Swimming 5x in Six Days

After having gone 20 years without swimming at all—not even once, I have been swimming 5x in the last six days.  It is working out really well in terms of getting great exercise.   Due to my lack of physical fitness along with being extremely overweight and the setup at the Bellevue Aquatic Center Warm Springs Pool, I can’t shower at the pool without help from Lea.

My weight and lack of physical fitness had become a life-threatening condition before I was able to admit to needing help.  Funny (in a bizarre way) how I can ask a stranger at the grocery store for help getting an item off the top shelf, yet when it came to a life-or-death situation for me needing exercise I had a dilemma between asking for help or continuing on towards being homebound due to an underpowered power-to-mass ratio.

I am loving my time in the pool and am already much more mobile than I was less than two weeks ago when I went for my first swim.  Each swim session has been a bit more physically demanding than the previous session.   I come home exhausted and sleep for a couple of hours.  Thank god it is a 90° pool.   I would not be able to exercise nearly as much in a cooler pool.  

My “swimming” consists of treading water in a variety of ways since the pool is too small and busy for swimming long laps.  I really enjoy my time in the pool and still have more ideas for exercising different muscles while I swim in one corner of the pool.


I am grateful for the warm springs pool and its lift to get me out of the pool, Lea for motivating me to swim and helping me to shower afterwards, having the resources to get to the pool and pay for swim sessions, and having the time in my day to come home to sleep for hours after my swim.

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