Unexpected Exercise

The following was originally posted on Fakebook.  I intend to copy over and NOT edit.  As a result of NOT editing, the presentation in Google-Blogger may be a bit ... not the usual "look."  (Fakebook and, as of their recent "improvements," Blogger each include a LOT of unnecessary / superfluous HTML code which usually results in something ... not the "look" I prefer.) 

 

So ... frequently, occasionally, once in a great while, I think maybe I should start doing daily sit-ups and push-ups.

Yesterday, I was giving the idea more consideration than usual, but incoming phone calls or incoming texts or no reason at all, I didn't do any sit-ups or push-ups.

Good thing actually, as at approx 6 pm, or just after, I got a call (or was it a text) about some dripping water visible through a grate/vent in someone's house foundation. Phone discussion ensued and, as a result, I went to check out the situation by going into that person's crawl space.

I hadn't been in that crawl space for maybe 10 years(?). I was expecting an easy trip in the crawl space along the south foundation wall, where there was always lots of space (the house is level, but the ground slopes downward from the north end of the house to the south end -- LOTS of space in the southwest corner, very little in the northeast corner -- and it gets tight about 2/3 the way from the south wall to the north wall).

Surprise! When person had a new heating/cooling system installed some 4 1/2 years ago, new ducts had been installed, too. Big, roundish, soft-sided ducts -- reaching all the way from the bottom of the floor joists to the ground -- well, maybe an inch or two above the ground.

Pointing my flashlight along the length of the duct (and btw, that "flashlight" was actually my cycling headlamp -- one with an internal battery that is re-charged by plugging into a USB port), I knew that if I couldn't get under that duct, I would have to crawl and then shimmy 2/3 of the way from the entrance (in the south wall) to the middle of the house, and then shimmy (and maybe be able to crawl some of the way) to get back to the kitchen sink area / the area with grate-vent in the foundation.

I tested the firmness of the duct near the entryway. Deep sigh! I was consigned to the long crawl / shimmy.

Crawled 20 or 25 feet. Then shimmy along on my belly. Then as the space was getting tight, on got on my back to truly shimmy my way at the "turn" under hard ducts and water and waste pipes, in between and around brick columns holding up the middle of the house. At one point, I wasn't sure how to make the turn / if I could make the turn. But I knew that I HAD to make that turn. So ... I paused for a moment to consider my options. I may also have needed a short rest -- after all, it isn't easy to crawl/shimmy along at my age and given that I am NOT used to doing such activity.

After a couple moments, I knew what to do to make the turn -- I think I leveraged my feet/legs against one of the brick columns to make the turn.

Then, it was shimmy, shimmy, shimmy on my back for 10 or so feet. After that, I was able to flip over onto my stomach, but there was not room to actually crawl. Trying several approaches, I finally settled on doing virtual push-ups on my elbows, and using my toes/feet to push me forward when lifted off the ground by the elbow push-up -- probably 6 inches per elbow-push-up. There was a bit more space as I approached the kitchen sink area, but not enough to actually crawl.

I won't go into what I found when I got to the target area because the point of this post is about the exercise gained / incurred needed to make progress in the crawl space.

After completing the inspection of the target area, I had to reverse my crawl space journey. More elbow-push-ups, more shimmying on my stomach, more on my back, more shimmying on my stomach, and finally actually crawling the last 20 or 25 feet. I did pause a couple times to rest as I was winded, getting sweaty, and my arms were tired.

So ... I assert that I got in a long push-up session last night.

And an hour or two ago -- it takes quite a while to type all this -- I decided to do some sit-ups and some push-ups. I won't type how many of each I did, but I will type that my arms were instantly giving off the message that they are tired, thank-you-very-much, so the push-ups should be categorized as half-a__ed ones.

I hope that I have the guts to do sit-ups every morning and also the "guts" to force my arms and shoulders to do some push-ups every morning.