Help, I have exercised and I can’t move my arms. Remember that commercial – Help I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.
I have been swimming for the last 2 days. I did find a swimming suit that fit – barely. I went also went to the swimming store and purchased a kickboard, goggles, training fins, hand paddles and a pull buoy. I know it seems like a lot of equipment just to get in the pool and splash around, but it is all stuff I need to train, and get my muscles back in shape.
The first day I got in the pool, it felt like being back home. As I have said, I love the water. Must be the Australian in me. I swam my first 2 laps of Freestyle and really thought I was going to die. My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest and I couldn’t catch my breath. In an effort to keep my heart rate up I turned around and did 2 lengths of breaststroke. That wasn’t so bad, but my stroke felt clunky and uncoordinated. I could hear my old swim coach in the back of my mind shouting, “Kick, stroke, glide, don’t put your head all the way in the water…and so on.”
I then got out my kickboard and fins, and kicked for 4 lengths. Oh, that was painful. And I could feel every ounce of fat jiggle with each kick. Then to the paddles and the pull buoy. 2 lengths of Freestyle, 2 lengths of backstroke. I could feel muscles contracting that hadn’t been used in years. And finally, I finished it off with 4 lengths of a slow stroke, Breaststroke, Backstroke, Freestyle and a length of Sidestroke.
All of that took me about 40 minutes to do. And honestly, I felt rejuvenated. I went home, fed the dogs, cooked dinner for my family, ate and collapsed into bed. I slept like a baby.
I did the same thing yesterday, but things felt easier, not so strained. I finished in under 30 minutes. My strokes felt smoother, I felt stronger, I felt like I was going faster. A lady in the pool asked me how long I had been swimming for, I said just for two days, and she said “Oh you are such a good swimmer.” I thanked her and said I was completely out of shape, but that would change. She said, “I can’t wait to see how fast you swim when you are in shape.” We laughed.
I went home, fed the dogs, cooked dinner, folded laundry, and collapsed into bed.
I woke up this morning, and I can feel the muscles in my shoulders and in my arms. This is good. It is a good pain. I am bummed I can’t go swimming tonight. I am on call and I just don’t see how I can make that work. Perhaps I will walk the dogs. They will probably walk me.
ADDENDUM:
I wrote this post several weeks ago. I thought I should give this all a trial before I started blogging about it, just in case I said to hell with it, I can live with being fat. Well, I haven’t given up, I am plodding along (or maybe it is sloshing along). Yesterday, I completed 36 lengths (900 yards), just over half a mile. My goal is a mile, for each day that I exercise, so that is 70.4 laps.
I definitely feel stronger, I can see the biceps in my arms. Someone at work told me I looked thinner, and they didn’t even know I had been exercising. So, that is very exciting. They said I looked shorter too – which is weird, why would I be shrinking with exercise. I have been 5’ 9” forever, I don’t want to be any shorter.
Photo credit – pinterest.com