As I mentioned, I’ve got the early signs of a cold (by the way, my wife is ill too with the same symptoms). I was up and down all night with scratchy throat and drainage. Being self-employed and breadwinner, I don’t like to miss work unless I’m really ill, and that’s for the benefit of my patients. So I got up early this morning, got my son ready for school, and then went outside to exercise. I did a 25 minute workout in 85 degree weather with high humidity (the Mexican hurricane is pushing some much-needed moisture into Arizona), and got a great sweat going and I feel like a million bucks. I explained my theory yesterday on raising the internal body temperature to create a “noxious internal milieu” for the invading virus.
I have rediscovered jumping rope. I used to do it all the time (it’s a great way to burn fat, stress the cardio system, in a short amount of time) but I gave it up because it made my back muscles hurt. I bought a mini-trampoline a year ago and started running and jumping and doing balance work on that, with no side-effects. I graduated to regular jump rope 3 times/week about a month ago and no back pain yet. I worked up to 10 minutes as of this morning.
Jumping rope is a great activity for the brain too-it requires a coordinaed effort between the arms, legs and head. If you can’t get it right away, try pretending you have a rope. Start off jumping for a minute with 30 sec recovery and repeat three times. One minute of jumping rope = 3 minutes of running. Enjoy, it brings out the kid in you again.
Stay well, John R Blilie, M.S.