Saying I am in my 60s (61) is still strange to me. How did that happen? I was one of the youngest in my high school class, a late bloomer, nearly last kid in school to get my driver’s license and started college when I was still 17. But here I am.
I played baseball and soccer in high school and continued with soccer in college. The soccer showed me I had good endurance, so I started running in the off-season to stay in shape for soccer. Post-college I played tournament softball for many years and took up weightlifting in my mid-30s. This is all to say that staying fit has always been important to me, but I am not a zealot…I like to eat what I want to eat and enjoy adult beverages frequently. Call it a good balance of fitness and enjoyment.
Three years ago, the combination of a blown ACL (in college) that went uncorrected for over 20 years and slight bow-leggedness wore out the cartilage in my left knee and I had a knee replacement. I could do a whole blog on the miracles of knee replacement (ok, the first month of rehab really sucks) but to have that knee pain-free is truly incredible. But my running days are a thing of the past. Prosthetic knees are intended for low impact activity unless you want to wear them our prematurely. You are equipped for walking, biking, swimming, Stairmaster…etc. This curtailed some of the things I was still passionate about.
Enter Covid. Now my primary means of fitness…the gym….was closed, and is just a bad idea now that they are semi-open. I am not going to expose myself to shared spaces where heavy exertion is what you do. So, I resorted to walking my neighborhood daily and doing pushups.
About six months ago, I started seeing ads for Stealth on my Facebook feed. I consider myself invulnerable to hype ads, but I kept seeing them and it started to make sense. Games to provide a distraction as well as a way to compete in a device that doesn’t take up all that much room. Planking had never been part of my workouts, but I knew the benefits of a good core. So, I bought the yellow one.
Like many, my initial attempts were a bit clumsy, but I focused on form and was able to do about 2 minutes quickly. As my strength built, I’ve added time each week and I’m now up to 4:50 sessions (mostly Galaxy Adventure) that I do 1-3 times per day…always on my toes. My record time is 5:05 and I find that it’s my arms and shoulders that are likely to wear out before my gut. So clearly, I’m getting a near-full body workout. I recently hit a 100-day streak with no end in sight. I have yet to do all the challenges but enjoy seeing the versatility of Stealth that others have created. I’m a fan of Stealth.
-Ken Damon