by Kerry Michael Wood

Created on: September 09, 2008   Last Updated: December 17, 2008

Before my retirement from teaching high school, staying in shape was simple. School was a 35-minute bike ride from home. There were hills, and an English teacher's weighty briefcase added to the aerobic intensity of the bicycle ride. After school, I would climb back on for a longer return trip that involved a 25-minute ride to a health club. My gym clothing occupied the pannier opposite my briefcase.

The biking to school, to health club, and home took care of the cardiovascular exercise. I could ignore the treadmills and go to the weight machines, dumbbells, and barbells. Alternate days would involve upper body and lower body exercises. During those years, weight loss was not a consideration thanks to genetic gifts and daily biking. At 6'3', my weight during those years varied between 205 and 212 lbs and I had a 35" waist.

Although I varied my weightlifting routines to avert boredom, more often than not I would begin on the bench press machine warming up with ten repetitions with 120 lbs. Each of the next four sets would increase by two 20 lb. plates. The fifth set of 10 reps with 220 lbs. was usually manageable. I would then add three sets of flyes with 35 lb. dumbbells. Depending on whim and equipment availability, I might use either a regular, inclined, or declined bench for this pectoral workout.

For arms I would do sets of preacher curls on the machine as well as seated concentration curls. Then it would be triceps pushdowns and pulldowns for the lats, a minimum of three sets of each. Then deltoid and trapezius work involving lateral raises and shrugs. I would always conclude with the detested crunches and leg raises for the abs.

The lower body exercise days involved the usual raises on the calf machine, seated extensions on the machine to work the quadriceps, and work on the leg curl machine. I had the same disaffection for squats that I had for abdominal exercise.

In 2001 I suffered a stroke. I was three days in hospital. Back at home I had little use of my right hand and arm. I went through speech and physical therapy for about three weeks. I turned up with prostate cancer, which meant weeks of debilitating radiation. But I was determined to regain my former capabilities.

My post-stroke workouts involved crumpling wads of paper with my right hand and throwing them at my wife, (she was a willing target), then reading poetry aloud to regain clear diction. Soon it was back to the gym with rubber bands instead of weights. Things progressed.

I'm back on a weight program like the one described above. My golf handicap is at pre-stroke level. Most of my biking is now stationary. I tried hitting a tennis first serve. It went in but with little velocity. I'll try hitting with a ball machine tomorrow.

I turned 70 last April. I managed a one-arm push up with the bad arm. I used to manage a halk dozen of those.

Look out, world. The kid is on his way back!

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