Take a swim

Gentle Reader,

Everything hurting?  Can't get enough exercise to lose those 15 pounds that promise to make a difference?  Walking is hard because of the knee, the hip, the back so you are spending too much time sitting in front of the TV, the computer, the window.  What's a person to do?  Everyone says you must exercise.  Don't I end every post with Keep Moving!?

Have you tried going to the water aerobics class for arthritis sufferers?  Go.  You will find a convivial group of people, mostly women but with a few handsome men in the pool.  Every shape imaginable is there so don't be held back by a too large bathiing suit growing mold in the bottom drawer.  Get it out or go to Costco and buy one of theirs.  I haven't checked, but this is about the time of year when there are tables full of bathing suits.  I myself picked up the perfect suit a couple years ago and have been very happy with it.

For me buying a bathing suit is tricky because I wear a breast prosthesis.  I long ago stopped bothering with sewing in a pocket for the thing (it's been 40 years since I had breast cancer.  I can't remember how many falsies I have worn out.)  The style I like has a gathered cross over so the material itself fills out even if there isn't anything helping push the cloth from the inside.  More than once swimming off the coast of Mexico, I saw my very expensive prosthesis bobbing along in the waves just beyond my finger tips.  Thus I chose suits that fill out without it.

If you have a fuller figure and only one remaining breast, you'll have to sew in a pocket.  There is a large bosomed life guard at the salt water pool here in Seattle who had a mastectomy a few years ago. She sat up on top of the life guard stand in her Speedo, the right side of her chest flat and the other amply filled out.  It's life. When you have it still, losing a body part is insignificant.

Didn't mean to get off on the cancer business.  We're here to talk about arthritis and moving for health to avoid surgery if we can.  Pick a pool that is warm if you can find one.  Public pools and YMCA's and club pools nearly all have water aerobics classes for people who suffer from arthritis.  Google it.

I can't swim, you protest.  This is not about swimming. This is about water holding you up.  You are in a near weightless environment with the water supporting you so you can to kicks, bends, twists, arm and leg raises, walking back and forth across the pool with NO pain.  The good teachers are very encouraging.  The best ones get to know you and are in the water with you.  You spend about 45 minutes warming up, moving all your joints, building up to pretty strong movements and then cooling down and stretching the way any aerobic workout class is conducted.  The difference is that you are being held in the supportive arms of water.  You will astonish yourself with what you can do when you are in the pool.

Personally I have not taken water aerobics for arthritis on any consistent basis.  My late husband Chuck, however, was a regular.  He was trying to manage terrific pain in his right hip and faithfully walked the 1 1/2 miles to the Y here in West Seattle, down Genesee Hill and up the hill to the Junction and on.  He loved the class and the ladies all loved him.  He had the sweetest brown eyes, a thick head of graying brown hair, a winning smile and was flirtatious, making them all feel appreciated.  He sat in the hot tub after the class, loving the bubbling heat on his joints.  He would buy an apple and take the bus home.

He did end up with a hip replacement and the surgery was successful.  Because he had worked out in the pool regularly, he was an excellent candidate for surgery.  Even though Chuck was on medication for a bad heart, had 5 stents in his arteries and had suffered the occasional TIA (mini stroke), he sailed through the operation and the recovery with the physical therapist coming several times to monitor his return to normalcy.
He continued with the arthritis water aerobics after his hip replacement as it helped his cardio and his over all strength.

When I did go to the water aerobics class a couple years after his death from cancer, the ladies recognized me from the few times I had joined him in the past.  The teacher even called him by name, saying "aren't you Chuck's wife?  Where is he?"  I had never gone to the Y to tell them that their favorite student had died.  It was a kind of home coming and memorial service all at once. I was there to work on healing my own body with these ladies. I had developed an neuroma in the ball of my left foot that was so painful, I couldn't walk.  Happily a good podiatrist and specially orthotics have alleviated this problem  I have water aerobics available to me any time other exercise is impossible. So do you.  So go for it.

If you'd like to read what the Arthritis Foundation has to say about water aerobics, here's the link: http://www.arthritis.org/water-exercise.php

Be well, Do Well and Keep Moving.

Betsy

BetsyBells Health4U
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