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Experiential Learning
Jan. 6th, 2004 07:30 pm... what's the subject line mean?
It means you learn by doing, aka learning by experience. This afternoon taught me a rather valuable lesson: don't exercise when you're sick.
Early this morning I woke up with a sore throat and fatigue... took a 300mg Motrin (ibuprofen) tablet and went to work. Work itself was uneventful, and except for some symptoms of congestion and a cough, I was able to get through the day just fine. I even was able to get a haircut and do some shopping at the navy exchange -- I was in the area at the time.
Then I came home... figured I was feeling well enough to do some exercise, and cranked out 50 pushups and 60 situps (all in increments... I'm not crazy enough to do everything at once, ESPECIALLY if I'm not feeling well).
The other component of my exercise was something aerobic, with a minimum time of 30 minutes. That's actually what my squadron mandates (30 minutes of aerobic exercise, 3 times a week)... personally I prefer to do something aerobic for 40 minutes a day, 3 days a week. Eventually I'd like to work out 5 days a week, time permitting.
Usually I go jogging for the aerobic part... but thanks in part to some advice from a HAWC (Health And Wellness Center) spokesman, given at a commander's call (somewhat the equivalent of a school assembly), who recommended against doing the same aerobic exercise all the time, I decided to go swimming instead. After all, the apartment has a pool, and there's also a hot tub that I could soak in to relax if I overdid the swimming.
The first 20 minutes went fine, but after I'd been swimming for 30 minutes I decided I had enough... fatigue was setting in and there were times I felt like throwing up. Not a good sign.
I then spent a few minutes in the hot tub and regained enough energy to get back to my apartment. As soon as I got in, though, my body basically told me, "You FOOL!" and would have thrown me flat on my back if not for my struggling to at least get to the bathroom to shower. And part of THAT I had to do sitting down, because I initially felt dizzy and nauseated while standing.
After that I called my mom -- I'd been planning to visit her tonight but just didn't feel well enough to do so... she pretty much agreed that I'd done something idiotic (as a RN, she doesn't think it's a good idea to exercise at all when you're sick). Here's the thing though... if you look at the articles on the web that talk about exercising while ill, like this one, they note that exercise physiologists tend to subscribe to the "neck up" rule. That is, if you've only got symptoms like sneezing, headaches and watery eyes, it's okay to exercise moderately. But if your symptoms include fevers, body aches, or severe fatigue, you should lay low.
This gets nebulous in two areas: first, what constitutes "moderate exercise", and second, what's meant by "severe" fatigue. I considered swimming "moderate exercise"... I certainly didn't feel I was doing anything extreme... and though I did have some fatigue, I don't consider it "severe" unless I'm essentially a zombie and don't want to do much else other than lie down and/or sleep. Apparently I underestimated both (this was my first time swimming rather than running for aerobic exercise), and I think I may have earned myself a "babooze" award in the process.
Needless to say, I'm lying down and typing this on my laptop, so I'm pretty much taking my body's advice... for now. I also don't think I'll be doing any significant exercise... not until I physically feel better.
It means you learn by doing, aka learning by experience. This afternoon taught me a rather valuable lesson: don't exercise when you're sick.
Early this morning I woke up with a sore throat and fatigue... took a 300mg Motrin (ibuprofen) tablet and went to work. Work itself was uneventful, and except for some symptoms of congestion and a cough, I was able to get through the day just fine. I even was able to get a haircut and do some shopping at the navy exchange -- I was in the area at the time.
Then I came home... figured I was feeling well enough to do some exercise, and cranked out 50 pushups and 60 situps (all in increments... I'm not crazy enough to do everything at once, ESPECIALLY if I'm not feeling well).
The other component of my exercise was something aerobic, with a minimum time of 30 minutes. That's actually what my squadron mandates (30 minutes of aerobic exercise, 3 times a week)... personally I prefer to do something aerobic for 40 minutes a day, 3 days a week. Eventually I'd like to work out 5 days a week, time permitting.
Usually I go jogging for the aerobic part... but thanks in part to some advice from a HAWC (Health And Wellness Center) spokesman, given at a commander's call (somewhat the equivalent of a school assembly), who recommended against doing the same aerobic exercise all the time, I decided to go swimming instead. After all, the apartment has a pool, and there's also a hot tub that I could soak in to relax if I overdid the swimming.
The first 20 minutes went fine, but after I'd been swimming for 30 minutes I decided I had enough... fatigue was setting in and there were times I felt like throwing up. Not a good sign.
I then spent a few minutes in the hot tub and regained enough energy to get back to my apartment. As soon as I got in, though, my body basically told me, "You FOOL!" and would have thrown me flat on my back if not for my struggling to at least get to the bathroom to shower. And part of THAT I had to do sitting down, because I initially felt dizzy and nauseated while standing.
After that I called my mom -- I'd been planning to visit her tonight but just didn't feel well enough to do so... she pretty much agreed that I'd done something idiotic (as a RN, she doesn't think it's a good idea to exercise at all when you're sick). Here's the thing though... if you look at the articles on the web that talk about exercising while ill, like this one, they note that exercise physiologists tend to subscribe to the "neck up" rule. That is, if you've only got symptoms like sneezing, headaches and watery eyes, it's okay to exercise moderately. But if your symptoms include fevers, body aches, or severe fatigue, you should lay low.
This gets nebulous in two areas: first, what constitutes "moderate exercise", and second, what's meant by "severe" fatigue. I considered swimming "moderate exercise"... I certainly didn't feel I was doing anything extreme... and though I did have some fatigue, I don't consider it "severe" unless I'm essentially a zombie and don't want to do much else other than lie down and/or sleep. Apparently I underestimated both (this was my first time swimming rather than running for aerobic exercise), and I think I may have earned myself a "babooze" award in the process.
Needless to say, I'm lying down and typing this on my laptop, so I'm pretty much taking my body's advice... for now. I also don't think I'll be doing any significant exercise... not until I physically feel better.
