[Sportsandrec] Statistics on Fitness in Blind Community

[Julie J.]

I agree with what Bill has said here.  It's the hard truth.  I did take 
him up on his offer of setting up an exercise program that would mesh 
well with my physical ability while I was recovering from my foot 
injury.  He was very easy to work with and the exercises he came up with 
allowed me to continue to maintain my fitness while not aggravating my 
injured foot.  A big thank you to Bill!

I also wanted to add that I have started running just in the past few 
weeks.  At first I could only make it a few feet before I was breathing 
hard and my foot was throbbing.  I kept at it, doing a little bit more 
each day.  When I got up to being able to run longer stretches I began 
taking every other day off so that my foot could rest and recover.  Now 
I can run all the way around the block where I live.  I realize this is 
a very short distance, but it feels amazing to have made that much progress.

I do not have a gym membership.  Where I live there is no dedicated 
workout facility like that and no YMCA either.  I have had to find ways 
to keep fit with not a lot of resources.  I walk a lot for my main 
exercise.  We have public hike and bike paths here that are very nice 
for walking or running.  The high school track is open to the public, of 
course when the students are not using it, but that still leaves quite a 
bit of opportunity.  I also found quite a few useful workout videos on 
you tube.  Not all of them had excellent descriptions, but they gave me 
ideas to add variety and keep things fun.  Unless you have some specific 
sport goal in mind or want to be a professional weightlifter, I don't 
think it matters so much what exercise you do.  If your goal is to be 
more fit, you can do just about any sort of movement that you find 
enjoyable and it will get you going in the right direction.

Julie