Life of Wry

How many hours does it take to figure out the perfect combination of cardio, strengthening, stretching and balancing exercises to maximize performance and minimize injury and sustain a healthy body for, oh, I don’t know, say, the next 40 years?

Too many hours.  All day actually.

My current perfect formula is courtesy of the last couple physical therapists I’ve been working with.  At least it’s largely informed by the dozen or so visits in the last couple months.  So helpful these guys are!

And lest you think I’ve gone off the deep end of obsessive fitness wackadoodle mania, or am committing some kind of exercise fanaticide, well, I’m not.  I just hurt and am tired of it.

Being the former PE major type that I am, I don’t take this stuff lightly, nor do I settle for the kind of total body fitness program promoted in Cosmo or O Magazine.  I’m hard core.  But I’m also 55 and, did I already say, injured?

And it’s waaaay not the first time I’ve done this… come up with the perfect daily regimen.  In fact, I have so many such perfect daily regimens in my collection, developed over years (and years), the task today was all the harder, because I hate to let go of some of the brilliant exercises and clever sequences I’ve put together in the past.  But the sad truth is, if I held on to all of it, the damn thing would take me 3 hours a day.  And that’s not happening. So I had to let go of some of it and prioritize certain body parts.

After futzing with it all day (really), I have a doable daily cardio goal, a sensible strengthening plan that divides into body regions and distributes sanely over the course of the week,  and some awesome stretching that addresses, especially, the injured and traumatized areas.

I test drove the whole thing today and it all feels great, and best of all doesn’t take too, too long:

Cardio: an hour; Strength/stretch/balance stuff: 40 minutes.  Per day.  Six days a week.  Or at least until I’m out of the woods.

It’s pretty, too.  All in tables, with attractive colored headers identifying the day and/or category, neatly numbered so all I have to do is look at the day and follow the plan.  Takes all the randomness out of it.  You can call it anal retentiveness gone totally, insanely amok, but it works for me. Especially now that it’s done.

Chalk this up to being responsible, at least on the health front.  Because we’re supposed to, right?  It’s like one of the legs of that all important, well-balanced stool.  Right?

I’m rolling my eyes, too.  But happy.