Staying in Shape

I've noticed that as I get older (actually, I've noticed a lot of things as I get older), my flexibility goes out the window, and I'm more prone to injury. Funny how that works. I've also been told that with aging it's beneficial to stretch regularly to hopefully avoid this situation and maintain a range of motion. So with this in mind, I've started a regular regimen of stretching and strength exercises, with the goal of looking like this guy... yeah, right. Truth be told, I'm doing the former to help avoid hurting my tired old body, and the latter to help with my surfing. As you can imagine, it's not easy.

I've found that the hardest part, like all things in life, is just doing it. It's a chore to mobilize and motivate at any given time of the day, and this is especially true at the end of the day, when it seems to be the most opportune time. I'm just so darn tired, and who wants to expend time and energy on something that doesn't involve eating ice cream or being in a horizontal position? Not me, that's for sure.

But stretch and strengthen I do, and for all it's worth, I feel better for it. Something about stretching makes me actually sweat and feel good, and if I can do the strengthening stuff, all the better. Eventually I'd like to do some conditioning before hockey season, but that's a pretty tall order. I will pay the price for this once I hit the ice.

I'm not even sure how much benefit I'm deriving when I surf, because I'm exhausted and working like a dog out in the water. I guess that's a workout in and of itself. And as anyone who exercises knows, any sort of interruption in the regimen throws the whole process out of whack. We've been traveling a fair amount and every time we go away, it's back to ground zero.

Oh well, at least when I'm surfing or playing hockey my body is getting worked over, so I don't have to feel so guilty about that bowl of ice cream after dinner.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to ddman_70 for the pic.