, my past history, my age, and what I told Caitlyn I was most interested in doing at the Wellness Center (classes; few machines).
So, there it all was, on paper, plain as day–my goals! Now that I could see them all neatly written down and handed to me like an assignment, they didn’t seem all that daunting for some reason. Instead, I got excited about starting my program and attempting to follow the recommendations.
Here’s what those recommendations are: get cardio exercise three times a week; strength training two times a week, and flexibility and stretching activities all the time. That seemed easy enough to follow if I put my mind (and body) to it. So, I left Caitlyn and planned to return to the Wellness Center a little later in the day to join a class I saw listed.
Meanwhile, if you, dear reader, follow my escapades here and see me slipping or failing to follow through, I hope you’ll be kind. I also hope you won’t blame the Wellness Center for my lack of progress. If I fail, I’m reasonably certain the Wellness Center won’t be to blame.
[For the beginning of this tale, see A metal cube of junk? That's me. ]
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