B-Brain in a C-Body
My latest self-evaluation report card:
Emotionally and spiritually I feel the best that I ever have.
It’s the physical that is a little troublesome. I got a cough a few weeks ago which led to a pain in my backside because it was dragging behind me. Fortunately, the cough and sluggishness ended just before our desert vacation.
On Monday of last week, we went to the weight room for the first time in a month. Not being a masochist, I found the pain of that first workout to be painful. On the first leg machine I backed off the weight by sixty pounds. On the fourth repetition I raised my hips -- for some reason still unknown -- and felt a twinge in my lower back. Since I still have a B brain, I knew to stop. I lay there for a few minutes before finishing my workout on machines that wouldn’t put pressure on my back. On Thursday I returned to a normal workout but with less weight than usual and my back was fine. This week I began increasing the weights back to my normal workout but I’m not there yet.
I find I can do anything I could ever do. I just can’t do it as long and tend to want to take a break afterwards.
Now, here’s the scary part. Do I dare let it enter my B-brain that because I’m older I can’t do the things that I used to do and I can’t handle the weight that I used to lift? Nope, I don’t want to go there. But – there’s always a but – an A-brain person knows that we lose some ability as we age and we need to accept it and adapt to our new reality to avoid injury. Do you see the quandary I’m in? Give up and create a self-fulfilling prophecy about old age or keep going and try to do something just plain dumb that only a young person should try.
Maybe that’s the blessing in life. I don’t have an A-brain any longer so I don’t know that I shouldn’t try something.
So, this weekend I think my B-brain will take my C-body and try some type-A behavior. I’m going to dig the footers/piers for a new deck, pour the concrete, begin framing a support beam, move a clothes line, fill the cistern, hike a few miles and sit up until after midnight watching PBS comedies. Hopefully, I'll be awake.
Next week, please don’t ask what I watched.
- Emotional A
- Mental B
- Spiritual A
- Physical C
Emotionally and spiritually I feel the best that I ever have.
It’s the physical that is a little troublesome. I got a cough a few weeks ago which led to a pain in my backside because it was dragging behind me. Fortunately, the cough and sluggishness ended just before our desert vacation.
On Monday of last week, we went to the weight room for the first time in a month. Not being a masochist, I found the pain of that first workout to be painful. On the first leg machine I backed off the weight by sixty pounds. On the fourth repetition I raised my hips -- for some reason still unknown -- and felt a twinge in my lower back. Since I still have a B brain, I knew to stop. I lay there for a few minutes before finishing my workout on machines that wouldn’t put pressure on my back. On Thursday I returned to a normal workout but with less weight than usual and my back was fine. This week I began increasing the weights back to my normal workout but I’m not there yet.
I find I can do anything I could ever do. I just can’t do it as long and tend to want to take a break afterwards.
Now, here’s the scary part. Do I dare let it enter my B-brain that because I’m older I can’t do the things that I used to do and I can’t handle the weight that I used to lift? Nope, I don’t want to go there. But – there’s always a but – an A-brain person knows that we lose some ability as we age and we need to accept it and adapt to our new reality to avoid injury. Do you see the quandary I’m in? Give up and create a self-fulfilling prophecy about old age or keep going and try to do something just plain dumb that only a young person should try.
Maybe that’s the blessing in life. I don’t have an A-brain any longer so I don’t know that I shouldn’t try something.
So, this weekend I think my B-brain will take my C-body and try some type-A behavior. I’m going to dig the footers/piers for a new deck, pour the concrete, begin framing a support beam, move a clothes line, fill the cistern, hike a few miles and sit up until after midnight watching PBS comedies. Hopefully, I'll be awake.
Next week, please don’t ask what I watched.
posted by Paul at 8:45 AM
4 Comments:
I think you can do everything you you once did. Just might take a bit more work to reach those levels.
If that's a C-body, I hate to think where mine is.
I'm so laughing. Ten years ago when I started the job I'm slogging thru now, I was getting speeding tickets in the hallwalls, and no one could seem to understand how someone so short could move so fast. Nowadays, only ten years later, I start out about 80% of that old pace and leave work 12 hours later feeling like I'm wearing lead weights. I can still do what I do almost as fast as I once could, it only hurts alot more. What I don't get is why all these miles I put in at work haven't kept me in tip top shape. My mind, I reckon, has degraded to an A-, but yes, I do have trouble placing words and remembering where I just laid my car keys. Who are you, by the way, do I know you? Why am I here? What was the question again?
Well I have to differ with you, ole buddy. I love to be old. I'm naturally lazy, always have been, and now have a much better excuse.
Seriously old age is wonderful. This is the best year of my life and I expect next year to be better.
I get all the exercise I can, and it's enough. Enough to enjoy a very pleasant nap. IMO most people's brain goes down faster than their body: use it or lose it.
Blogging is a blessing. Knowing people like you and George is almost as good as being there.
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