She who must be obeyed goes through phases of wanting to lose weight/gain fitness. These are all doomed to failure, but I feel I have to be supportive just in case some initiative sticks and she suddenly turns into a super-model.
Last year she came home with an exercise ball. You know the sort of thing, an over-sized and over-priced beach ball upon which you are meant to cavort and thus lose weight and get fit. Like this:
Indeed the young lady in the photo above looks very fit and it would have been good if she who must be obeyed had persevered with the routines and achieved a similar outcome; but after a couple of sessions she lost interest, and the ball gathered dust in a corner before I eventually deflated it and stuck in the store along with all the other failed hobbies and interests (mainly mine).
So much for exercise balls, or so I thought. But then I was discussing my recovery with Craig from the windsurfing club. Craig is extremely knowledgeable about sports injuries and how to recover from them; so when he gives me advice, I listen. I listened and he said: “go sit on an exercise ball”. Clarifying that this was actually advice and not an insult, I learned that just sitting on one of these balls means that the muscles that support your torso have to make constant tiny adjustments to keep you balanced, thus exercising them.
All the muscles in my torso have had a three month break from duty while my back brace held everything together. With the brace in place, the muscles were doing the equivalent of sitting back in a sofa, smoking a cigar and sipping on a 12 year old single malt. Consequently, when the brace came off, they were severely pissed at having to work again and complained violently. Although their resentment has subsided somewhat, they are still stiff and weak and need a good kick in the ass to get them going again (not literally).
So I got an exercise ball. And I sat on it. And I did exercises on it (I found dozens of exercise videos for the ball on YouTube, many of which featured trim young ladies; so the research aspect is fun too). And bugger me (not literally), it actually works. Having the wobbly surface of the ball to work on, means that every exercise I do works more muscles in a more subtle way;. After only a few days I am feeling much looser than I did, and in less pain.
No doubt if I continued using it for several more months I could turn myself into a hunk, but there is no chance of that happening. The moment I can sail again, I will drop a cat onto the ball and “inadvertently” explode it (the ball, not the cat).
Comments 🔗
2009-01-18| Billy saysMmmm, if in the unlikely event that using it for several more months turns you into anything like the lady in the photo, then you should avoid Jock ..