Full Transcript
Pete Lane:
Be sure to consult a physician before performing this or any exercise program. This is especially important if you or your family has a history of high blood pressure, heart disease, or diabetes. It is your responsibility to evaluate your own medical or physical condition, and to determine whether to perform or adapt any of the exercises in this Focus On Fitness episode. The use of any information provided in this Focus On Fitness episode is solely at your own risk. If you start to feel any pain or discomfort while exercising, stop immediately, and contact your doctor or healthcare professional.
Maria:
Focus On Fitness. You didn’t even know you had a muscle there. Goals, man, goals. Love it.
Speaker 3:
15 seconds. You’re doing great. Hold it.
Pete Lane:
A plank. You know, a plank is a full body exercise, and it’s a love hate exercise, actually.
Speaker 3:
Five, four, three, two, and rest.
Maria:
It’s worth it.
Jeff Thompson:
Hey Maria, how are you doing?
Maria:
I’m doing great. Jeff, how are you?
Jeff Thompson:
I’m doing good. I got my walking shoes on.
Maria:
Ooh, you do, do you?
Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). I like them, because they’re comfortable, and they breathe. I like to do a little walking. We got a corridor here that has a walking path on it. I go around the block, and when I go around my neighborhood, it’s actually just about one mile. That’s kind of neat, because I don’t have to have my watch tell me how many steps. I know if I get back to my house, hopefully I get back to my house, that it’s one mile. And that’s a nice thing to know.
Maria:
Yeah, well one mile, it’s easy, and if you want to do it twice, you know you’ve done two miles, three times, do the math. But most importantly that you do make it home, Jeff, we always want to make it home. So let’s talk about walking Jeff, because that’s something that is free, and easy to do right outside your front door. That’s a great idea to work in some activity into your daily or maybe even just weekly routine, is get out and get some sunshine, fresh air, clear the head, and get a little exercise at the same time.
Jeff Thompson:
And it’s really good if you have a sighted friend as a guide, like runners use. You can go for a more brisk walk if need be. But if you just want to walk, there’s treadmills that you can do, or in your own house. I’ve actually seen people do laps in their house. There was an actual videotape of walking in your house, just being active, and walking is a good one. Whether you’re in your house, in your yard, or on the sidewalks, walking around your neighborhood.
Maria:
Yes, and I imagine if you have a really big house, you can get some mileage in. But I agree with you. I wrote a blog about walking with a sighted guide, and it was called Together Is Better.
Jeff Thompson:
And that’s on Girl Gone Blind, right?
Maria:
Yes, it is on Girl Gone Blind. It’s called Together Is Better, and it’s tips for walking with someone who is blind and visually impaired. It kind of goes through things that might help somebody that wants to go walking with you as a blind, visually-impaired person, and gives some just tips and tricks about how to guide you better when you’re out on a walk. Because Jeff, not everyone likes to run. So I emphasize on that, this is for guided walking, not guided running, because that’s a whole ‘nother topic. And since I don’t run, we won’t be talking about that. But walking does wonders, mentally and physically.
Jeff Thompson:
And there’s always the option of having a treadmill where you can then learn the buttons, mark the buttons with bump dots, and get a sequence down. So when you’re on it, you just go for so long and time yourself. You don’t always have to be reading all the gauges. If you’re on there and you’re going at a brisk pace, if you can count how many times you hit it and it goes up, if you’re on there for 20 minutes, after a couple of weeks, maybe you’re on there for a half hour. But it’s at your own pace. It’s something that you want to do. But that’s where a treadmill comes in. But if you do have the luxury of having someone to walk with around the neighborhood, or even if you’re using your cane, and you know your neighborhood pretty well, that’s something that you can opt to do too.
Maria:
Yes. And if you’re low vision, another option, Jeff, is a high school track. If you have a high school near you, it has those lane lines painted on it. It’s a circle, or a big oval, if you will. And you just follow the lines. And you really can’t get too far off the trail if you will, by just sticking to the track. So, that’s one way to do it. And you can have several friends with you, and if you do have some low vision and you can see contrast, that line really pops out, and enables you to kind of stick to the route, if you will, on the track. So that’s another idea as well.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, that’s a neat area to go to, because the track, you go around at once, that’s pretty much quarter of a mile. I think it’s 400 meters, but it’s pretty much a quarter of a mile. So if you go four times around, we all can count, because that’s on one hand, that’s a mile. It’s really neat to have the feedback that if you’ve gone a mile, or if you’ve gone a half a mile, if you’ve gone a certain distance, that’s neat, because the next time you go back to it, then you can set that as I want to beat that, or I want to go another lap around next time, or a week later, or something like that.
Jeff Thompson:
After you get into this stuff, you’re going to start counting these things. I did 10, then the next week I did 12, or I did 15. And that’s how exercise works sometimes where you just challenge yourself. Cautiously challenge yourself, but set goals, set them longer. Don’t say in one week I’m going to go from 10 to a hundred, just pace yourself, and enjoy it. And like you said, if you have a companion to walk with, to enjoy it with, that’s more the merrier, mentally and physically.
Maria:
Yes, I agree with you about that little inner competition, if you will. It does grow. It does grow, and your advice was awesome there on, don’t go from 10 to 100. Ease into those extra laps, or that second time around the block. Don’t expect to do it two days apart from each other. A lot of times folks do that, because they’re feeling good, they’re feeling great about what they’re doing, and then they can’t make it maybe that second lap, or that second time around the block. And then you might feel as if you weren’t successful, and that’s not what we want for you at all. We want you to be successful with some of these little tidbits, and bits of exercise that we’re throwing at you. So do keep in mind to set those goals, but don’t set them too quickly, or too high, and set yourself up for a failure. We don’t want that at all.
Maria:
I have had many friends walk with me, they joke about taking me for a walk, because I do use a tether. I do like using a tether, but I want people to know that not everyone is comfortable walking with somebody who is blind and visually impaired. They can be a good friend, but if they say no, don’t take offense to it, it’s just they just maybe don’t feel comfortable enough to give you those verbal cues, or to have you out, and they’re feeling like they’re in charge of you or something. That’s okay. That’s okay. There’s plenty of folks who will go out on a walk with you, preferably somebody who is used to going out for walks with you, but it’s not everyone’s thing. So again, don’t get discouraged if your bestest friend won’t walk with you. Maybe they’re just not comfortable doing that. But there will be someone who will walk with you, and it’ll be extremely enjoyable, especially on a beautiful summer day. Oh, there’s nothing like it.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. And that’s what’s happening here in Minnesota right now. People are out and about, you just know it. And it’s nice to get out like that. And like we said, if you can’t, get yourself a treadmill, and you can listen to books on tape. Books on tape. Wow, I just dated myself there folks, I should just go walk with the seniors at the mall.
Maria:
Yeah, you go get that Walkman out.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, the Walkman. There you go. With a comfortable pair of walking shoes, preferably tennis shoes. One can enjoy walking in most locations, whether indoor or outdoor. And here are some tips. Be sure to wear comfortable clothing, and make sure that your tennis shoes are comfortable. I like the ones that breathe real well. Go at a comfortable pace, something that you can repeat the next day, and the next day, and increase gradually, if you so desire. Always remember to hydrate, have water on hand, and even indoors, on a treadmill, always have water available. And if you’re walking outdoors, be sure to use sunscreen.
Jeff Thompson:
Another suggestion that you might want to consider is using a baseball cap. This could give you a little warning for low-hanging branches. And don’t go walking right after a meal. Try to wait a half hour or up to an hour before you start walking, or exercising. And always practice safe walking, especially by not covering your ears with headphones. You want to be able to listen to the environment, and make your walking experience as safe as possible, not only for you, but for drivers, bicyclists, and others. And now, we’ll hear from Pete Lane. Pete uses the treadmill quite frequently, and has some great suggestions for us all.
Pete Lane:
Hi everybody, this is Pete Lane. Glad I could be part of this Focus On Fitness podcast. And I love walking. Walking is very therapeutic, and energizing for me. What I find myself doing in recent months is using a treadmill. The treadmill offers me a world of opportunities. It’s a controlled environment. I’m not out on the street where I have to worry about my orientation and mobility skills. I don’t have to worry about traffic, and I don’t have to worry about obstacles that I might encounter. It’s a controlled situation. I get on the treadmill, I use bump dots to mark the buttons on the flat screen on the treadmill, and they’re very basic. Now, let me pause on this because a lot of folks want to get into using a full exercise routine and these modern pieces of exercise equipment have these. They have programs where you can program in a 30 minute walk or run and you’ll go over hills for a portion and then it will automatically put you on a flat space and that kind of a thing.
Pete Lane:
That to me is unnecessary. What I want to do is go a certain distance, at a certain speed, within a certain pace. So I have bumped dots on the start button, and the stop button. I have bumped dots on the up and down incline buttons, and I have a bump dot on a button that starts me immediately at 3.5 miles an hour. Now that’s a pretty good clip for me, and actually in recent months, since I have been recovering from some surgery, I had hip surgery about six months ago. I find that even 3.5 miles an hour is too fast for me, so I’ll immediately start the treadmill. I’ll press that button at 3.5 and then I’ll in shut down one 10th of a mile an hour with the bumped out for the down and I’ll get to Andrew about 3.2 maybe 3.1 miles an hour. But I love it because it’s controlled.
Pete Lane:
I can hang on to one or both of the rails on the side of the treadmill or not. And as blind walkers, sometimes we just have to have something to touch to give us a little bit of an orientation and maintain our balance. It’s not that we’re not strong enough to walk without holding onto something, it’s just that point of reference that sighted people have when they can see what’s in front of them. They can see readily where they are, where their feet are landing on the treadmill. We don’t have that. So I use one hand just very lightly on one of the handles and sometimes I’ll switch hands to let the other one swing free to get some aerobic benefit and some muscle flexing benefit on both sides of the body. But again, my primary objective is to increase my endurance, increase my leg strength, and that includes everything from toes and feet to ankles.
Pete Lane:
It heals to calves, to thighs, to quadriceps and everything up into the core. And I will increase the speed to get the upper core muscles involved and those would be the stomach muscles and your glutes and the side muscles all the way up into the diaphragm area. And then I will make a point each and every day to increase, even if it’s incrementally, the pace. And by pace, I mean on the treadmill, I might start at 3.1 miles an hour today, and finish up after 30 minutes of walking, and I’ll increase the pace one 10th of a mile an hour, as I move through the routine and end up at 3.4 miles an hour. Tomorrow, I might still start at 3.1, but I want to get more time in at a higher pace. So I might end up at 3.5 miles an hour. I will also increase the incline.
Pete Lane:
From my perspective, the incline is actually easier to do, sometimes, than the pace. I can hit that bumped up on the raise inclined button and go up one degree, two degrees, three degrees, four degrees, five degrees, and not find it to be very hard when comparing it to raising it one 10th of a mile per hour at the same pace. What I would suggest, and this is again the way I do it, don’t get so hung up on routines, on the sophisticated programs. If you’re trying to mark your flat screen on your treadmill, or an elliptical, or any other machine, put bump dots or put some sort of a tactile marker on just the basic functions, as I mentioned. At any rate, that’s my routine. I’m glad I could add something to this Focus On Fitness podcast. Everybody have a wonderful day, take care.
Jeff Thompson:
But yeah, walking is a great exercise. If you’ve got the opportunity to do it, do it, and take advantage of it. Take advantage of those friends that want to walk with you. Schedule something. You don’t have to do it every day, but if you can, hey, a little bit goes a long ways.
Maria:
Yes, yes. And you know what? Have a walk and then go out for a cup of coffee afterwards. Give yourself a little pat on the back, a little treat, a little coffee, to make it a nice weekend morning, a nice Saturday morning or a nice Sunday morning. Make it morning of it. The more you do it, the more you’re going to find you enjoy it, I think.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, Maria, why don’t you tell the listeners where they can find Maria Johnson, AKA Girl Gone Blind on social network.
Maria:
Thanks Jeff. As you said, I do write a blog, and my blog is called Girl Gone Blind, and you can find it at GirlGoneBlind.com, you can find me on Facebook at Girl Gone Blind and on Twitter, at girl_gone_blind.
Pete Lane:
Be sure to consult a physician before performing this or any exercise program. The use of any information provided in this Focus On Fitness episode is solely at your own risk. If you start to feel any pain or discomfort while exercising, stop immediately, and contact your doctor or healthcare professional.
Jeff Thompson:
Stay tuned for more episodes of Focus On Fitness right here on Blind Abilities, and remember to enable the Blind Abilities skill on your Amazon device, just by saying enable Blind Abilities. And most importantly, thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed, and until next time, bye-bye.
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