To swim against the tide :)

It all started a long time back when I was about 12 years old. It was summertime, Darsh and I were attending a swimming summer-camp for about 30 days. It was all good until about 15 days. I had been taught the front stroke and was in the process of getting to know diving. That was when the incident happened :-D.

I remember only bits and pieces, not the entire thing (it has been more than 18 years!). We had these 2 kids living in the house right in front of ours then and we used to play together a lot :). I remember we were playing one of our games, probably some kind of a run and catch game when it happened. I fell and my right knee got scraped pretty bad. It wasn't really a scrape, it was as if all the flesh on my knee had been cut open (I don't know to this day what I fell upon to cause it to rupture like that but the speculation is that it was a part of dad's scooter :-D). There was some white visible stuff underneath all the blood (this is what Darsh keeps insisting scarred him for life :-D. Again don't know whether they were some kind of nerves or bones exposed!)). Thankfully dad was at home and immediately took me to the nearest physician, who was also our family doctor.

Well, the first concern was not really a scar, but to close the opening as soon as possible. The doc could have suggested me to be taken to a hospital, but he decided to stitch me up himself. I was given a tetanus shot and stitched up. Don't know the number of stitches, but I know it was pretty bad, because that opening was certainly bigger than my forehead one. My leg was bandaged and I was told to keep it as straight as possible (not to fold it) and keep it dry. There went my dream of becoming a swimming star :-D. To be honest, I never had that dream, but really wanted to learn swimming, so was very much disappointed. Imagine sitting at home with a stiff leg for 21 days while Darsh went swimming and being told enough stories to get me all jealous :-p.

After the 21 days I did recover and my leg has been okay (except for this ugly scar on my knee :-D). I did go swimming now and then, to practice the only stroke I knew how - the front crawl. I wasn't very good at it, but somehow never tried to take a class again. Indian swimming pools, to be very honest, aren't the most comfortable places for women as such and I would feel extremely conscious whenever I did go. But knowing what I know now, I wish I could have taken a class and improved my swimming lots earlier. Better late than never I guess :).

After I came to the US, I went swimming lots of times and took water fitness classes. I always had this idea running on the back of my mind that I should take classes and polish (to put it very lightly :-D) my skills. But I was somehow very embarrassed. Had so many "what ifs" running through my mind. I mean I had been told all my life that swimming is learnt best when you are young (same with cycling). What if I was too old to learn? What if everyone else in the class is young and I stand out? What if I was would waste away the money without results? So in the 4 years I had been here, I just went to and fro and never ventured into it.

I don't know what changed in November 2009. But something did. I think it might have been that we were thinking of enrolling Snugli into a swimming class and I wanted to be proficient around her :-D. I mean, I had seen parents guiding their children in deep water and I wanted to be that parent :). One day, I finally said "What the heck! Lets do it and think later" and registered for the class. I am a member of the local YMCA so it cost just an additional $26 for 8 classes which was not too bad. In the first class, I was relieved to a huge extent - I was the only one taking that class (2 classes later I was joined by another student who actually had hydrophobia and I was in total awe of her for even getting into water, but the first 2 classes were exclusively mine) and that my teacher was a young lady (very much younger than me :-D). The latter part turned out to be inspirational rather than disheartening because it was good to have a younger teacher who swims so well. The best thing was that she understood exactly what I wanted.

My front crawl, though I was able to swim a couple of laps, wasn't refined at all. I had practiced what I remembered from my summer camp (which wasn't much to go on) and I would always be out of breath at the end of half a lap. Which certainly implied that I was doing it all wrong. First of all I wanted to get that corrected and then learn all the different strokes (I could float on my back, but always failed when I tried doing the back stroke. The other strokes, I hadn't even tried till then). Another major thing for me was that I had never learned to keep myself afloat in the deep end, so though I wasn't really scared of the water, I was very much afraid of the deep end. I mean though I would go out to the deep end, I would always be afraid that if I lose breath somewhere in the middle, I have nowhere to go. So there was lots to learn in mere 8 classes :-D.

As I mentioned, the teacher immediately started pointing out the flaws in my front crawl and giving me tips on how to improve the moves. One of the first things she mentioned was to get a good pair of goggles (they let you see where you are going which help the confidence level, plus keep the chlorine out of your eyes). I hadn't bought anything as of then, so that was fine. She also suggested I don't buy nose plugs because once you get used to them, its difficult to swim without them. As far as the front stroke went, first of all I wasn't keeping my body straight and as much afloat in the water as possible. Secondly when reaching out for the next stroke, my arms weren't as out of water as they should be and hence they were slowing me down. Other than this, my breathing technique wasn't really proper (I wasn't breathing out inside the water and instead was trying to do it all - breathe out and in when I came up for air) which was tiring me out majorly.

Obviously I couldn't make all the changes in one go. If I concentrated on the breathing, I would forget about the arms. If I concentrated on the leg movement, I would forget the breathing. So the first couple of classes were tough on me. I had only one class per week, but I went twice a week to practice all I was told to. I also made it a point to pin-point my doubts and ask the teacher those particular queries. By the third class, my teacher actually said that she could see a conscious improvement (I didn't really believe her, yet :-D). Thats when she decided to teach me the breaststroke. Now that redefined "difficult" for me :-D.

The breaststroke has totally different moves compared to the front crawl. The arm movement is different, the leg movement is different, the breathing is different, basically just about everything is different :-D. For a person who has just been doing the front stroke for a long long time, it was like a different reality. The arm movement pushes the water outwards horizontally while the legs push the water out vertically. I kinda got the arm movement pretty fast, but the leg movement - I would simply forget and switch to the front stroke related leg movement, which certainly wasn't helping :-D. The arm and leg movement in a stroke obviously work together to propel the swimmer forward. So mix and match hardly ever works :-D. I still don't know how I got through that one, only that it required tremendous amounts of concentration. Now the breaststroke is one of the easiest strokes for me and I love it :).

I think it was in the 4th class that my teacher noticed that when asked to swim a lap, I would stop at the spot where I can still reach the ground and come back. Thats when I told her that I was a wee bit afraid that mid-way through the deep end, I would struggle and would have to be "rescued" :-D. So her method was simple, she asked me to get to the deep water, convinced me that even if I go down, it was hardly 12 feet, so I could come up very easily (I knew it but sometimes fear doesn't have logic :-D). And she showed me a move to keep myself afloat. It was a softer version of the breast stroke, standing up in the water rather than laying on the stomach. One point she stressed was that each person will have a point of balance on which they can do the movement and the trick was to find that point. In the subsequent practices on my own, I would force myself to go to the deep end and try different ways to keep myself afloat. I lost the so-called fear of deep end in the 4th class itself and started enjoying being there where my legs just can't reach the ground :).

I was also taught the backstroke in the 4th class. Yup, lots of things going on simultaneously :-D. As I said before I knew how to float on my back and it was only a matter of learning how to kick the legs out and the arm strokes backwards. The difficulty lies in the aspect that whenever you are getting the arms out of the water or putting them in, any splash of water can straight hit your face and in turn your nose, causing panic :). So the trick is to soften those 2 moves (for each arm, so total 4 times per each complete stroke) - when the arm is coming out of the water, use the thumb and when going in, use the side of the palm (rather than the palm itself which can result in an unwanted splash of water) :). So to learn the stroke itself wasn't that difficult, but these little tips were (again needed a lot of concentration).

The teacher did miss out one week in between the 4th and the 5th (and later b/w the 5th and the 6th), so it did give me lots of classes inbetween to practice :). The 5th class (again seeing my improvement), she taught me the butterfly stroke. Now this is the most difficult, the grand-daddy of them all :-D. The main problem of the stroke is that it uses the entire body, so there is no part of the body that is not exercized. And since it requires all of the body parts, it also needs lot of concentration, plus lots of stamina. In addition, its THE stroke for abdominal exercise, because it uses the core as the strength. The leg movement is the key (called the dolphin kick), coupled with the body movement, that give the swimmer the ability to actually push the upper body out of the water. Also there is a very tiny breathing window (actually a breath every other stroke is suggested, but I still have to take a breath every stroke ;-) :-D). Needless to say, I still haven't got this one perfect till now. I do try to do atleast 2 laps each time I swim, but every half-a-lap I have to stop for breath. My kicks aren't yet synchronized with the arm movement (there are 2 kicks to each stroke), so lots of practice ahead.

I did go the 6th week, to gather more little details and tips to make it all better. By this time December end had arrived and we had to leave for our India trip. The teacher and I decided to take it up once I was back, but you knew what happened after I came back - with my not keeping well and later the incident :-D. Even later when I wanted to, the teacher had some exams going on (she is still a student in our local university), so it got postponed again. So to this day, we haven't got a chance to get back to the 2 remaining classes. I want to improve my butterfly, learn flip turn (a great help in lapping without stopping - tried it a couple of times, but its been a long time since I have done any paltis, so my head reeled :-D) and learn on-the-spot diving (tried it, but my ears ring, so I'm sure there must be a trick to it :-D). Well, its been almost an year, so maybe I'll actually take further classes some other time.

Right now, I swim twice a week (thinking of making it thrice a week from next week onwards :-D). I have come a long way from someone who used to swim about 4 to 6 laps in an hour. Now-a-days I swim minimum 12 laps in half an hour including warm-up and inbetween flexibility exercizes. The routine is usually 2 front crawls, 2 breaststrokes, 1 butterfly and 1 backstroke, 2 times. Plus another 2 laps in the end as relaxation laps where its a lazy swim :). I love breaststroke and enjoy frolicking in the deep end. As for the rest, I am still practicing keeping my legs up in the front crawl (which I've heard improves the speed), keeping my concentration in the backstroke (lying on my back tends to get me wool-gathering and I forget the tricks until I get a splash on my nose :-D) and trying to improve everything about my butterfly. I've been complimented a couple of times on my swimming (which I cannot believe as I still feel very incompetent sometimes :-\) and I am very proud of what I have achieved :). I have been trying to convince Sri to take up some classes (he knows swimming, but he is not comfy with any strokes other than the front crawl just like I was an year ago), but well, he is still dilly-dallying :-D.

I still cannot believe that one year ago I even had the hesitation. One thing the whole experience has taught me is that a person is never too old to try something new. I mean, yes there maybe a hesitation, there maybe embarrassment, but believe me, its all worth it. It helped me prove to myself that this old dog can learn new tricks and oh man, is there a lot more to learn :).

The dance..

This week I attended an African dance class in YMCA and became an instant fan. The dance was the typical tribal dance that you see in TVs, but what I loved was that it was totally liberating. While I was dancing, I felt free. Literally lost inhibitions and I hardly ever do that! The class was not the typical teacher-do-students-follow. Yes, she taught us steps, but later she made us interact with others. We even had to make teams and create our own dance using the steps she taught us. Somehow the effect literally made me forget my troubles. Sadly, I hear she's leaving in July. I am planning to make the most of it until she's here. Give it a try if you have a YMCA nearby and if they offer the class :).

As for me, the next new thing is going to be Pilates :).

Hurray for YMCA!

Long long time ago (actually only about 8 months ago :-p), I wrote about how I workout. But as I said in the post, soon the whole so-called routine was about to change. Winter came and how! There was simply no way I could go out without 3 layers of clothes. So obviously there was no question of running/cycling..

After about 1 month of doing no workouts whatsoever, we finally joined YMCA. Lexington has 4 branches of YMCA, we found the nearest one, took a tour and went ahead and joined it. Though the full form is "Young Men's Christian Association", its in no way a propaganda of Christianism. Well, maybe everything done stands for Christian values, but we were never subjected to religion as such...

I got into a new routine pretty easily. They have some pretty amazing group exercize classes, so I, who had never ever been to one, enthusiastically joined whatever was suiting our "time". Our "time" was in the evenings when Sri would return from work. So the routine shifted from mornings to evenings anywhere from 5PM to 8PM. While I attended classes, Sri worked out on the treadmil and weights.

I was introduced into a whole new world through group exercize. I mean, when I was working out alone, I kinda always had the option of quitting. So if I felt the least bit tired, I could give up ;-) :-D. But the classes are not like that. Though no one forces you to get back if you do give up, its a matter of pride to continue working out. Hence you are actually doing more justice to the job ;-) :). I attended 4 types of classes over a week.

1) Zumba fitness class:

This was a fun dance class every monday from 6 PM to 7 PM . Our instructor Cathya was of Columbian origin and was extremely thin (and she was a mother of 2 kids!!). So she was a good influence ;-) :-D. Zumba uses latin dance moves for a wonderful workout. Since it was held only once per week, we used to have more than 20 people in the studio. Dancing away without any care about how you look was really something :). Well, atleast the first step to the tango lessons I want to take someday :-D.

2) Cardio Kickboxing class:

This one literally kicked ass of everyone who'd attend. I used to attend this on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM. It consisted of hardcore boxing moves. So we'd jab, hook, kick, swat and what not! Our instructor Lisa would make us sweat and repeat every move until we would feel like begging her to stop :-D. But the best part was that it'd feel absolutely refreshing after the workout. Lisa also took an Abs workout class from 6:30 PM to 7 PM. I once took both classes one after another and was totally tired!. After that either I'd take only the Cardio kickboxing class or go half an hour late to the class and take the Abs workout class :).

3) Water fitness class:

This class was available 4 days a week from Monday to Thursday from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM, but I'd take it only on Wednesdays. Basically, water fitness means getting into a swimming pool and instead of swimming, do exercizes in water. Since water makes you feel light, its more easier to do some exercizes which'd be difficult to do on land :). I absolutely loved it. We'd run across the swimming pool, jump, jog at place and use accessories for other exercizes like water dumbbells (you have to push these under water rather than lift them :-D), kickboards (which we'd use for arm exercizes like rowing, pushing and pulling) and noodles (they are not eatable noodles :-p). Noodles were the most fun, as you can use them as weights for the legs, or for an abdominal workout or to support your weight while you cycle/do stomach exercizes, all in water ofcourse :-D. Our instructor Mary was a 8-year veteran in water fitness and she'd take the class even if there were only 2 people around :-D. But imagine, I had never even heard about something like water fitness before I actually took the class! The things people do!

That was it. If we'd somehow manage to go on fridays (;-) :-D), I'd workout on the treadmill as there were no classes available on Friday. Sadly, the fun lasted only for about 4-5 months. Notice how I have written everything in past tense? Recently we both got free annual membership for Gold Gym (which is a chain of costly gyms across the country), so we have started going there. Their group exercize classes are quite different and their aqua fitness class is more vigourous (details are for another post another time), but somehow I sort of miss the YMCA instructors and the "classmates". Maybe next year we'll be back :).

Routine routes :)

After we shifted to an independent home from an apartment, one of my major routines has changed and drastically! Most apartments in US have a free gym in the campus. So the gyms in the previous 2 apartments I lived in after coming to US, have been thoroughly "explored" by me :-D. But all that changed when we shifted to our current home. Yup, the problem is that there is no gym for the campus of independent homes. There are private gyms in Lexington, but there are none that are near to where we live. As I have gotten used to working out atleast for an hour for 5 days of a week, I had to do something.

So one of the first things we did do, after shifting to this place was to buy a cycle for me :).



Well, I didn't have many colour choices :-p.

So what was previously 10 min warm-up + 30 min treadmill + 10 min weights + 10 min exercizes became 20 min cycling + 15 min brisk walk/jog + 5 min exercizes + 15 min brisk walk/jog + 5 min exercizes :). The "how" is what will be addressed by this post :)).

The routine takes place somewhere in the range of 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM and it starts like this. I put on my exercize wear, brush my hair into some sort of a ponytail, strap a watch onto my wrist (God knows why!!), fill up my water bottle (yup the one hung onto the the mid-section of my cycle), wear running shoes and start off. The only things that I carry (actually my cycle does the carrying :-p) are the water bottle and the garage remote (the one fixed almost in the centre of the cycle handle bars). The remote is a very convenient device as I can close the garage door with the press of a button while I'm off riding on the cycle.

My cycling routine consists of cycling on a loop around my house with 3 water-sip breaks. There is no separate cycling path available, so most of the ride is on a main road, except one stretch where I use a foot path, basically as there is shade in that particular stretch. There are cars and huge trucks travelling on the roads I use, but though I block their way sometimes, they rarely honk at me. Honking (or pressing the horn) is considered rude or a dire (as in "only if the driver in front of you is just not following any of the traffic rules") gesture in US and you hardly hear any horns at all on the roads, unlike India, where probably if you don't honk, then you are being rude ;-) :-D. There's plenty of greenery on the roads I take, so its not really exhausting and is kind of fun :).

Its also feels good to know that I haven't forgotten riding the cycle with both hands not on the handle-bars :-D. I enjoy doing that every day on a down hill road ;-). The only sad part of owning a cycle in US is that I have to fill up air in the tyres myself (another do-it-by-yourself as there are no dedicated "cycle-shops" like India :-p). I somehow manage to convince (more like pester :-D) Sri into doing the work for me most of the times ;-) :-D. Thankfully I haven't had problems with tyre-punctures till now. Otherwise I would have had to slog for that too (Or Sri would have :-D).

After 20 min, I land back in the house, park my cycle, have a sip of water and am off walking. This time I carry only the garage remote. I know, I know, maybe its not very sensible to not carry any money or other stuff. But its a very safe place and so its not really a problem. I have fixed distances of walking and jogging, so thats exactly what I follow :).

There are not too many people who interrupt my routine in any way. There are dogs who bark their "hello"s with envy from inside their houses :). Very rarely I get to see specimens like me, who either are running, walking or walking their dogs (or it might be the dogs walking their humans - thats how it looks anyways, what with the dogs walking in front :-D). At one point along the way, there is a children's park, where I do see some parents bringing their children either by car or by pushing their prams. One I saw a mother pushing a pram with 2 kids with one baby in her arm!! Atleast I think its their mother ;-). Or she may have been a rich baby-sitter :-D.

I hardly get to speak to any of the people I encounter except the usual "Hello", "Hi, How are you?" or a smile :). But once I did meet this lady who was out to check her mail (not the internet one but the real mail :-p). She did smile a hello and then suddenly said "Well, I should be out walking like you!" :-D. It was really nice the way us two total strangers shared a moment of complete understanding :).

After 15 min of walk-run combination, I reach the area club. The club sadly only has a swimming pool and no gym. And its too costly to join just for the pool. The place I like most is just next to this club and I call it "My grove" :-D. Its a lovely lawn surrounded by trees. There are some park benches. Though there are houses just beyond the trees, its a quiet green peaceful place, where I do some basic exercises and also have some moments of breather. The best part is that there are no disturbances and being the nature lover I am, the blue sky (white sky on cloudy days of course :-D), the green leaves and grass, I feel, is so pleasing to the sight. There are also squirels that look at me suspiciously as if they want to punish me for invading their territory (:-p), birds chirping to themselves and insects screeching. I have even seen a couple of hares twice and a pair of white bunny rabbits once (Nope, I didn't follow one like Alice in Wonderland :-p. And yup, they did vanish when I tried to reach out to them :( :-p). Does sound unbelievable, doesn't it? Well, the place certainly exists :).

The noises of the outer world do intrude sometimes like a car passing by or the voices of people playing in the pool water (the latter has stopped now as the pool has been closed in anticipation of winter), but nevertheless its all music to my ears. Over the past few months the grove has become a place where my thought process is in full swing, a place where I feel absolute peace and a place thats mine though I am there hardly for 5 minutes a day :). I long to take the camera there, but its not really possible while exercizing. Also, one of the hidden agendas is not to share it with anyone :-p ;-) :-D.

After a few moments of rest, I head back with the same walking/jogging and cover another 15 min. I open the garage door with the remote and drink water again. I do some 5 min of stomach exercizes and I am done :). I have stuck to the routine for some time now regularly for 4 days a week (5th day I have a whole house to vacuum + do the exercize set anyways).

I basically am getting plenty of sunshine and fresh air now than previously when I used to go to the gym. But I really wonder what'll happen once winter is here. It was very easy in apartment to wear a jacket and remove it once I went inside the gym (yup, the gyms are all air-conditioned :-D). Now there is no protection whatsoever from snow and the cold. I can hardly go through with the routine if its raining, so it'll certainly be impossible in the snow. I don't really want to stop exercizing altogether, so I guess I'll have to figure something out.

If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all - Joey Adams.

I don't exercise. If God wanted me to bend over, he'd have put diamonds on the floor - Joan Rivers.

Eat Right, Exercise, Die Anyway! - Edward McPhail.

Hehehe :)).