(not so) Scary Spice

Jos, our exercise leader, in Halloween mood. 
 
A good session today and an interesting one from my point of view.  Before being let loose in the machine room, we do some warm ups and a bit of aerobics.  

Jos has a new exercise for us; it involves working with a partner of roughly the same height and strength.  

We face each other and then place our hands, palm up, on their up-turned hands.  It’s then it’s a matter of using each other as a form of resistance, pushing backwards and forwards like pistons.  

This basic idea varies - e.g., one partner sits down, palms up and the other stands over them, pushing down.  Then we stand sideways next to each other, link arms and pull.  So you get the general idea - two people pushing and shoving each other.

I’m partnered with a new member.  He’s younger than me - mid-50s I guess.  And I don’t know what his underlying health issue is.  It’s usually heart or lungs - sometimes both.  

He seems reasonably fit, no obvious breathing difficulties, so I assume it’s his heart.  But I can’t ask him, because he can’t hear me.  And he can’t tell me because he can’t speak either. 

We get by with watching what others are doing and then copying them.  Because he can’t hear the instructions from Jos, he’s having to work out how hard to push me, from the way I push him.  And he’s a lot stronger than me.  So it involves a lot of trust.

I find the whole thing incredibly moving - apart from a bit of eye-contact, we’re communicating solely by touch.  

It reminds me of what it is to be human.