Well, Sunday’s little excursion into kayak-land was a bit of a facer.
My original thoughts for taking up kayaking was that it would provide a means to lose weight and get fitter. What I hadn’t realised was that I’m going to have to get fitter and lose weight to take it up.
I knew that I wasn’t very fit but I really hadn’t appreciated just how unfit I am. Not being able to hold an upright posture while sitting, really spoiled last week's session for me. Everyone else seemed to manage OK, but in truth, I was struggling to keep up* with them. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have not been good either. A feeling of having been generally hammered and with everything that moves, aching, it means that there hasn’t been much opportunity to progress further while I recovered from the trauma.
When at work the amount of walking involved in the job, coupled with a rigid rule not to eat anything between meals, and keeping breakfast and lunches to a minimum, had held my weight at around 13.5 stone, just on the borderline of fat. Once or twice the weight dipped to just under 13 stone, but that was a rare occurrence. Generally it stayed within the bounds of sanity, but after only three months away, the lack of exercise and the daily intake of calories has my weight now ballooning to 14.5 plus stones, and I have to say that my side-elevation view in the mirror does not make a pretty sight.
By Wednesday the aches and pains had subsided to the point that I thought I might try some sort of exercise to improve my chances with next Sunday’s session. Wednesday and Thursday I tried a bit of easy stretching, using moves that I used as warm-ups during my jogging efforts some years ago. I was usually quite good with them but even so, have never been able to touch my toes without ‘bouncing‘. Even so, the ground seems even further away. Trying sitting on the floor with my back bolt upright against a settee doesn’t help much either and only seems to stretch the hamstrings without getting me past a right-angle.
Advised that it’s a ‘core’ problem, I sat down with a six-pack* to surf the net and look into the remedies. So, along with the stretching I’m now trying a few back extensions and front sit-ups to work out the stomach and back muscles. Now I’m not fool enough to think that this is going to do anything for me by Sunday, but it does help with the aches and pains.
More tea vicar?
*see what I did there?
'Jogging'? You were a sub3 hour marathon runner, that wasn't 'jogging'. :-)
ReplyDeleteI have a swiss ball you can borrow. Give it time. Little and often and all that.