For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a very stiff & ‘rigid’ body. What seems like normal movements to other people (bending, working in the garden, sweeping…), always seemed to take a huge effort from me because my limbs are so stiff (think iron rods here).
Granted, being overweight and unfit doesn’t help the situation, but even ‘normal’ overweight and unfit people can at least lift their legs sufficiently to put on their shoes, right? For the past 15-20 years, my husband has had to put on my shoes because my legs (and my back for that matter) just wouldn’t bend sufficiently for me to do it myself.
I’ve tried various exercises throughout the years, either to lose some weight or to just be more active, but nothing ever got rid of the ‘iron rods’ in my body.
I recently decided to join Deborah Rubin’s ‘I’ve Got a Lot of Living To Do’ 4-part posture training series. I partly joined because I know I have bad posture from sitting in front of a computer all the time, and I partly joined because I really like Deborah.
Fast forward to two sessions into Deborah’s series… I’m sitting on the couch and the bottom of my foot itches. Without thinking about it, I lift my leg, bend it, and scratch my foot. It took me a few seconds, and then I realised what just happened… I SCRATCHED MY OWN FOOT! Me, not my husband! After just two of Deborah’s sessions, my ‘irons rods’ have already changed to ‘aluminium rods’!
What an emotional moment that was! For the first time in 20 years, I could lift and bend my leg like a normal person!! And what a motivator!! I feel better about myself and about life in general, I feel happier.
I feel like the person I used to know a long time ago is starting to appear, and if you’ll excuse me now… I am off to go conquer the world!
