OK, now, you have completely blown my mind. You even rendered me speechless for a minute which is not common.
Cyr wheeling??...
I have so many questions. For one, are you just basically like a giant fish, all lean muscle? And last time I knew anything about it, you were eating chips and drinking a soda, but somehow manage to keep your balance on this thing -- how is that even possible??? Are you just burning off the calories by staying active? Aren't you 55? How can you pull off the calorie-burning when I cannot??
Yep, 55, the "double-nickle"...gettin' old! I have 2 things working against me (besides age, haha!), one is that its a big challenge to put weight on and keep it on, I consume as many calories as possible. The wheel is 26 pounds (add 16 more pounds if Simon the Ragdoll cat spins with me), so I have a lot of weight to throw around without a lot of weight behind it. The second challenge is after the head injury and loss of an eye, keeping the horizon level is an optical illusion to me (which way is up?) as well as the inner ear damage on that side messes with my equilibrium, affecting balance. I was always right-handed, the accident turned me into a leftie. My left shoulder is out of whack, so I have to be careful on certain moves or it goes from zero-impact to however hard I hit the floor!(grin). In the last year, I've had 2 falls, neither were serious, just misjudged my balance and tipped over. I won't do crazy moves with Simon because if I ever fell on him, I'd feel guilty forever. I have to put him in the bedroom or he jumps on for a ride. I just "become one with the wheel" and try to avoid walls!
The last question, I don't have the answer, but in my case, my body burns calories sitting on the sofa due to anxiety and stress. My cortisol level is through the roof, which I take medication for, it helps but doesn't solve the problem.
Alright, some of that is none of my business and you don't have enough info to answer at least one of those questions, so feel free to ignore, but I do have some mad respect and a lot of interest here. The thing is that I have inner ear problems. I have my cleft palate and hypermobility and both of these conditions tend to go along with inner ear issues. When I watch people on these things, I start feeling like I have vertigo. And, because I have spent my life dealing with these ear problems, I have also spent a lot of time avoiding things that make me feel like I will be dizzy or won't be coordinated enough to hang. It has only been in the last few years that I have tried my hand at dancing, done any serious bike-riding or felt like my aim was decent.
I hear ya on the inner ear issues, ditto. I've learned to use the weight balance of my legs and arms to compensate. Woohoo for you...dancing and bike riding are great! By continuing to do those activities, other parts of your body may take over and kick in your balance. My trick to not becoming dizzy is never look down, always look in the direction I intend to go but never focus below shoulder-level. It is possible to learn or re-learn things requiring balance, so never give up.
The first 2 years of walking again required a cane, partly to keep weight off my foot but also for balance. When I thought I could ditch the cane, I held onto countertops or put my hand on the wall for balance.
8 years B.C. (before crash), I was performing semi-professionally and I was a wild one. Now I have to use my common sense and avoid things that could land me on my head. I always have in mind what I'm going to do next and what the bail-out move would be as a safety precaution. 4 years A.C. (after crash), I began the relearning process by turning in circles with no wheel, attempting to go through the motions until I felt confident to dust off the wheel and try for real. It took about a year to relearn the basic "waltz" move, I'd get about 2 rotations and fizzle out or get too off balance to maintain. I tuned into my body and with time, it came back. I began other moves the same way...I'd try the move 50+ times a day and figure out where the failure began and what shift was needed to follow through until I could think with my body instead of my mind.
All of that said, having hypermobility means that muscle-building and maintenance matters a whole lot, all the time. I have a fair amount of muscle on my body, at this point, but a lot of what I do to keep that up is boring. I work on my muscle strength by doing a lot of different exercises with weights and resistance. The repetition gets old.
I began strength training and muscle building the same way, lifting boring weights, stretching and lifting more boring weights. I never thought I'd be able to do "the splits" again, but some effort each day and a couple of years later, I could. I'm stubborn, I hate the feeling of being defeated and giving up. I was so weak from laying around and sitting around healing, my muscle mass was zero. Building the wimpy muscles I have now came with a lot of hard work and not giving up. Also a bit of pushing myself beyond the limits of what doctors predicted my abilities would be. From wheelchair to wheel...I get mental strength from not forgetting I started from below Ground Zero.
Having never conversed with anyone who ever got near a cyr wheel that I was aware of, these things were basically off my radar, entirely, but after you talked about it, I watched some YouTube videos - some were of people impressing the shit out of me with their ability to stay on that thing and one guy was amazing me with his patience while he built a cyr wheel from PVC pipe. He may have saved hundreds but wow, that looked like a pain in the ass.
The first time I saw someone on a cyr wheel outside my class, I was awe-inspired! I didn't know it was a "thing!" Mom didn't want me to be a "latchkey kid" because I would get home from school before she got home from work so when I came home from school with a flyer for a gymnastics class, she was all for it! I was notorious for using the sofa and bed as a trampoline and rearranging the furniture for acrobatic purposes...until I heard her car in the driveway and put everything back in a hurry. She would be curiously annoyed why her bed was slightly rumpled (hers was a double bed, so double tbe fun!). My high points were uneven parallel bars and floor. The instructor told my mom he wanted me in the advanced class where I learned aerial hoops, trapeze and cyr wheel. I was a 12 year old human monkey. The instructor knew I was a serious student and loaned me a wheel to use at home until I saved to buy my own.
A funny story about how I got involved in it on stage...the school handed out free admission tickets to the circus for the kids. That was when I saw people doing this "for real", I lost interest in the rest of the show but wanted to wait until it was over to chat with the announcer. Mom said, "please don't embarrass me." I promised I wouldn't and went down to ask him if they needed another cyr wheeler. Mom was shy, so I went alone. (Mom was from Scotland and was shy about being around people because they had a hard time understanding her). The man asked if I had a parent with me before he'd let me give it a try. I said my mom was with me and pointed her out. I didn't embarrass her, he did when he got his microphone and asked for "the mother of this young lady to please come down to the ring". She had to give permission. I did my routine and passed with his approval, but my age was a problem, I had to be 16 or older, I was 2 years too young. 2 years later, I became a "local talent ", meaning I didn't travel with the show but when they were in town I could participate AND get paid! The drawback was because I was a minor, mom had to be at every rehearsal and show (she was a good sport, I didn't realize it was exhausting for her because she was so encouraging, but after working all day and rehearsals/shows at night, she was relieved when the week was up and they moved on). I bought my first car! Mom was proud, my instructor was also, but mostly, I was proud of myself and my self-esteem improved. I never got over intense stage-fright. I told no one at my school and hoped I wouldn't be recognized. I was a bullied kid at school and didn't want attention. The wheel was my freedom in so many ways! It was more than a hobby, it was my lifestyle.
For that reason, I was super devastated after the accident. The one thing I loved doing was over. I had no hope of spinning again.
Now, I have no place to even begin to imagine using a cyr wheel at present but I have become fascinated. In large part because I know that when people avoid things they tend to get worse. My balance is getting worse as I get older because I do very little to improve it. I know that it can be improved. But also, it seems like using a cyr wheel could be a fun and zero impact (after some practice, of course
) activity that could really help with keeping up muscle strength.
As the little ass-kicker who actually gets on this thing and makes it work, do you have any thoughts on whether this seems like a good or bad idea for someone with the sorts of problems I have described?
I think anything you want to do can be accomplished if you have the mindset to go for it, knowing it takes lots of baby steps and an attitude of never giving up! There will be days of feeling no improvement is being made. It will work every muscle you have and you'll find your body-center and with that comes natural balance. I wore heavy sweats and a beanie hat in the relearning process because I knew I'd hit the floor and the possibility would always be there, it makes good padding! You never know what you can do until you try. Don't "think yourself out of it", but think yourself into it. A good first practice move is putting your arms out and turning in circles...then attempt standing still and spinning on one foot. Get comfortable with yourself, even if it takes hundreds of tries! Always have a back-up plan to regain balance before a fall occurs. "Try" to always fall forward, never backwards, as forward falls can be controlled. As your moves become more comfortable, try expanding them by stretching one leg behind you as you spin on one foot. Fuzzy socks have less resistance. Imagine yourself succeeding as you practice, the momentarily thought of "oh $#!t" can cause your balance to go off. Adding your favorite music spices it up, too! That should be a good start.
Be safe and have fun!
Also, kudos to you for getting back up on that pony and riding. That's awesome. No doubt it is also good for the brain to have that sort of control over your muscles.
Thank you, it has been helpful with anxiety, depression and self-esteem...physically, it's been a motivator (in more ways than one!).
