Metabolism

I have a very active metabolism. And sometimes I wonder if that's related to the AS. I mean... people used to tell me I had lots of "nervous energy" and I never really contradicted that. It sounded plausible, after all. I have a mind that never... absolutely never... seems to shut down and take a rest. And that's definitely down to the AS.

So could the two - the AS and the metabolism - be connected? It seems plausible. At least... to my admittedly skewed perspective.

It's definitely got its benefits. I'm very skinny. In fact - for a man just a little shy of 6 feet, five inches tall, I'm actually underweight. My mum bought me a pair of jeans a couple of years ago for Christmas and when I tried them on, I realised that they were for someone with a fairly bigger waist than me. I laughed about that and asked if she thought I was fat or something. She said that she had automatically assumed I had put on some weight over the years. I realised at that point that I hadn't gained any weight or waist size since I was 13 years old. But it wasn't until a couple of days later that the significance of that caught up to me.

That's unusual, isn't it?

I have good abs, though. In fact, it's my greatest physical characteristic, I think. When I started studying massage therapy, I found the stance was difficult to maintain and it really burnt into my thighs. Then I studied acupressure therapy and had to adapt to a slightly different stance again, because with this therapy the client is sitting, rather than lying down. We uses specially designed chairs for people to lean forward in. A cushion supports the client's chest and leaves the back, neck and shoulders free for us to work.

The specific stance was in order to protect my back when I worked. I had to stand with my feet positioned a certain way so that I didn't bend over too much. I could use my elbows to put pressure into key areas of a person's back, by pushing my hips forward. As I went lower, the rear foot would twist and move backwards - further widening my stance - and I'd get to a lower point on the client's back.

And one day I noticed that my abs were very tight. And I wondered if they had always been that way and I had only just noticed, or if the stance had done that to me. Either way, it was a nice discovery and I just wished I had good pecs as well.

Next year, however, I plan to get back into hiking, camping, kayaking, climbing and all that fun stuff - the stuff I did a lot of when I was younger. I want to regain the upper body strength and flexibility that I once took for granted - before this bastard of a whiplash injury. I suspect that if I really start to work at it again, I'll hurt like hell for a while - but if I persevere at it, it'll all pay off.

There was a time when I took a bet that I couldn't do twenty chin-ups, back when I was 25 years old. I wasn't sure if I could, but I insisted that it was no bother, then did it. I won't say it was easy - but I did it. But back then, I was kayaking a lot, so that flexibility and strength was there. And the metabolism definitely helped. I couldn't do that today, though. But maybe... next summer... maybe I can do it again.

Something to work on, anyway.