Friday, March 1, 2013

Physical therapy


These are my instructions for minimizing pain when ambulating:

To walk properly you must lift and bend through the knee, throwing the feet forward and parallel to each other, not diagonally out to the side, wooden solider-like.

Hold the shoulders up and flared back, chin angled upward, eyes full speed ahead, torso unslumped, with a tightly contracted core.

Perform the prescribed leg strengthening exercises multiple times on awakening, in a cab, at your desk, walking to the art department, wherever you are, throughout the day.

Don the right shoes, properly supportive with a high arch and a spongy cloud-like inner sole. This will make all the other instructions possible to carry out. It will be a revelation.

I know you probably already do all these things without thinking, but when it comes to walking, it seems I never learned the proper way.

The photo here is not, however, of my walking shoes, but my son's athletic ones, propped against a hurdle at the Armory, where for four years of his high school career, he competed in track and field for Fordham Prep. He is back there today, competing in heptathlon in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, also known as regionals. He titled this self-portrait #homesweethome. If I can slip out of work early I'll be able to catch him doing high jump. And tomorrow, I'll be right there in the stands again, chest high, chin angled upward, my recently acquired, properly supportive rubber-soled boots propped on a blue metal chair as I intermittently scream my lungs out, also know as cheering.



8 comments:

  1. If I could gather two thoughts to rub together today I would tell you how much I love you.

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    1. Sweet Mary Moon, that is the most wonderful thought of all. I love you too.

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  2. I have to get some arch supports for my shoes, too. One of these days. Those exercises sound surprisingly intricate. I'm not sure I could keep all that in my mind and walk at the same time!

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    1. Steve, strangely, when I do try to put it all together, i walk with a lighter step. Who knew? Clearly I didn't!

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  3. I would fall over my own feet if I had to walk like that. Just reading it confuses me.

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    1. Birdie, apparently people walk like this without thinking about it, most people anyway. No doubt you do this without thinking, lucky you. xo

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  4. Do you also have to fit in the kegel exercises that we middle-aged women are supposed to do?

    In all seriousness, to begin to THINK about one's walk makes me a bit crazy.

    Keep us posted.

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    1. Elizabeth, now you know how i feel! Just get some comfortable shoes and call it a day!

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