Benchmarks and Notes on Physio

Benchmarks

I went out for a coffee yesterday with my friend Sherree. I met her at the Rooster cafe on Jarvis Street, across from the big Rogers complex. 

I walked there, with no lurching.  

This feat - which Sherree calls the Karen Olympics - gives me information to set some benchmarks.

My pre-arthritic daily walk included the distances to work, to yoga and then back home, about 7 kilometres total. Depending on the traffic lights, it would take me about 20 minutes to walk to work,15 minutes to walk to yoga and then 30 minutes to walk from the yoga studio back home. My approximate average walking speed was 6.5 kph.

Arthritis made me stop going to yoga by March 2015, so my post-arthritic walk was to and from work only. My daily distance was 4 kilometres. Total walking time was about 55 minutes. The walk home was slower because I was tired and the pain killers had started to wear off. My approximate average walking speed was 4.4 kph.

My post-hip-surgery walk to the Rooster and back was 3 kilometres. Total walking time: 85 minutes. My approximate average walking speed was 2.1 kph.

While it is possible for me to walk 3 kilometres, I pay for it the next day, and have to retire to the "Fortress of Comfy-tude," which is what Bruce calls the configuration pictured below:

That's four pillows for my back and one for my knees.

Notes on Physio

My three times a day set of seven exercises entails both repetitions (15, as illustrated) and holds (5 or 10 breaths). It is hard to count both. So I have made myself a repetition counter made out of a six-folded piece of paper. It is lightweight, recyclable, biodegradable and comes in any colour you like. When it wears out you can make a new one for the price of a single sheet of paper. 

This is how it works: Hold the counter in whichever hand seems most comfortable. Put your thumb over the number 1. After you've completed a movement, move your thumb down one number. When your thumb gets below your target number, you're done and can move onto the next exercise.

Two of the exercises are worthy of note. One is the standing squat. It is most like the yoga pose called fierce pose or Utkatasana if you're a yoga teacher. This is the one where I lift my arms in the air and don't hold onto a support like I'm supposed to.

This exercise, the standing leg side lift, is the one most likely to make me burst into tears.

Thanks for reading.

Karen