Issues With Our Tissues

Work outs, aerobics, power walking, and strength training are activities that make me want to run in the opposite direction.  I am not the worst couch potato in my age group, but regular exercise is not high on my priority list. The one exercise that calls my name is deep water aquatics. I try to make it to the YMCA pool at least once a week—not nearly enough to do any good.  At least I don’t have to lie when my doctor asks, “Do you exercise?” Last week at the pool, several of us were chatting about what makes us get up early in the morning, put on a bathing suit (we all get stars for that), fight the school traffic, and get into the sometimes chilly water for our class. One shared her arthritis miseries, another her recent back surgery and I talked about my fibromyalgia. We all had a good laugh, when I suggested that everyone that comes to the pool probably has “Issues with their Tissues.”

As I climbed out of the pool, ladies arrived for the next class called Senior Fit. Some were walking with canes, one on a walker, and several others walking very slowly with limps. Those seniors have not given in to their condition, but are doing everything they can to maintain mobility and quality of life. Aquatic exercise works because it helps to decrease stiffness, improves range of motion, and, unlike land exercise, reduces stress on the joints. In other words, it helps the “twinges in the hinges.”

If my goal is to finish my life well, then I must continue to exercise physically and spiritually. I am not a runner, but I take inspiration from the Bible verse in Hebrews 12:2a. “And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”