Gardening, swimming, and some gripes
November 08, 2009
A lovely day today: Warm, but not hot, a slight breeze, lots of beautiful sunshine in a wonderfully blue sky, lots of manure to spread on the flower beds,* lots of pansies to plant...
...and the incessant drone of leaf blowers. When one stops, another starts so, even if each leaf blower only runs for a short while, the noise continues.
Younger son and I have done a lot of raking this week because I'm trying to reseed the yard. We have a lot of Japanese stiltgrass which is taking over the yard from the other grass, and, far far worse, it's spreading into the beds. It must die.
Daughter also helped with the raking, although she can't do much because of her ankle, which she sprained last April and which is still causing her trouble. The orthopedist dismissed her from therapy and pronounced her "better" in July. We're going back to her regular doctor next week to ask, because it seems to be turning into a chronic condition.
She can dance, but walking and swimming make it worse because of their repetitive motions. I love swimming, but the whole "swimming is the best exercise because it doesn't hurt your body" is a bunch of garbage. If you have a tendency to get tension headaches, the repetitive arm and shoulder movements in swimming can set them off. While I was swimming regularly this summer, I had to take advil for tension headaches almost every day at around 2 pm. I could almost set the clock by it. No, stretching more doesn't help, although dear husband massaging my neck can help sometimes. I'm a stretching fanatic, but it doesn't cure all ills.*
Anyway, because swimming doesn't have any impact, it's supposed to be the best exercise. However, for our joint problems, forcing the damaged joints against the water makes them worse and pushes them out of line. It took a long time for me to be able to swim normally after I first injured my knee, and then again after my first surgery. Even the highly touted "water walking" (which, by the way, is excruciatingly boring compared to walking outside) hurt my knee because of the water pushing back on my kneecap. I can walk on land for over an hour before my knee starts to hurt. If I'm doing the crawl, which moves the knee in the same front and back pattern, my knee hurts after one time across the pool. If I do more than that, I'll be limping for the rest of the day.
I do love swimming, particularly outside in the summertime. It's very peaceful and meditative, and I'm in a different, more focused spot after I'm done. This fall, I've started going to the Homestead Pool in Chapel Hill. It's a beautiful facility with lots of windows (photo here). The architecture is lovely, the water is extremely clean, and the water temperature is exactly right.
As much as I love swimming, it's not the ideal exercise. I don't think one exists because all bodies are different. My argument isn't with swimming here, just with the people who write articles about its ideality.
* I found a very cute, nine inch long worm snake in the manure pile today. I thought it was a worm at first because it was about as big around as one. Dear husband transplanted the worm snake from the manure pile, where he might get hurt by a shovel, to one of the flower beds. He quickly made himself at home. Dear husband found a small frog in the fountain. Younger son and his friend went off in search of a nice pond for the frog to live in. They had to try a few places before they found someplace with enough standing water for the frog. I didn't get pictures of either creature because we were too busy. Click here for a good picture of a worm snake.
** I have yet to see anyone else at a pool, indoors or outdoors, stretch after swimming. Most people finish their laps and head for the showers. I stretch for about 20 minutes. I feel rather strange at the beginning since it's such an unusual thing to do, but I get over it quickly.
[I'm writing this earlier in the afternoon. The seasonal depression isn't too bad, lately, particularly if I spend a large part of the day outside. However, I still get depressed every afternoon when the sun starts to go behind the trees. The last few posts were written between 4 pm and 7 pm. I'm actually more depressed right before, and for two hours after, sunset, than I am later in the evening. Now it's time to go out and plant pansies.]
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