I Mean Really..Why Exercise?

(Featured Image by Jennifer Cottrell ‘Steveson Air’,  from Breathless in Canada)

Recently my elderly father had a fall.  My strong Dad. I remember him fixing everything. The steady one. The one who nursed my mother through Alzeimer’s Disease. The one who accepted every debilitating stage with courage and strength. Here he was, ridiculously frail and shaky. Unable to even cut up his food. Stuck on dialysis three times a week and unsafe to get out of bed alone.

But thats not the end. Because he did get out of bed. Struggling along most reluctantly on a walking frame. Frequent walks, bed exercises, regular meals and good medical care and he is slowly coming back. He hated the getting up and walking. He hated the dependency and the sheer hard work of it. But he did it. He is doing it. He will make it back home. Back to the cat, the weekly council bus outings and the feisty relationship with his beautiful, equally elderly lady friend.

Thats my motivation. Exercise is a saviour. Its a restorer. Even at 84 it strengthens your muscles hardens your bones and changes your mindset.

I first learned this as a pudgy rather lazy 14 year old. Puffing around the block in netball training, I got fitter. No longer puffed, no longer red faced and hating it. So much fitter that I was recommended for the interschool long distance comp. Me! The hide-in-a-book, introverted sports failure. I followed my dream into physiotherapy and was breath taken with the crazy human ability to heal with exercise. I studied even further and became the first WA postgraduate in  orthopaedic physiotherapy.

Now it’s part of my life. Public and private. I see it every day, healing and helping. I prescribe targeted exercise for particular conditions and I see people coming back! Coming back from debility and pain to capability and confidence. I see my middle aged husband go from a severe back injury to a 12 K runner. I see myself likewise stronger and fitter than last year. Recovering from injuries and able to tackle far flung adventures with good muscles and reliable fitness. I see stress managed, anxiety relieved and depression countered every day by the simple achievements of exercising.

I am indeed passionate about exercise. Here is my proviso… It is not about the perfect body. Its not about weight loss or competition or horrible comparison! It’s most assuredly not about stereotyping or sexualizing. Its about doing what I was made to do, at the stage I find myself in, to feel as well as I am able to be. Simple.