Originally posted to Posterous on 19 February 2012
In the second half of 2010, my GP put me on medication for hypertension (high blood pressure). My blood pressure was so high that my GP thought her sphygmomanometer was broken. Luckily the medication worked, and had the added benefit of getting rid of most of my headaches. The thought that untreated high blood pressure might have caused kidney damage - the jury is still out on this one - was pretty scary, and was motivation to make some lifestyle changes.
I decided to cease working lots of extra hours at home in the evenings and on weekends, to try eating better, and most importantly, to get some exercise. Ideally, I'd like to lose some weight, but that's not my primary aim of exercising. I started out by getting a small trampoline. This was somewhat successful, but it was too easy to find reasons not to use it after work - too hot, too cold, too tired to put exercise clothes on.
I needed a form of exercise that did not require going anywhere special or wearing anything special, and that would not rely on good weather. I had in my mind the rollers used by cyclists for indoor training, and was thinking of setting up a pair of rollers to use for my wheelchair, until I came across the Mclain Wheelchair Training Rollers on the internet. These are rollers designed for use by wheelchair users, and not just racing wheelchair users. I could not find these for sale anywhere in Australia - typical! - but found them for sale online at Bike-on.com (http://bike-on.com/product/mclain-mclain-wheelchair-training-rollers-1465.htm) and SportAid (http://www.sportaid.com/mclain-wheelchair-training-rollers.html), both for a similar price. Freight to Australia increased the cost by 50%, so it was not a cheap purchase. But I save on gym membership, and I exercise in my pyjamas, so I'm saving on exercise outfits as well.
I am managing to do 30 minutes 'on the rollers' roughly three nights a week. It helps that we have an iMac set up as an internet TV in the bedroom, so I can watch TV as I exercise. I find that not only has my overall strength and stamina increased, but 30 minutes exercise after coming home from work is an excellent mood-improver, as it helps to manage stress. Here's a video of me 'on the rollers' shortly after I bought them last year (with clothes on):