Exercise to Help Me Walk Better!

For some years now I’ve been extolling the many virtues of the Toning Tables – a set of tables which move bits of you around and which you can use to exercise the muscles around your body with no strain.  I’ve been going twice a week to a salon in the village in which I live, and really enjoyed myself. Apart from the value of the actual machines themselves, keeping my body reasonably healthy and supple, I enjoyed the social contact. The others (mainly women) that I met there had a variety of conditions including MS and fibromyalgia to name just two. The woman who owned the business really understood us all, and knew just by looking at us when we walked through the door whether we could stand more exercise today or whether we were going to have to be more “passive”. She was unfailingly cheerful, and her, “well girls,” which started many of her sentences still rings in my ears!

However, after three years of struggle, she finally had to admit economic defeat, and the toning tables moved their last customer in August of this year and the salon closed down.

Now I’m reduced to a once-weekly MS exercise group, which I enjoy, but it is really not enough to keep me active.

I’ve noticed that my walking is beginning to suffer, and my general fitness level is not as good as it used to be. The toning tables saw me through five TM attacks, not to mention various stressful situations, but now I’m not sure what to do.

I thought about getting a DVD on yoga (beginners, of course) but on balance I know that I won’t have the will power to look at it often enough. It’s very lonely exercising by yourself on the front room floor with the curtains shut, and the cats watching you with inscrutable looks on their faces.

I looked at some local (within 10 miles) places. One had a toning tables section within the building, together with an aqua pool and various gym equipment and classes on yoga, Pilates and various dance forms. I had a look round, and took a trial, but I didn’t like it. To get to the reception entailed pulling myself up a steep set of stairs, then having to wiggle through a turnstile. Then another set of stairs to go down to the toning area!! Someone showed me round the machines, but admitted half way round that he wasn’t qualified to answer any of my questions, which was a bit counter-productive, I thought! In my previous salon, the lovely Dee had set the speed and timer, according to my fitness level on that occasion, so I didn’t know where I was supposed to set anything. He went away and left me to it. I’d already decided that two of the machines were too much for me, and began to use the others, but it was very eerie. I was the only person in there, and there was no sound, even background music, other than a slight sighing as the machinery moved backward and forward. I started hearing “ghost” voices from my friends at the old salon, then the realisation hit me that if anything happened to me I had no way of letting anyone know! This was not good. As per instructions, I’d left my bag in the changing room, and it had my phone in it. Really not good. I gave up on the machines and went back to my stuff in the changing room.

I’d thought perhaps swimming would be a good idea, but now I came to look at the setup and I really was not impressed. Although the male changing rooms were part of the pool complex, which included sauna and spa pool, the women’s changing room was not, and to get from the room to the pool necessitated walking along a corridor and past the end of the stairs where everyone was accessing to get to the various classes and one of the gyms. Maybe when I was in my twenties I wouldn’t have minded too much, but I’m sixty and don’t need to strut my stuff in front of all and sundry, thanks very much! I decided I wasn’t gong to start going there. Also the price was per month and not per session, as I was used to in my old salon, so it would need to be a very regular thing to be cost effective. Given my frequent bouts of illness, this could turn out to be uneconomical.

I then heard of a local place that could accommodate me very nicely and I tripped along to see it. The owner told me that it would have been ideal for me – but unfortunately the man she’d employed to operate it had done a moonlight flit in August so the place was closed down,

I’ll keep looking because I feel I have to. I already hate not being able to walk properly, and will never get used to the reactions of people I see every day, but if it deteriorates I shall feel as if I might as well give up completely.

And that is a thing I will never, never do!

~ Ruth Wood is a regular contributor for SRNA blog. Based in the UK, Ruth was diagnosed with TM in 2006. She now shares her personal stories with SRNA community.