Several months ago, I took up exercise at a
place called Myofunction. The owner, Emma, is a myotherapist who does
individually tailored fitness programs. This was particularly useful to me
since I was recovering from shoulder surgery and have a bunch of other high
mileage parts that require gentle handling.
In addition to my twice a week
fitness session, Emma also prescribed several daily exercises to help improve my
posture, get more flexible and using my muscles appropriately, rather than my
literally half-assed previous state (where I could only use the butt muscles on
my right side for squats and lunges). One of these exercises she calls
connection squats. Here Emma demonstrates it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKdJa_wzfpo
Now the daily prescription for connection
squats is 50. When I first started it was agonizing to get to 50, and still I
am pretty sorry from 35-50 and ready for them to be over. But they do actually
have all the benefits Emma describes in the YouTube video. Dammit.
Today I saw a short video about an experiment
in the UK where they brought 4 year olds in to hang out with elderly folks in a
retirement home to see what the result would be for the residents’ health and
well-being: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/im-crying-documentary-four-year-10928364
This reminded me of two moments:
1) Back in 2014, I was home visiting after moving
to Australia. My niece Gillian was probably two at the time. I was regularly
doing kettlebell class and I discovered that kettlebell swings were way more
fun when Gilly Bean was my kettlebell. There was a lot of giggling on both our
parts. I suspect both of us said “Whee!!!” more than once. It was fantastic.
2) This year I’ve had two flights to the
US. The first leg is usually 13+ hours. I typically go to the very back of the
plane a couple times and do some connection squats (thanks, Emma) to keep my
legs from swelling up. They are usually as painful, annoying, and effective on
the plane as they are at home. On one of the flights, there was a dad hanging
out in back with his toddler (parents and toddlers spend a lot of time cruising
the airplane – it tends to keep everyone happier). I started in with my
connection squats and the little girl caught my eye, then looked away, and then
started doing squats with me. Up and down, up and down. There was giggling. I
probably did 75 connection squats and didn’t suffer at all because she and I
were having such fun.
Turns out I have something in common with
those 80 year olds in the retirement home, besides just my high mileage parts. Exercise is WAY more fun with kids. :)
