Reporting for duty sir

In a health blog such was mine, I am grateful to be reporting progress in lifestyle gains. For you as a reader it has to be somewhat on the boring side, and I get it. We do want to move on to things.  But on the other hand I disclose my battles because I think they are quite common to all of us as we age. My motivation really is share what I find is working for me and it is really a work in progress.
What I have experienced is aging really can slow you down. All my years falling has come back to bite me, but giving into it isn't the answer. So with that in mind, how am I progressing this week?
I will share two stickies I keep on my computer to track a few things.

One thing I want to do is 150 min. of exercise that improves my aerobic capacity, strength and flexibility. Another thing I want to do is to keep walking in a way where I do not fall and improve my balance as well. With cerebral palsy I can lose the ability to balance like many people do in there 70's and 80's. Balance can improve but with an impairment the progress can be a bit slower. As you get older you may find balance issues you never had before. Take heart you can recover balance with a little know how and practice.
This week on my bike I did more intense workouts for aerobics. I applied an virtual walk walking an Hawaiian coast with the wonderful sound of the ocean and scene on my TV screen.  I also played an audio mystery and the time flew. Hearing the ocean was cool.
Every day I took short walks and a couple household shores. Granted the walks were only 80 to 100 feet, but I took them anyway. Included in thee walks was stair climbing. I also had brief workouts in home walking with moves side to side and backwards, kicking and high knee lifts. The movement include upper body movements all designed to move everything and balance. There was strength moves as well with TRX, body exercises, bands and weights. Well, I made my 150 minutes and then some and I can see the more I put into the easier it is.

A side benefit is less pain. Right now I can walk for 4 minutes rather than 2 or 3 before pain hits and my knees feel better. Biking with the support from the recumbent bike is pain free. Breathing is better and balance. It is still ongoing.
Don't get hung up about what you can do and not. You can break up the fitness any way it works for you. I am a big fan of a recumbent bike, they are easy to step into and the resistance is easy to more challenging resistance. TV, music, audiobooks, ambient sounds help the time on the bike. In outdoor biking has its own enjoyments. Assisted mother with bike actually is fun. Keep walking.

Improving fitness

This is what I did aerobically this
week. Goal will be to increase
aerobic walking.

Guidelines for adults our goal is to strive for 30 minutes a day of exercise. Walking, running, swimming, biking all good ways to get us moving. The guideline of 150 minutes a week is reached with 5 days of walking. The benefits of exercise this way are one of the best ways we dealt with the stuff that means us harm. Exercise helps, the heart, the brain, the immune system, weight control, balance, blood sugar, memory. What ever is part of our aging story.
Guidelines are goals which may mean we are starting somewhere below those goals and hope to build ourselves up to reaching those goals. There are many reasons why we find ourselves unable to reach them. It is also possible we may have to change how we exercise, from running to walking, from swimming to water aerobics, from walking to biking, from biking on a two wheeler to a trike. There may be other changes as well.
Your goals may have to be defined between you and your doctor. Shorter walks in your 80's and 90's have been reported to be of tremendous value. When I started this blog I worked with the foundation of aerobic, strength, and flexibility. In aging balance becomes part of fitness equation.
The more time I am up and moving the better my balance is.
So here is the biggest thing of all - do it! Keep walking

Be positive, adapt, work through challenges

One of the purposes of my blog is to record my journey for better health and fitness as I age. One of the things that I've noticed my story is not one  and done and happy forever and ever. No for me it is a series of changes, some of them unexpected. 

Part of the John Lennon quote, “Life happens” challenge my possible success story. I never anticipated falling into a depression and anxiety from a long term insomnia. Walking was also helping me sleep. Lifelong stressors then adding a few more setbacks, my brain wasn't working right. Like Humpty Dumpty I wasn't able to put my life back together. 

TRX give it a try

Returning to health I was back on the walking trail, but a serious fall in the winter two years ago and walking as I had known it changed forever. (I still have issues) While I was recovering I was able to improve my resistant training with body exercises, TRX, and resistant tubes.

Walking was replaced by my indoor recumbent bike, indoor walking with Lessie Sansone with brief periods walking that I could tolerate with my backache.

Having cerebral palsy with thousands of falls has a practical outcome of joint pain from head to toe. Pain management involves help for my GP, physical therapists; but surprisingly, the most relief comes from therapeutic movement, resistance training, aerobic training. Flexibility has

It hurts but latter you
will feel better

issues all the time in the life of someone who has cerebral palsy. What I have found it is easy to have more problems; for example, putting my socks and shoes on. I suppose many seniors experience the pain is they age into their 80s and 90s. But for me right now it is extremely painful. What do I do to relieve the pain? Two or three times a day I cross my feet on my knee and rotate the foot at the ankle joint and each day the pain is less. (I have to work through the pain and I can’t let it go) This was something I never had to do it when I was younger, but pain teaches you new things.

I want the blog to be a positive experience as I share some of my successes. The fat Man exercises, adopted push-ups, sit ups, dips, squats, heel raises, walking stairs are all just about anybody can do as we age. These moves are adapted to fit you. A push-up off the stairs from lower stair to four steps up give you a push-up from hard  to easy. Using a countertop, table top or a wall give other levels of resistance. Dips can be done at a corner on counter top in the kitchen. You use your legs to vary the resistance. The Internet can showing you how to do body resistance exercises.

Today I did I hitt program enjoying the Internet cycling workout 30 minutes. The exercise

The bike I use

includes interval training of high intensity, higher resistance cycling with periods of lower intensity and resistant cycling. The cyclists in the program are all using hi end indoor bikes. Once again I adapt the program to use my indoor recumbent bike and to keep my biking in the heart range that is good for me at 65. I am not going to compete with Younger more fit people on the screen. I follow the beat of the music and keep my pace up and increase resistance in the sprint periods. 

I stayed in my heart range and following program I've biked about a mile longer then I would have if I was biking by myself. 

I really strongly recommend an indoor recumbent bike. The comfort and adaptability to bike listening to a book, watching TV, listening to music; you will find yourself biking every day. You don't have to buy the most expensive one, but by a good one. Biking is a good way to battle diabetes and for many of us get the steps we need each day to be healthier. For me it is an activity where I have no back pain.

If you go to YouTube and typing cycling workouts you will get a lot of options. Check out the link below. Work with your doctor in this. Keep walking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRylMkvahjM

My workout today a walk run

Today in my emphasis for steps I will work up a program that I have this spring to be able to run in 20 minutes in the summertime. Last year I tried the same thing but was only able to get 10 minutes. 

One of my goals in my training just to do things without falling. Another goal is to stay within my heart range. I would not be training to win a race but to complete one. 

Every half hour I get up from the computer and do a house walked inside. I am included two fat Man exercises at my kitchen counter where I do adapted push-ups and dips off the counter. When I do the dips I also include squats with the movement. With my hand on the counter I do 10 lunges with each leg and then I finish the workout with 12 Heel raises. On every hour today I did five minutes of indoor walking with Leslie Sansone and topped that off with a one-minute run. I did three cycles of that. This gave me 15 minutes of walking the pace she laid down which was a mile walking in three minutes are running. Now don't picture gazelle running, more like a slug. This afternoon I will go over to walk around’s with my walking stick outside. Throughout my working day I will continue every half hour with small walks. My efforts today should push somewhere between 6000 to 7000 steps. 

The one principle that seems to elude me is consistency. Changing the pace every day or the workout that I am emphasizing gives my body and opportunity to work different things. 

Movement is probably the greatest friend to anybody who has cerebral palsy. Moving your body through full range of motion will give you your best opportunity for a healthy flexibility. A muscle in motion both contracts and elongates stretching out muscle. Of course when you have CP your muscles are constantly contracting. At the end of the day you're wore out and very tight. Those of you who do not have cerebral palsy may find as you get older your muscles become less flexible. 

Here are a few ideas I think might help you:

• Talk to your doctor about how you can become more flexible
• Ask about if physical therapist who specializes in helping older people. Here you might want to check out your search engine to find ways to be more flexible as you get older. There are a lot of good ideas out there. (I often do stretching from a chair or off the side of the bed.)
• Before you go to bed consider a hot shower or bath, your body is gently moving in these activities. Take a few moments before you go to bed to gently stretch and relax your body. It is a good time to do some pleasure reading and having some relaxing music in the background. Using a strong belt or towel can be used to stretch out stubborn muscles. I work my stiff achilles' heel using my navy belt.
• If you have CP, progress is very slow. But one of the real cool benefits to keeping up the fight to be more flexible is that it reduces more pain then any pain pill. I doubt many people realize how painful it is with cerebral palsy when the muscles are tightening up. Every person with cerebral palsy needs a physical therapist. We also need to learn to do is many things that we can do for ourselves because support isn't always there. 

If you have CP, I would love to hear from you. You probably have learned things that have helped you. Keep walking, rolling, and fighting back!