Shinn the Writer

The True Road to Happiness

 

This is a follow-up on last month’s article. In short, neither my back nor my shoulders got better on their own. I’ve been conscientious of my posture, but it simply wasn’t doing the trick. So I’m back in physical therapy.

 

I was in therapy a year ago when, after a fall in the kitchen, my knee needed help. As that finished its healing process, I foolishly tried to get in shape by doing push-ups. Wrong, my shoulders now needed help. This time, my back and shoulders succumbed to doing excessive weeding. Many of the people at “PT Innovations” are the same, though the therapist I drew is new. Still good, and I suppose it’s all the same. She’s given me new exercises that I’m to do every other day.

 

I have six exercises in total, three each for the two problem areas. Oddly, in all my newfound enthusiasm over throwing things out that I no longer need, the stretch bands that I used during my last rehab sessions were still sitting in the top dresser drawer in my bedroom. I use them on four of the six exercises I do.

 

But there is actually a seventh exercise in the mix, walking. It was some time ago (pre-pandemic) that I made a two-mile walk through my hilly town (technically a “census designated place”) a five to seven day a week event in my routine. Not only was this time outside good exercise, it was also generally pleasant and I often met a neighbor or two on my way. 

 

I told my therapist I had given up walking because of my back pain, expecting to hear a “that’s too bad, hopefully you can do it again soon” kind of response. Instead, I was told that I should try to start it up again. Don’t try to do a full two miles, and stay on a flat stretch of land, but that walking would be a good thing. The neighborhood where I live is quite hilly, but as it happens, I live at the end of a flat stretch of road that stays pretty flat for about 330 paces if I walk north. I know because I counted it out. My paces seem to have shrunk a bit, about two feet to a normal step, so here I get into higher math. One length is thus 660 feet or 1320 feet to the end and back, which I’m calling a lap.

 

I started out at two laps. That was ten days ago. Today I did five. That’s 6,600 feet or about a mile and a quarter. Not too shabby considering that I’m on the comeback trail. I do this every day and some days are better than others. I generally do better on days that I don’t do the other six exercises which I guess means that the other six wear me out. That’s probably a good thing.