When I first began going to Carter Rehab and Fitness Center (hereafter known as Cater), the therapist with whom I was working said that I really was a "water baby," meaning that I seemed to love being in the water. And I do. There is absolutely nothing I have found that brings such a tranquil and peaceful feeling as that I get when I am walking in the water at Carter.
It all began when I went to my primary physician and told her that I had lost all the strength, stamina, flexibility, and balance I had once had. I needed help. She sent me to Carter where I was assigned to the most wonderful therapist in the business, Glenda. In other words, she was exactly the right one for me. When we first met, she had read my background, knew my situation, that I had Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue, that I was over 70, that my knees were shot, that there is arthritis in all too many joints; and everything she did with me, she determined from what she knew about me.
Not once did I ever hurt, not once was I ever angry or defensive. Nothing she did was anything but the very best way to "handle" me. And she gave me the weapons with which to fight allowing "old age" to completely take away all of my ability to move. She gave me stretching exercises which were easy on my poor knees and balancing exercises that I finally mastered after a year. The end of January marks two years that I have been going to Carter and all that, I owe to Glenda. She made everything so enjoyable, so pleasant. How could I not go at every opportunity?
I don't think that I could ever have walked into a 24 hour fitness center and just started. I do not look like someone who would go to a fitness center. I am old and overweight, I cannot walk well, cannot climb stairs, would look horrendous in the cute little leotards they wear. But Glenda took me around and showed me every area in the Center and talked about how to become a part of it all, what I could do, and what it would cost. After two months of working with her, I knew that I wanted to go to Carter for the rest of my life and that I could. It was something I could do.
And so ever since that time two years ago when I joined the aquatics program, I have gone to Carter and done those stretches in the warm, comforting water. I have stretched muscles that won't even move out of the water and used joints that are so stiff and painful I fear having to step up on a curb or walk around Wal*Mart. I step down into the warm pool and begin to work. The two or three women, who are usually there at the same time, and I briefly exchange the pleasantries and I begin to stretch those muscles and prepare to walk. And that is the way it is: pleasant, comfortable, non-threatening, doable.
The primary focus of my being at Carter is all about teaching my legs to walk. Oh, I could walk before, but I hurt and I could walk a short distance and call it over; since about four months after I began at Carter, I can walk far longer and in much less pain. I walk in the warm 88 degree water that is chest high. That is the optimum depth for getting the very best use of my time there.
Good posture, head up, shoulders back, slowly and gracefully, I walk the first lane of the pool, up and down each lane for about 30 laps. I can walk 30 laps in 45 minutes if I do not stop and talk or slow down, but stick to it. 53 laps makes a mile and thus you can see that I am walking more slowly in the water than I would be on a track. That chest high water really provides resistance, much more resistance than air. It is sometimes hard to just keep pushing through the water. Water walking is a great easy, effective, low-impact exercise that anyone can do, no matter their physical fitness level; and depending on just how fast you walk, it burns about 500 calories an hour.
As you look at the photographs of Carter, I hope you can see the reason I so enjoy going there and how wonderful the afternoons are there in the warm water.
