Category Archives: Related Musings

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Why Do They Call It “Common” Sense?

Hope Diamond

Common Sense Like The Hope Diamond is Very Rare

A number of years ago I sought help from a chiropractor for an acute muscle spasm. During the visit I chanced to say that I had no common sense. I will never forget his reply which was: “You have common sense. You just don’t use common sense.” Few truer words have been spoken about me.

It’s clear that I am not alone in not using common sense. I mean, have you ever driven a car? It’s not really that all other people are idiots as it may seem, it’s just that they aren’t using their common sense either. I am very fond of my life and fond of my car so I do use common sense behind the wheel. For one thing I don’t use a cell phone when I am driving. I figure it’s best it I have my wits about me as so many others can be counted on not to.

I am trying to diligently apply common sense to the schedule associated with my new job in that the job requires a longer commute coupled with an earlier start time. I am going to bed at a more reasonable hour so that I can wake up feeling like a person rather than a disinterred corpse. This seems to be working so far though I need more time to have truly made a habit of it.  This going to bed scenario also requires making myriad tasks part of my evening routine rather than deferring them to morning. Again, looks good so far but need more time.

With job transitioning having had dominion over the last month of my life, I haven’t evolved a new workout schedule to complement my earlier sleep time. That will take some effort but I am optimistic. Now that common sense has been unleashed there’s no telling what can happen.

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On Power Yoga

Peacock Pose

No I Cannot Do the Peacock Pose

Last spring I signed up for a series of yoga classes at a studio that teaches yoga in the Baptiste tradition. I did this because I was feeling hamstrung so to speak over my inability to lift heavy weights as I recovered from an arm injury and wanted something that would help me continue to build muscle strength without further injuring myself.

I first took yoga at college. I remember my teacher well. She was a delightful, down to earth woman from Texas. She told us she was one of few people we’d ever hear say “cow” as a word with three syllables and she was right. Yoga really stuck with me. Over the years some movements or poses just became a normal part of my stretching routines. When I started back at it recently I had not taken yoga in a formal setting in 30 years.

One of my disappointments about middle age is how hard I must fight to retain flexibility. I’ve always been reasonably flexible. Now desk jobs plus age have me suddenly concerned with flexibility in the hips. This is more than an idle concern as the tension in this area can impinge on nerves and cause some fairly uncomfortable sensations which take time and hard work to alleviate once they get started.

The class I’ve taken most is Power Yoga Basics which is really a good full body workout. Some of the poses like the pigeon really seem to help with hip inflexibility. For me the key to making progress in yoga practice are:  take a place near the front of the room so I am as little distracted as possible by other people and how flexible and awesome they are and use a foam block to modify poses when needed so that I am doing as close to what I am supposed to be as possible while respecting my own limitations. My favorite place to practice is in the hot studio. It makes my muscles feel more limber. Also it’s just nice being warm at this time of year without being bundled up.

Recently the New York Times magazine had an article on the dangers of yoga. I think the main message I drew from it is that there is no physical activity that if done to extremes or excess does not carry risk and of course the same is true of yoga. That said, I plan to continue to be mindful of my limits and continue to practice. And having completed my series of classes I  plan to sign up for more.

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If I Did Make New Year’s Resolutions

I consider myself an agnostic in the New Year’s resolution realm. It seems foolish to make them in the sense that why structure around a date on the calendar committing to what we already know we should be doing?  On the other hand, it seems even more foolish to avoid using any momentum one can to help one do what one should…  So were I to make New Year’s resolutions what would they be?

First is to drink more water.  A couple of years ago I bought my first Camelbak water bottle. Eventually I figured out that I needed one at work and one at home since I spend lots of time in both places. Then I figured out that I should really be drinking three bottles of water per day so I bought a third one figuring that if I started the day with three full ones I might have a chance. I haven’t yet focused on this enough to be successful but I guess it’s good to have the tools in place. A colleague of mine who lost about 50 pounds and looks great told me she drinks a half ounce of water for each pound of body weight per day. I can see how that would be helpful in keeping one’s appetite under control and feeling hydrated. If I have to focus on filling a bottle at any time during the day when I have better things to think about–and that would be always–I am more likely to fail so the game plan is to have three full bottles at the start of each day and have drunk them by the end of the day.

Second quasi-resolution is to use my Rumble Roller daily.  I’ve used it about 10 to 15 minutes for the last two days and I already feel better. When I don’t do some sort of flexibility work my body quickly becomes stressed and crunchy feeling. I know that certain aches and pains are secondary symptoms of muscle tightness and that rolling will fix ’em. I know that as I roll more I can reduce pressure points and that rolling itself will feel better. If I want to go for the gold standard on this one it will be rolling my illiotibial band. Right now it’s so painful when I do that that I come close to seeing stars. I am sure my body would benefit considerably from that area of my body being less irritated. A couple of useful resources for how to foam roll are Jeff Alexander’s instructions for scaled myofascial release on you tube using a wall for things that would be too painful to do on the floor. (Sheesh that sounds bad.) Another helpful video was a longer and more thorough introduction to using a Rumble Roller by Coach Charles Staley.

Third would be actually taking the dietary supplements I aim to take. I measure them all out into little boxes each day for AM and PM. Just got

English: Damavand Mineral Water bottle

Drink .5 oz/lb bodyweight /day

to remember to get them down the hatch. The things I do try to take were inspired by recommendations of the “You Docs” Mehmet Oz and Jeffrey Roizen in their book You: The Owners Manual.

That’s probably enough for this year. I don’t feel like I have to resolve to exercise because I feel pretty motivated to do that.

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Things Aren’t Always What They Seem

Rumble Roller

Rumble Roller

A couple of summers ago I was letting an arm injury heal and found myself doing run/walk intervals and core work as a way to work out. One thing I noticed at the time is that my knees were killing me after running; and we’re not even talking about “running running” here but rather like 1 minute running followed by 2 minutes of walking repeated.  When I finally sought a consultation on my arm from a sports medicine physician I thought I’d get a ruling on my knees at the same time. I was pleased to find out there wasn’t really much of anything wrong with them for a person my age. The feedback I received is that my problem, rather than being anything intrinsic to my knees, had more to do with a lack of core strength; that is, it had more to do with my gait than my knees.

Since this experience I do think about whether aches and pains are signs of injury or secondary symptoms of other problems. Recently a few issues seem to be cropping up that are a result of muscle tightness in my legs and hips. I am here to report that the imperative to stretch apparently is greater as we age. I’ve always been a tense person and held a lot of tension in my shoulders etc. but the advent of low body tightness is new.

In her book The Female Body Breakthrough, Rachel Cosgrove recommends using a foam roller regularly; in particular on days one is not working out. I have a scary one called a Rumble Roller.  It really is like getting a deep tissue massage–sort of. Something I know I should do and don’t is to foam roll more; ideally every day I don’t work out.  As it is I only stretch when I work out so if working out gets disrupted so does stretching. Not helpful.

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Vanity is Your Friend

"All is Vanity" by C. Allan Gilbert....

Over the years I have found myself often more motivated by preserving or enhancing my looks than my health. Probably I realize that while my health has been generally good in the looks department I really can’t afford to cede any ground. Vanity just motivates me in a way that health doesn’t. Maybe it’s because I realize that as much as I can do to support my health I will die eventually. Who knows? Mainly I think that it’s good to take advantage of whatever I can that keeps me actively pursing health and wellness. It doesn’t matter what my reasons are for hitting the weights as long as I keep hitting them.

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Hardest Birthday

Dental floss monster

Dental Floss Monster

For me the most difficult birthday so far was 46. As far as I can tell this was due to the simple fact that I deemed my early forties to be an extension of my thirties; sort of my really late thirties. Thus when I hit 46 there was no longer a way to tell myself that I was 30+ anymore: it was undeniable: I was closer to 50 than even the tail end of my thirties.

Heading towards 50 got my attention though and I decided that my practice of always trying to get away with things with respect to my physical well-being had to go. I read “You the Owner’s Manual” by Drs. Oz and Roizen and incorporated a lot of their advice into my normal routines including  adding some supplements I had not previously taken such as fish oil and flossing more. They got me to do that with the advice to only floss the teeth you want to keep.  I cut out diet pop except as a treat. I drink more water. I’ve learned that my best bet is to make things easy for myself; keep water handy if you want to drink water. I recently added drinking about 3 cups a day of green tea to my regular routine and have cut way back on coffee though I don’t think it’s really bad for you, it just contributes to worse sleep habits for me.

I sometimes backslide when I get busy but in general I am trying. I think that’s all we can expect from ourselves.