fitness

Homebrew Stand-Up Desk

After reading a couple articles on the health benefits of stand-up work stations, I decided to give it a shot at work. The top is a shelf from my locker/cabinet, and the books are, well, books. I originally planned to find a table of the appropriate height; the shelf/books idea is from my co-worker Rich. Turned out to be a great alternative, since I can slide a book in or out of the stack to customize the height in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to with a table, and once I got it set up, it was clear that my height estimate was wrong.
So far, I’m enjoying it. I’ll have to see how I feel at the end of the day and after a few days of trying it.

Homebrew stand-up desk.

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Cardiac Catheterization

The other day, I wrote about my recent stress test, commenting at the conclusion: “It was all very interesting. I should know my results in a few days, but I’m optimistic.” Well, I spoke a bit too soon on that one. The results of the stress test were rather perplexing to my cardiologist. It seems as though some areas of my heart aren’t getting enough circulation, which doesn’t make any sense to him; I’m not a candidate for narrowed arteries at this stage of the game. My blood pressure isn’t high; my cholesterol isn’t high; I’m way too young. So I’m going to have an outpatient procedure to see what’s going on, and potentially fix any problems – Cardiac Catheterization. I go in to do this on Friday and will be in the hospital most of the day. I’ll have the weekend for the 2 day recovery period.

I found all this out last week, but I had to tell my parents before I blogged about it, so they wouldn’t read about it here first and get pissed at me. I was pretty freaked out about it, but I’m calmer now; there’s not a whole lot I can do other than what I’ve already been doing – eating tons of vegetables and healthy stuff, and exercising my ass off.

The absolute worst-case scenario is that I would have to go back in and have another open-heart procedure. I survived that already; it doesn’t scare me now.

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Swimsuits

Who knew swimsuits wear out so fast? Apparently, everyone who swims regularly I guess. The suit I bought when I started water aerobics in September is already faded and falling apart, which really surprised me. I’m used to a suit lasting for a couple years. But then, I wasn’t getting in the pool three times a week before now, either.

So I bought this suit from a swim store here in Indy at lunch. It’s 100% polyester, so it should last 8 months to a year. And it’s more modest than most, which I really like, frankly. I’m pretty self-conscious about showing off my parts. Especially now that the pool room has giant windows facing into the wellness center and into the lounge/wireless area, since they remodeled at the Y. It’s like being in a fish bowl. And people love to hang out and watch the water aerobics classes; it’s a little weird.

My New Swim Suit
My New Swim Suit

(Yes the name of the suit is “Ocean Aquatard”. That doesn’t kill my enthusiasm for it.)

I also got a cheaper lycra/polyester blend Speedo suit from Costco this weekend, so I’m going to alternate wearing them and see which lasts longer.

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The Jordan YMCA

I stayed after my water aerobics class tonight to take an extra half-hour resistance weight-training course in the pool. Man, I thought I had endorphin highs before. I feel great. There were tons of people at the Y tonight — the construction on their new wellness center is finished and they have a lot of new equipment, so that was at least part of the crowd, along with all the New Year’s resolution folks. But as long as there’s room in the pool, I’m okay with that. I’m just glad that I have some physical activity that isn’t tedious and boring to do.

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I Love Water Aerobics

I keep meaning to blog that… I’ve been going for the past several weeks, and I ended up joining the Jordan YMCA because I really like the classes, and I started going more than once a week. Get this – I actually got out of bed and made it to Saturday morning classes at 8 a.m. for several weeks in a row now. I went to the deep water class for the first time on Thursday night, which really kicked my ass. It’s not especially harder, just exercising a lot of different muscles (like abs) that I haven’t worked out so extensively. And I went this morning also. My goal is to go three times a week on Tuesday and Thursday nights and Saturday morning, but if I can at least go twice, that would be great.
I’m surprised how much I missed being in the water all the time; we used to swim quite a bit as kids. I’m also starting to get addicted to the endorphin high I get after the class is over — I just feel amazing driving home.

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Do Not Drink the Pool Water

Last night I went to water aerobics at the YMCA with my friend Chi. I’ve taken swimming classes (years ago) but I’ve never done a water aerobics class – it was excellent. It’s high-impact but low stress; you get lots of exercise but you don’t put stress on your joints, or sweat, either. In fact, you don’t really realize what you’re doing is that hard. Until you get out of the pool after an hour and gravity takes over; suddenly every muscle in your body is very, very tired.

I’d forgotten how much I enjoy being in the pool; it’s been years. Like 1994, actually, when I lived in the Marott Apartments, and swam in the pool in the basement in the mornings before going to work.

I’ll definitely be going regularly. The only drawback is that I’m afraid I’ll suddenly start doing water aerobics moves in ballroom dance class, or vice versa. After all of the moves for water aerobics, the steps of ballroom dance went completely out of my head.

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