What are your favorite physical activities or exercises?
Ooooh so many things to choose from! My opinions on this have changed a lot over the years from – what exercise?! – to when can I get out of here and exercise! It’s been a struggle finding a balance that I am happy with, that doesn’t cost me too much by the way of physical and mental fatigue afterwards.
Swimming
I love swimming because it is the one thing that makes me feel normal, my disability doesn’t matter at all. I can also reasonable effortlessly swim for a while so it’s a good activity to do when I need to clear my mind and not thing about anything.
I like to swim up and down and just let my brain float in and out of whatever thoughts happen at the time. I don’t spend any time thinking about it and I’m a pool I don’t need assistance, I don’t need to navigate, I just follow the blue line! It’s almost meditative.
Cycling
I have slightly less love of this than I used to, because it’s a lot harder and the pain associated with it is rather unpredictable. But I still do it, it’s nice as a recreational activity too and I have started doing more of that side of it, with gravel tyres so I can ride cinder paths with my partner on his mountainbike.
Wheelchair ‘racing’
This is something I would like to get into more. First I need to work through the various chair options and find one that works best. The current one is not exactly optimal, it has side guards that were kinda hand made and they flex too much, plus the handle bar for steering the front wheels gives me bruises in my shin!
If we can sort that out, I’d love to get some indoor rollers for it and train for a half marathon. The last one I did was many many years ago, on two feet. My upright half marathon PB stands at 2 hours and 30 seconds!
Waka ama
I do enjoy this, but the trouble with it is that there aren’t many people locally who do this, so getting a regular reliable team is hard. Plus I cannot do it on my own, even if I had a single because my boat based mobility requires assistance due to the weight of the boat and the steepness of the ramp, added to my lack of mobility.
It’s a shame because it’s the ideal sport for me at the moment and I won a gold so I know I’m good at it!
Rowing
Now I do / did love this. It’s elegant, sleek, fast, great to watch and awesome to participate in. I was able to take a single out on my win prior to my disability, and I’m determined to find a way to make it work again. I just need to wait for parts, hahah. Watch this space.
Tramping
I love just getting out in the outdoors. Sadly my disability limits the terrain and distance I can travel but I still love to head outside for walks. This is where the bike can be useful, because I can get further than I can on two feet walking
The. Of course there’s just being outside. That is also awesome, On a sunny day, in the garden or the park, with a book.
