All-round fitness

As mentioned in the post on my knee injury, I do try to keep fit. In my younger days lots of sports, then distance running and more recently cycling.

Almost as a joke, I've referred to my body shape as 'legs like tree trunks, arms like spaghetti'; however, the knee injury and follow-up exercises plus pilates classes has made me realise that just doing a single type of aerobic exercise may not be enough, and pilates has shown just how imbalanced I am.

More recently, I've just completed a really interesting course with the excellent Futurelearn (free online courses, via the Open University https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ ) on the Musculoskeletal system. Really interesting and informative, identifies potential problems with ageing and offers advice (including exercise, diet, weight management) on how to potentially reduce the impact of the ageing process.

Coincidentally my wife and I treated ourselves to a spa break a few weeks ago and, at the excellent exercise classes, learnt various strength training activities using weights and resistance bands.

As a further motivator, I've had foot pain problems recently and had an initial appointment with a podiatrist - more strength and balance exercises recommended.

As a result, I'm allocating more time to strength and flexibility and less to 'just putting in the cycling miles'. First impressions are positive. Less aches and pain and definitely feeling more flexible and able to do more physical work (diy, gardening, for example). A couple of minor aches due, I suspect, to underused muscles being coaxed into use but these reduce quickly.

Makes me think that the NHS could usefully put more effort into preventative advice. It's expensive to just fix problems; preventative advice, which often already exists (see here for example) could be made more widely available via leaflets, emails to patients and even in public health messages on television and websites such as the BBC.

I've created a very simple 'home gym', using fairly light (3 and 5 kg) weights, exercise bands, hand grip exercisers and a Bosu Ball, in addition, of course, to my bikes (including one on a power-measuring turbo trainer, in the garage) for more aerobic exercise.

So far, motivation is good!