The infamous attitude of Gene Kranz and his team during the Apollo 13 manned mission was summed up by writers for the Ron Howard movie Apollo 13 with the words, "Failure is not an option."
My plight doesn't rise to the epic crisis of bringing a crew of astronauts safely back to earth after explosions created a life and death situation. However, this is my life, and it is epic to me. I must be the hero in my own saga. Failure is not an option.
I have used a lot of things as excuses to not exercise. My grown and almost grown kids have a lot of stuff in my house, and I have used that as an excuse not to exercise, because I "didn't have room to pull out the treadmill and the thigh trainer, etc....." But that has changed this week. I now have set up in the den, which has been my son's "space" previously.
Now you may think my new effort is somewhat anticlimactic compared to the reference to the Apollo 13 mission, but it is really the same. During the Apollo 13 crisis Gene Kranz and his team had to use what was available to the astronauts to come up with a solution to the problem. In the same way, I have had to use what I have to come up with a solution to the problem.
What I have available to me:
den
floor
pillows
dumbbells
thigh trainer
treadmill
tv
tivo
remote control
pandora
online stopwatch
Now I didn't have an explosion like the Apollo 13 mission, but in a way I did or do.
I have had problems with my back for 23 years now. It is a fact of my life and requires a certain amount of management and working around it.
All of the "trainers" do not seem to understand that I am never going to be able to increase my weights or jump or run. I can't do that little machine at the gym that you have to lean into. All of these things throw my back or shoulder or neck out, and I am in some level of discomfort ranging from mild numbness, tightness and tingling to debilitating pain.
If I do the regimen that I know I can do, it is a good regimen, and it works:
20-25 minutes of dancing to music I love with dumbbells in hand.
20-25 minutes floor exercises: leg lifts, gut lifts, dumbbell arm exercises
10 minutes of Lateral Thigh Trainer
I have had to adjust the way I do my floor exercises. There are no conventional abdominal crunches in my life. The neck can't take it. I put a couple of pillows under my head and one under my butt. I stretch my arms above my head and hold onto the underside of the couch which anchors my upper body, so things don't "pop" out. Then I lift my legs instead of my upper body. I do an assortment of leg lifts: small movements up and down, longer movements up and down, bent knees pulled in toward my abdomen. I make sure I can feel the use of my core muscles to complete the movements; because of my limitations in other areas, I tend to do higher reps than would be recommended for someone else. I, also, turn slightly to each side to try to use the muscles on both sides of my rib cage. These movements are my abdominal crunches, and, ironically, I think they are actually more effective than traditional crunches.
My explosion has lasted for 23 years. I work around it every day of my life.
But that is okay. I am still headed home . . to the place that I am supposed to be. I am supposed to be me, in my real skin. My real skin is not nearly so cumbersome or such a burden. My real skin is a place of freedom to be who and what I want to be.
Home is the destination, and failure is not an option.
