Let’s do this well together!

“If we ask anything according to God’s will, He hears us.” 1 John Ch .5 v. 14

By now, most of you reading this are well into your cocooning and beginning to get a rhythm. It takes a while for most of us to adapt to new situations and to relax into them. Some people will be dismayed by the instruction to only go outside one a day for exercise. One young friend of ours who is a fitness fanatic, was jokingly offering a bottle of hand sanitiser and a toilet roll, in exchange for someone’s exercise slot!

I generally do as little exercise as possible and I’ve been that way all my life. I believe it to be because I was traumatised by a hockey teacher when I was twelve and she put me on the wing, where your role was to dash about and run as fast as possible with the ball and then feed it to the strikers. I was too concerned about having my shins cracked by an opponent’s hockey stick to bother about ‘dribbling’ the ball. I prefer gentler forms of exercise like Pilates and happily, my teacher has now put classes on line so I can do it at my own pace.

There will be those who are frustrated by not being allowed to go to the gym, those who do lengthy walks several times a day, (and I know a number of folk like this), who are feeling cooped up and claustrophobic, and then there are those of us who weren’t very active in any case, and who see this confinement as a great excuse to take the art of being a couch potato to Olympic levels.

I am being harassed by my dear husband to increase my exercise levels, as experts say that general fitness contributes to our success in fighting infection, so for HIS peace of mind, I will start today doing a little aerobic exercise to get me out of breath. I’m going to try our cross- trainer which Clive uses for 45 minutes a day (and is unbearably virtuous about doing it!). I’ll start with a modest ten minutes and see how it goes. My motive may not be very positive, as I’m doing it to get Clive to stop nagging, but hopefully I’ll get to feel good about myself for doing it.

I won’t be putting my name down for any marathons, or even half-marathons or 10K runs when this is all over, but who knows…maybe if I set a target of 5k, I’ll surprise myself!