I expected to have the community pool to myself one early Saturday morning, but as I was pulling on my cap and goggles, a family showed up. Two parents and a boy who looked to be about 7.
If you are a swimmer, you will understand my concern: kids splashing happily can get in the way of a swimmer intent on doing her laps. If you’re not a swimmer, you may have witnessed one of us having a meltdown because someone or something tried to get between us and pursuing our bliss.
So, I figured I’d secure a territorial agreement between me and the boy. “So, which side do you want to be on?”
“He’ll stay in the shallow end,” his mother said. Oh, no, that would not do at all. I do not have a poker face. She quickly continued. “Oh, of course, you are going to use the full length of the pool. Honey, you stay on this side.”
Satisfied with the agreement, I made a little more conversation with the boy. “Do you like to swim?”
“Sort of,” he said, leaning back on the edge of the pool with a ball in his hand. His parents had brought along a variety of pool toys for their son to play with in the water.
Spying an opportunity to be instructive — others might call it being bossy—I said, “You know, swimming is something you can do your whole life, even when you’re old like me.”
The boy assessed me for a moment, doing some sort of calculus about swimming and this goggled alien of a lady. Then, he laid the question on me. “Do you have any trophies?”
Huh. Great comeback, kid. So whaddaya got to show for all these years of swimming, lady?
“A few ribbons from when I was in junior high,” I said, thinking back to the suburban neighborhood pool in Maryland when my father was stationed at the State Department. “Everyone swam. We all got ribbons.” Yeah, it was a pretty lame answer.
But what I thought about as I pushed off the wall and into my swim was this: being here today, swimming in this pool today, is my trophy.
Four years ago in May—after a two-week Atlantic crossing on a cruise ship that an hour later departed Amsterdam for Norway—my heart stopped beating as I was wheeled into an Amsterdam ER. The emergency team revived me and sealed an undiagnosed burst aneurysm, but my body fought to stay alive for six long weeks in the ICU and left me atrophied, scarcely 100 pounds and unable to move. Six more weeks in the hospital’s recovery unit got me up on shaky legs to walk onto a plane home to Florida where I stayed under medical care for months of slow progress. It took me two years to fully recover.
That Saturday, I ran a mile with our rescue Lab Kumba. I can run two miles. Then, sharing the pool with the boy, I swam 1,500 yards. Then, I biked 5 miles with my husband. My daughter and her husband called me Iron Woman.
So, there you have it, kid. Every day since May 2019 is a trophy.
We all know that eating less and moving more are part of a healthy lifestyle. This time of year, many of us are looking for ways to “make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard.” Here’s what’s helping me get back on track after the holidays.
Cookies, cookies, everywhere
Last year—well, just three weeks ago—I found myself downing spoonfuls of sweetened condensed milk right out of the can as I binge-watched yet another holiday movie. Shocked? Not me.
This didn’t just happen. It followed a month of baking/eating Christmas cookies/etc., hobbling around on a broken toe (no running, barely walking), a long cold-weather snap that knocked out the community pool heater (no swimming or water exercise), and buying the super-sweet milk to make flan for Christmas Eve then opting for a lighter dessert. The holi-DAY had morphed into a holy-MESS of too much indulgence, too little exercise, and a whole lot of excuses.
Weight Watchers support
I am fortunate in having an ally with a perpetually extended hand of rescue—Weight Watchers. Two weeks ago, I went to my WW meeting. I weighed in—acknowledging the scale is the price of admission—sat my butt in a chair, listened, learned, laughed, and shared these cookies. Sharing cookies at Weight Watchers?!?! Yes. They are built on a base of black beans! Here’s the WW recipe for Chocolate Mint Bars.
Then, I got back to the program that helped me lose 30 pounds a decade ago—and keep it off ever since—through an active, supportive community, both online and in person. It’s an essential component of my health. Weekly meetings give me laughter and face-to-face accountability. The WW online community gives me 24/7 support, tips and tricks, and friendship.
You might want to check out Weight Watchers for yourself if you, too, need a healthy jump start into the New Year.
WECOACH support
My exercise ally this New Year is Laurie Denomme at WECOACH Workouts. Laurie was my mentor when I taught in South Florida active senior communities, and she has now developed an online exercise program (both water and land classes) that helps her students rediscover the joy of movement. I have shared WECOACH Workouts with my South Florida neighbors—aka The Mermaids—who gave their Top Ten Reasons we love this program.
Laurie has just launched her new 28-day program, Everyday Cardio 1.0 which helps us understand how our bodies work in this way:
Knowing what we should be feeling in our bodies helps us to get dialed in to the intensity we need to get the results we want.
Laurie Denomme, WECOACH Workouts
This week, I had the privilege of having the warm pool to myself, with my toe nearly healed and the day cool but sunny, and I pressed play on the new “Cardio Jump Intervals.” Before I knew it 50 minutes were gone, 300 calories were burned, and my entire body was humming with wellness. Check out the timeliness of Laurie’s coaching tips (knowing what we should be feeling in our bodies) in this brief excerpt from the class!
Jump started!
Back on my lifestyle track of eating well and moving often, with half the cookie weight behind me, I’m feeling confident that 2023 will be the best year yet. As Laurie says at the end of each class:
I pointed down to where our six-year-old rescue black Lab lay quietly at my husband’s feet on the outdoor deck, his Thanksgiving napkin bandana bunched into a make-shift pillow.
Yes, we took our dog out with us to Thanksgiving Day dinner.
Florida law permits dogs in outdoor dining
Dogs were banned from Florida restaurants until 2006. A new law that year allowed local governments to let restaurants apply for a permit to welcome dogs in outside patio areas. Now, many restaurants welcome pooches sans permit more often than not.
Waiters are so used to it now, when they see a dog, they don’t bat an eye; they just bring them water.
State Attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg who sponsored the 2006 legislation when he was a state senator (as quoted in The Palm Beach Post article by Hannah Morse, November 15, 2021)
Django on Dog Beach in Jupiter FL
Dog Beach gave us our first canine restaurant experience
When we drove with our first Lab, Django, from New York State to Florida to buy our retirement property in 2009, my husband found us a dog-friendly hotel nearby at which we could leave Django when we closed on the house. At the restaurant abutting the Holiday Inn Express in Juno Beach, we learned that we’d landed minutes from Palm Beach County’s leash-free dog beach.
Dog Beach became Django’s slice of heaven that week and in the years that followed. He would run into the surf in pursuit of a tennis ball for as long as my husband had the strength to throw it.
Django and our next Lab, Pancho, were welcomed at Juno Beach’s Thirsty Turtle Seagrill outdoor deck along with lots of other sandy paws.
On the weekends, sometimes it’s like a kennel out there on the patio.
Thirsty Turtle manager Ed Lohmann (as quoted in The Palm Beach Post article by Hannah Morse, November 15, 2021)
Kumba grew into going out on the town
When we adopted our black Lab Kumba a month before the pandemic, he had learned to protect himself during his months in a Puerto Rican shelter with aggression towards other dogs. We intervened with a muzzle, training, and love, and when he was able to be his sweet self reliably in public, we took him to Dog Beach. We thought that the ocean would be a happy recollection of his puppy life in Puerto Rico, but he was sort of “meh.” He was happiest lying at our feet with a bowl of cool water on his first visit to the Thirsty Turtle.
Kumba at the Thirsty Turtle
Juno was again the setting for Kumba’s next restaurant outing when we brought him with us for my birthday weekend overnight at our “staycation” dog-friendly Holiday Inn Express. Leaving him in the room alone was a risky proposition, given his separation anxiety, so we’d factored outdoor eating into our plans. The dinner waitress at the Seminole Reef Grill (great new place!) had no idea that there was a dog under our table until I asked for a bowl of water. After an equally relaxed overnight, Kumba and I got to Dog Beach on a morning run, where I let him off leash amidst a handful of other dogs.
When our daughter and son-in-law’s work schedules made it impossible for them to travel here for Thanksgiving, my husband and I began exploring dog-friendly restaurant options. Deck 84 in Delray Beach had outdoor dining, a Thanksgiving Dinner menu, and, even better, a Doggie Dinner menu. But would the weather cooperate? After two near-misses from Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole here on South Florida’s East coast, we held our breath as Thanksgiving week arrived.
The weather dawned clear and warm. Kumba and I did our usual Thursday run. Then it was time to get dressed up for our holiday dinner. Kumba was the most festive of the three of us.
Kumba in his Thanksgiving bandana
We were valet-parked and at our table at the quiet end of the patio by 3, with Kumba attentive but calm at my husband’s feet, so quiet that the waitress didn’t understand when I said: “We are actually three here.”
Soon, there was butternut squash bisque and turkey’n-all-the-fixin’s on the table, and chicken, rice, and yogurt under the table. We gobbled happily, all three of us.
I think he liked it!
So, that’s how we’ve kicked off the holidays in South Florida. Hope yours are as merry and silly as ours, and that every meal is shared with people and other creatures of whom you are fond.
WECOACH Workouts has helped me reach a new fitness level. Laurie’s shoulder, back, and hip exercises allow me to twist to look behind me more easily when I’m backing out the car. I keep my workouts interesting by incorporating Laurie’s 7 foot positions, and my knees and hips are much happier. My stamina has increased, along with my energy level. I’m a little more lean. I can run further, swim longer, walk faster. When I got back into the pool after my 2019 illness, I was simply grateful to be in the water. Laurie has brought me a long way.
I’ve been exploring Laurie’s WECOACH Workouts with a group of my South Florida neighbors in our HOA community pool. Three mornings a week, two to seven of us show up about 8 o’clock and hop in the water for a 50 minute online class with Laurie. Some of us work. Some of us have kids. Some of us could sleep until 10 very happily. But we get to the pool. We even call ourselves The Mermaids. Now and then, a Merman joins us.
The morning WECOACH Workouts class in my community pool (that’s me in the hat)
What really keeps me showing up at the pool is this amazing group. They are kind, supportive, and funny. And as each one has grown in confidence and skill in the water, she shares what she’s learned with others.
Today’s blog is about WHY? What has made this experience something we make time for? I asked this morning’s class participants to consider the question, and here is what they said.
Taking care of ourselves
C and me in the pool. Or is it ET and friend?
It is great to have fun while we work out to take care of ourselves. It is easier to do it when you are with caring friends.
Connie
What Connie doesn’t take credit for is instigating the entire effort. She learned to swim last year, overcoming a lifetime of fear of the water. She asked me to help her practice, and so my early morning schedule began including the pool.
Learning new things
I am learning English and French! “Very good!”
Rosa
Holding a plank position in the water is a great core exercise!
Rosa, who has lived most of her life in Colombia, is not only improving her language skills but also has made the most progress in her water skills. Look at the satisfied smile as she demonstrates a plank with a pool noodle during one of Laurie’s plank variation workouts!
Challenging ourselves
While the exercises are challenging, we are in a good mood, joking and helping one another, stress free.
Carol
Carol joined us recently, and she has made great progress in understanding how to use the water’s resistance and buoyancy. In fact, she’s taking the plunge and has started swim classes! Confidence abounds in this group.
Having attended the class this morning is undoubtedly why I find myself in a happier mood than usual. I appreciate the positive effect.
Carol
Feeling energized
I’ve noticed that I have more energy now that I’m doing these classes.
April
April—who missed “class picture day” in the pool😊—is also a recent addition to our class. The pool noodles she contributed to the class give everyone a chance to play with different buoyancy and resistance.
Finding our limits
One of Laurie’s trademark phrases is “your feel- good range,” as she encourages each participant to explore the movement within what feels good to our bodies. Evelyn, who also subscribes to WECOACH Workouts, has taken to using the phrase independently during our pool time.
You’ll know from my face when I’m in my “feel good range.”
Evelyn
Having fun
In a word, fun!
Carol
We laugh and talk and have fun, I just enjoy the time with you all.
Rosa
I enjoy the laughter and fun as well as getting to know my neighbors.
April
My kids have their play dates, now I have my own fun time, I love playing with friends at the pool. And the best part is that I am still able to proudly say to my doctor “yes I do“ when the uncomfortable question comes up: Do you work out? 😊
Olga
So subscribe today and discover the fun that awaits in WECOACH Workouts!
I lived abroad for 14 years of my childhood as the result of my father’s diplomatic work in Europe and Latin America—my memoir Embassy Kid is expected to be published in 2023 by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and New Academia Publishing–but there are huge swaths of planet Earth that I do not know. They remain foreign to me. This includes the Arab world.
Its people and their language exploded into my consciousness on 9/11 when we lived in upstate New York. My husband, who frequently was in New York City on business, narrowly escaped death when he decided to travel part-way home instead of staying the night at the hotel in the World Trade Centers. In the years since then, Showtime’s Homeland and countless other terrorist narratives cemented the sound of Arabic in my narrow mind as malevolent. The opening lines of the Muslim prayer—Allaahu Akbar—sent chills up my spine.
However, I was jarred out of that disappointingly jingoistic mindset three years ago when a Muslim family adopted me in a Dutch hospital. And two recent television encounters—the U.S. Open women’s final tennis match and a new Netflix comedy—have made realize that the Arabic language is not so foreign after all.
You are our Florida family
On May 5, 2019, my heart stopped as I was being rolled into an Amsterdam ER. The cruise ship my husband and I had been on sailed for Oslo as the Dutch doctors got my heart beating. Within minutes, the team had sealed a ruptured aneurysm in my belly.
However, the slow leak had filled my body with so much blood that I hovered between life and death for a month in that Amsterdam ICU while my husband—and daughter and sister, who flew in from the States the next day—sat at my bedside.
They were supported in their vigil by an amazing Turkish family whose father was also in the ICU. From sharing food to trading updates, Yasemin and her family took my family in as their own. The men greeted my husband with the traditional Muslim hand over the heart, and the women simply enveloped them in bear hugs. When I was finally out of danger and was moved to another hospital unit to begin the process of recovery, I got to know Yasemin and her family myself and cheered when her father was able to go home.
That was three years ago. The ties between us have only grown stronger thanks to social media. When Hurricane Ian hit Florida in September, Yasemin was relieved to know that we were safe.
You are our family in Florida.
Yasemin
Just as they are our family—our Muslim family—in Amsterdam. We hope to return to see them in 2023.
Yalla, habibi!
My more recent awakening happened this fall.
Tennis is the sport our television is often turned to. From the Grand Slam January kickoff at the Australian Open in Melbourne through the close out at the U.S. Open in New York City—and loads of smaller tournaments all over that pop up on The Tennis Channel—we know we’ll find someone remarkable to cheer on.
Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur came into our consciousness a couple of years ago when she made it into the quarter finals in Australia, a feat that led her to be described—as she probably almost always is—as “the first Arab/African woman to …”. She is also described by fellow players on the tour as the nicest person they know. Somewhere along this year’s tournament cycle I saw this in action when her opponent cramped up and Jabeur was the first at her side with ice. It’s easy to like Ons.
And what pulled me across the line to think of Arabs as friends I haven’t met yet was the slogan on Jabeur’s team at the U.S. Open women’s final.
Yalla, Habibi!
Ons Jabeur’s team t-shirt slogan
“Let’s go, my dear.” Or, in Midwestern lingo, “C’mon, kid!”
You have got to love that. Well, I did. Ons did not win the match, but she won my heart and that of a whole lot of folks like me who are learning to overcome prejudice.
Prayer becomes familial
The new Netflix dramedy Mo, a quasi-autobiographical series by standup comedian Mo Amer about a Palestinian-American family in Houston. The Arabic woven into the episodes includes lots of my new vocabulary word habibi.
Although it’s a refugee story, an immigrant Palestinian story, it’s also a love letter to Houston. It’s also like an everyman struggle (story) — people who are working paycheck to paycheck, they’re trying to take care of family, people that are dealing with addiction. It has all these layers to it.
Among the storylines is the loss of the family patriarch. I shed another layer of my prejudice during this scene, when the Muslim prayer—Allaahu Akbar—became a deeply personal declaration of faith by three adult children standing over their father’s grave.
A scene from Netflix series Mo.
Bringing Muslim and Middle East stories to the masses.
I’ve been speaking Arabic all my life
The character Mo’s longtime girlfriend is Mexican-American and Catholic, and it’s the difference in religion that he struggles with, not the cultural difference. As he explains in this clip, 700 years of Muslim control over Spain has left Arab DNA in Latinos’ language, food, and culture.
Clip from Netflix’s Mo.
Spanish was my first language, learned as I emerged from babyhood in 1955 on the lap of Josefina, the Galician woman who lived with our family during my father’s four-year Foreign Service post in Caracas. My Spanish skills were reinforced during subsequent posts to Colombia and Spain, and the language feels deeply personal. It was an immediate connection between me and my Puerto Rican husband when we were dating, and it now links us with our daughter’s new Latino in-laws.
So, it turns out that I’ve been imbued with the Arab culture my whole life.
It’s so easy to find differences between us that we overlook all we humans have in common. Let’s keep talking.
Founder Laurie Denomme’s WECOACH Workouts draws on 30 years of water exercise teaching experience to create member-exclusive programs that include: water workouts, land workouts, tips to help us feel our way to better results, and success trackers to help us recognize our progress. Here are my top ten reasons to subscribe to this unique, results-focused exercise program.
10. Using a pool is like going to the gym (only without the dreaded mirrors)!
Buoyancy and resistance combine to make the water a place we can move with total ease. Water workouts can also improve heart health, make muscles stronger, and even improve bone health. Pool stairs are great for stretches and pushups, pool walls help with resistance and balance work, and shallow to deep water depths target specific fitness results. All you need is a coach.
Subscribers to WECOACH Workouts can choose to follow the schedule of classes organized within each monthly program—Move Better 2.0, Everyday Strong 1.0, and Everyday Mobility 1.0 are all available now, and Laurie is always at work on the next program. You can also pick and choose your classes a la carte to suit how your body is feeling—whether you want to work on your core, back, shoulders, hips, or knees, you are sure to find the experience you’re looking for.
8. When you jiggle, no one sees it!
Water gives you the freedom to move without being scrutinized. Our submerged bodies can wiggle and jiggle happily out of sight. Luckily, our WECOACH Workouts coach Laurie demonstrates the class with underwater and above water video that makes the classes easy to follow.
7. You get to know your classmates!
Water promotes relaxation, laughter, and friendship, sometimes in unexpected ways. As our newest recruit, R, was learning how to use a pool noddle, she suddenly found herself belly up and flailing. I quickly came to her rescue, leading to a moment of togetherness. You can’t hug a person for dear life without becoming MUCH better acquainted. Our Spanish-language friendship instantly jumped from usted to tu, and we are now amigassirenas—mermaid friends—for life!
6. Your confidence gets a boost!
The smiles that bloom on the faces of people who have just learned a new skill are contagious! When R mastered bicycling on a pool noodle, there was no stopping her. And when E realized she was doing a side plank, wow, a complete Cheshire Cat, ear-to-ear grin!
5. You can talk back to the teacher.
During a WECOACH Workout, we feel as if Laurie is talking to each of us individually via the screen of my iPad, and we act as if she can hear us, too.
E retired from a robust career as an educator in the Palm Beach County Schools, where, she says, she was known for silencing rowdy students with a powerful look. Oh, how those students would enjoy hearing their teacher laughingly talking back to Laurie as she leads us through a class. Laurie: “You got this!” E: “I don’t think so! Is it nine o’clock yet?”
In fact, Laurie DOES encourage comments and questions from WECOACH Workouts subscribers, and she answers them personally.
4. It feels good!
Water supports the joints while pushing back against the muscles, providing a near-perfect workout environment.
I can feel every muscle moving! If I were in the gym, I’d be feeling pain all over. But here, I am taking care of myself while I exercise.
C, who has returned to water exercise after being away for several months
3. You can learn another language.
Oops, that’s just my neighborhood pool class! E doesn’t speak much Spanish, and R doesn’t speak much English, but as they work out with Laurie they are each picking up a word here and there.
When I tell the people at the senior center that I’m having fun in a pool, they just kind of look at me. They know what fun is and what a pool is, but they can’t see how they go together!
My neighbor E, a retired Palm Beach County Schools educator
E has taken the initiative of talking to the center about getting a water exercise class going in their underused pool. She may just show up in her suit and do a demonstration of the ease with which you can move in the pool, especially for seniors who are mobility-impaired.
And you’re never too old to play in a pool.
1. The time flies by!
A couple of days a week, I get some laps in while E and R take a WECOACH Workouts class. It reminds me of when I would put on a Barney tape to keep my toddler busy while I did some household chore. My daughter was in good hands back then, and so are E and R now. The time moves quickly by, and then we’re doing the last few minutes of the class together.
I wasn’t describing binge eating, a habit that developed in my late teens. Going on 68, I continue to examine the drive which stands in shocking contrast to all my healthy behaviors like a lifetime membership in Weight Watchers and a daily exercise regime which helped me recover from a near-fatal illness in 2019.
Binge eating feels driven by emotional desperation. I need. I need. Feed me. Feed me. Although the subsequent gorging on carbohydrates follows as if the only possible response, I end up feeling stuffed without feeling satisfied.
Binge eating doesn’t fill me.
But meditation does.
Meditation calms the beast
Twice daily, I stop, step away from whatever I’m doing, go outdoors to a chair in our garden, and sit for 20-30 minutes.
When I do this, I re-calibrate my thermostat from “I’m too busy to sit down” to “I’m just here, breathing.” It has worked wonders in reducing stress-induced eating which otherwise can sabotage a day, a weekend, or an entire week.
So, how have I managed to make this change? There are a few key steps that have helped.
Put it on your calendar
When I worked in an office, I learned that scheduling time on my calendar for my midday workouts kept that hour free from meetings. I recall the conversation that made the point, when a colleague said that she needed to see me at a certain time but saw that I had a meeting on my calendar. I almost said, “Oh, that’s just my workout.” But I kept my mouth shut, and of course we found another time to meet. And I got my workout in.
Today, I schedule my meditation breaks at 11 and 4, and they are announced by an alarm on my iPhone/Apple Watch/iPad. I have the luxury of being home most of the time, and simply walk out to my meditation chair.
I’m off the clock
Me, to my husband, and also to myself
Link to another good habit
All of us connect things in our daily schedule: creating the to-do list after breakfast; walking the dog before doing the dishes (and with any luck someone else has done them when you get home!); the step-down behaviors—chamomile tea, calm music, reading in bed— that lead our body to sleep. The experts call it habit stacking.
The best way to form a new habit is to tie it to an existing habit.
So, when my Easy Kegel notification goes off at 11, I take my iPhone and a piece of fruit and head out to my meditation spot. My 2 minute exercise on the app brings my focus inward, I eat my snack mindfully, and then it’s eyes closed, seeking peace.
Engage the mind
It took a while to relax into nothingness, and I am not always successful at staying in the zone once I find it. Structure helped.
When I began this practice, I needed to engage my mind, to distract me from being distracted. This 54321 sensory exercise pulled me into the present.
This exercise evolved. Some days, I counted how many shades of green I could see, or how many different types of bird calls I could hear. Eventually, I noticed myself settling in for brief periods of just being there. And one day I noticed I was no longer counting, only being.
Practice, practice, practice
Here’s the hard part. You actually have to do this. The more you do it, the more you realize how much you need to do this.
Some days, it’s easier. Some days, not so much. Some days, you forget. The next day, you get it back on the schedule.
Because for me, meditation fills me up, way more than a box of carbs.
Walking for the first time two months after my May, 2019 illness in Amsterdam.
I have written about how plantar fasciitis put an end to my running on dry land in upstate New York years ago, opening the door to working out in a new environment, the water. When I retired to South Florida, I became a water fitness instructor.
A ruptured aneurysm and six weeks in an Amsterdam ICU stay in 2019 sapped me of all my strength. It took me another six weeks of hospital rehabilitation to be able to stand on legs that felt like empty cardboard tubes. I walked onto a Florida-bound airplane a month later.
Literally a step at a time, I dedicated myself to engaging my body into living my life. Somewhere along the way early on, I corrected my gait from heel strike to midfoot strike, allowing my body to better absorb the impact, and keeping my stride under my torso. Now, I’m able to run 3 miles several times a week. My plantar fasciitis is dormant.
Returning to gentle jogging on the South Florida beach
WECOACH Workouts
Running, though, with its repetitive, pounding movement, is hard on a body. For a well-rounded workout, I continue to exercise in the water. Water’s buoyancy supports the joints while water’s resistance increases the intensity of the movement along the entire length of the muscle.
As we move through the water, all of our movements are resisted. That is a beautiful thing because it means that we are training through the entire range of motion.
WECOACH Workouts founder Laurie Denomme is my water coach. Laurie’s 6-7 Formula trains the body to be flexible and strong by moving in 6 directions — front to back, side to side, and left and right rotation — and in 7 foot positions — neutral, wide, narrow, turned out, turned in, left foot forward, and right foot forward.
The 6-7 Formula improves range of motion, connectedness, and balance.
Recently, Laurie married running and water in a new workout: Twenty New Ways to Jog in the Pool. In addition to the 6-7 Formula, Laurie has you running forward, backwards, sideways (can’t do THAT on land!), and in circles. She encourages us to experiment with intensity, feeling our way from light, to moderate, to vigorous effort.
My pool pals O and E, both former runners, recently did this workout with me. Buoyancy made it easier to move; although they were breathing hard, they were able to keep going without stopping for 30 minutes, far longer than either one could have run on land. They felt the workout throughout their bodies. O can’t believe that she’s worked up a sweat, and E tells us that she sees her new fitness level in her dog’s tiredness after a walk.
Levels add core work
Notice how Laurie gets her heels down to the pool floor every time? This rebound impact is the most commonly used. You can change to grounded impact by submerging your shoulders, keeping your toes, but not your heels, tapping the floor. You’ll feel your core engage and your legs stretch. Suspended impact is most easily done in deep water, getting everything off the pool floor while the torso remains vertical. It’s all core.
20 X 3 levels = 60+ ways to jog
So, using the three levels and varying the effort, there are an almost unlimited number of ways to jog in a pool. You’ll be getting a whole body workout that will increase your resilience, your endurance, and your happy-chemical endorphins.
Perhaps the best part of all is that running in water feels like play. And when you laugh, you are breathing! It’s all good.
The WECOACH Workouts subscription
You can browse additional classes on Laurie Denomme’s WECOACH YouTube channel. When you’re ready for more, for less than a dollar a day, subscribe to WECOACH Workouts 14-day, 21-day, and new Everyday Strong 1.0 28-day fitness programs. There, you’ll find a class schedule, tailored workouts, coaching tips, even a progress sheet. All you need to add is you!
Each member-exclusive program includes water workouts and tips to help you feel your way to better results. Download your success tracker PDF in “resources” and watch the video tips provided in the selected program playlist. You’ve got this!
The day I was able to lift my arms out of the water was the beginning of returning to swimming.
Swimming under the palms
Swimming taxes the body
As I renewed my commitment to swimming, I experienced the soreness that comes with re-connecting with unused muscles and ligaments. My neck hurt from turning my head and my shoulders were tender as they drove my arms through heavy water. My lower back ached as I ventured into dolphin kicks. My knees felt the strain of the breaststroke frog kick.
Swimming is non-impact, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy on the body. The repetitive nature of swimming strokes puts us at risk for injury. Swimmer’s shoulder is the most common, with rotator cuff injuries, tendonitis, and bursitis resulting from the shoulder moving in multiple positions as the arm pulls the swimmer forward. Swimmer’s knee is a close second, deriving from the position of the feet, knees, and hips in the breaststroke kick. Neck pain and lower back pain are also frequent in swimmers.
Many of us think we can power through pain, that it’s just a matter of getting stronger. So, we double down on our laps, seeking those endorphin highs, the magic moment when the air and the water vanish and we’re just moving through space with the sound of our breath as our only company.
We’re half right. It is about getting stronger, but not by doing the same thing that got us hurt in the first place.
No fewer than 17 muscles attach to the scapula, making these shoulder blades the core of upper body strength. And if those muscles are weak, the results are felt in the shoulder, including the rotator cuff.
Scapular stability = less shoulder/neck pain
When the scapula is both free to move and stabilized by strong upper body muscles, that’s the key to avoiding swimmer’s shoulder and neck pain.
Our shoulders tend to get stuck in a rounded, forward position due to weakness in our back muscles. The muscles in the front of our shoulders and our chest become tight and short.
The beauty of the water is that buoyancy and resistance provide an excellent environment in which to strengthen our back muscles and stabilize our scapula.
Think about squeezing your shoulder blades together each time you reach your hands away from your body.
And whenever the shoulders are stacked over the hips, the core muscles are engaged, supporting lower back muscles.
See how to stabilize the scapula and strengthen the core in Laurie Denomme’s Upper Body Interval Workout #1 Preview:
Seven foot positions = less knee pain
The external rotation of the leg in the breaststroke kick can inflame the knee ligaments. Prevent overuse damage by incorporating external and internal leg rotations into your warmup and cool down.
By consciously using different foot positions, we train our feet, ankles, knees, and hips to move through a wider range, building flexibility and strength. It’s a simple and very effective way of beginning to expand your range of motion.
As much as I love the endorphin high that swimming generates, I do laps only twice a week, usually Mondays and Fridays. On Wednesdays, I am back in the pool with friends for WECOACH Workouts like this:
Three days a week, I do a land-based workout that includes jogging or biking, lifting weights, and stretching. And Sundays I take one whole day off, sometimes in my pjs! And, of course, there are walks every day with our dear rescue Lab, Kumba.
How to prevent swim injuries
Scapular stability: watch your shoulders!
Multidirectional training: work your legs in all directions!
Vary your workouts: keep it fun!
Next month: How WECOACH Workouts Improve …. [stay tuned!]
For the first twelve years of my childhood, America was not home, but rather the place that we visited every few years from Europe or Latin America and the cities that WERE home: Caracas, Bologna, Rome, Bogotá. Foreign service officers, like my father was during the Cold War, are required to take what the State Department calls “home leave” — travel to their designated home and 30 days within the USA — to refresh their allegiance to the country they represent.
The background on the home leave rule is the concern that diplomats might become overly sympathetic to whatever culture they’re in and forget about their American roots. Those 30 days were designed to re-Americanize those of us who’d been overseas.
My father, Robert C. Amerson, United States Information Agency
For my midwestern family, home leave was travel to the farmland of eastern South Dakota, where my father was born and raised. Along the way, we’d also visit Winona, Minnesota, the Mississippi River town that my mother came from, and the Twin Cities, where my father’s siblings had settled.
Home Leave Territory
These locations—where we had grandparents, aunts and uncles, and scads of cousins—became to me Home Leave Territory. It was a world in which it was always summer, our grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins lived in the same homes year after year, and we were the celebrated visitors. Here’s how I described a 1962 trip.
Home Leave Territory takes up most of my childhood mental map of America. My memoir EMBASSY KID (coming in Spring 2023 from the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and New Academia Publishing) includes this telling illustration.
The World According to Jane, Embassy Kid, publication expected 2023
My home leave connection remains in my 68-year-old marrow. Postponed for three years—first, by my 2019 illness and, then, by the pandemic—I traveled with my sister to Minnesota in mid-July to for a weekend of family time, an echo of the huge gatherings that would erupt when we visited “the home sod” every few summers from 1957-74.
My 2022 visit
My cousin Ricka, husband Josh, and IRicka’s grand dog and the mustangsRicka and I huddle
Our first stop was at Firefly Farm, my cousin Ricka and husband Josh’s tranquil retreat amidst acres of sweet corn and soy fields, where her sister Becky at This Old Horse manages Wells Creek Wild Mustang Sanctuary, an awesome forever home for these rescued horses. Ricka and I are the oldest cousins on my mother’s side of the family, and we still huddle when given a chance.
Baker Medlock sculptor
The very cool horse sculpture is by nephew Baker Medlock, cousin Eve’s son. You can find more of Bake’s work here.
Silos, farmhouses, corn: Home Leave Territory
Then, we were off across the farmland and big open skies of Minnesota to see my father’s side of the family in the Twin Cities.
Amerson family reunion in St. Paul MN
Seated in the St. Paul backyard of Uncle Carl, we raised a glass to Aunt Jeanie, who passed in 2021, and to her daughter Shannon, whose birthday my sister and I celebrated with her in Colorado just days before.
Cousin Shannon, sister Sue, and me
On Sunday, we got one-on-one time with Dad’s surviving sisters, Aunt Snooky and Aunt Elaine, both in their nineties and sharp as tacks. Snooky leads the book club and takes calisthenics at her senior living facility in Minneapolis.
My sister and I with Aunt SnookyMy sister and I with Aunt Elaine
Elaine, who lives alone in St. Paul, does a daily workout routine she created 20 years ago. We felt her strength as she whirled us through the polka. My sister and I come from good stock!
Polkaing with Elaine
Family ties that bind FS kids
I feel very lucky to have known these people my whole life, and to share memories with my cousins that go back two generations. Although it’s not nearly the same as having family down the block, or even in the same country while you’re growing up, the State Department’s home leave paved the way for longterm relationships with the people who I treasure.
And the truth is that our kids do not spend enough time with their cousins. They should be engaging in the kind of cousin hijinks that form lasting familial bonds and undergird close relationships into adulthood. This is part of the price we pay for serving overseas.
Towels Packed, Will Travel
My Amerson cousins are still laughing about the time in South Dakota that we kids hopped off the hay wagon into the corn field, leaving one cousin driving the tractor alone. Silly prank. Meaningless, really. So why does it bring us all so much joy?
It isn’t the amount of time together. It’s recognizing that any time together is precious. And that Home Leave Territory is still sacred.
