This is a continuation of the very inspiring, true life story of Colonel Ravindra Dixit. In case you didn’t get the first part of the story you can view it here. He is a true inspiration to anyone who has lost their will to survive. He has show that you cannot let circumstances in life get the best of you. Just keep pressing on with faith and sure will and you shall prosper.
I am one of the few lucky ones who have had the great fortune of coming out alive from a major accident, actually my legs were for amputation but providence helped me retain both. This providential boon came with a price; fate gave me the honor of getting back on my feet from what many thought was a hopeless condition. What a time I had, there was not a moment when I was not in pain, so many times I contemplated suicide, walking was such a torture that I would visit the toilet only when the bladder was bursting, it was very frustrating but there were a few successes and small victories too, in retrospect it was a ball and I enjoyed every moment. Each experience brings lessons, I thought I’ll share mine with you.
Just in case you have not read my last post, in November 1977 I had suffered multiple injuries in my lower limbs which had me laid in hospital for over two years. Initially both my legs were under traction for over two months and for the next seven months both legs were in plaster from waist down. One would suppose that with both legs in plaster there was not much that I could do in the form of physical exercise. The truth is very far from it. There were a whole lot of exercises that I could improvise. The first was to get the right perspective of my condition, be positive and realize that this is not the end of the world. Seeing things correctly made me cheerful which enabled me to cock-a-snook at my injuries and develop a devil-may-care attitude.
Other than his injuries or illness a long standing patient who is bed-ridden has a host of problems to cope with. First and foremost is boredom, loneliness hits a person very hard, from loneliness comes depression; I have seen patients talking to themselves, deep in self pity. Then there is inactivity, there is little activity in or around the bed and there is not much scope for the hospital staff to create fruitful pass-times for such patients. Inactivity is the mother of many irritants and diseases such as, loss of appetite, constipation, headaches, sinus, muscle atrophy, degeneration of organs, smoking, to name a few. Are these difficulties insurmountable? Definitely not, the way is to remain active and happy at all costs. But How?
Fortunately I was able to identify the difficulties confronting me very early in my hospital stay. I took a proactive view and decided, that what has happened cannot be undone, but I have to preserve all parts of the body that are healthy. About three weeks after my accident I organized a pair of 15 lb dumbles and started exercising the arms, chest, and shoulders and what-ever of the upper back I could. Lying in one position in bed gives rise to pain in the neck, shoulders and back. Any amount of massaging does not relieve the misery. The only answer was to move these parts and improve the blood circulation in them. So I took on all the PT exercises that we did in army units and training establishments and gave them my best, the only difference, earlier the practices were done in a vertical position now I was perfectly horizontal. To work up a sweat I would shadow box, boy this one would really tickle my fellow patients and the laughter did no one any harm.
All of us envy those six-packs; but if I had stayed inactive for long I would have an assortment of jellies for abdominal muscles. Doing abdominals was a problem. I could not do crunches as the lower back was plastered and crunches gave me bed sores, which were painful and difficult to heal. I modified the classic crunch into what I named the Shirker’s Crunch. In this I would remove the pillow, raise the head till the chin touched the sternum and hold that position, a few sets of 50 and when I left the hospital the abs were good enough to take a punch. For exercising the back I would push the head hard into the mattress and try lifting the pelvis (this remained more a thought than an action as both thighs were fractured), this is about the best I could do for the lower back until later when things improved.
Again for the abdomen I did some yogic exercises, which included pumping the abdominal muscles up and down, bloating the abdomen and holding that distended position for as long as feasible. There is a superb yogic exercise called uddiyan bandha. This is an abdominal lock in which the breath is expelled and the stomach is pulled in, the position is maintained for as long as one can. In her characteristic American fashion, Jane Fonda has called this exercise the killer crush. A development on uddiyan bandha is the nauli, in which the rectal muscles are made to stand out like a ridge and then rotated in both the clock and anti-clockwise directions. These exercises are actually done standing or in padmasana, the ‘lotus’ pose. I did them lying in bed, only I know what an apology my efforts were, but notwithstanding my failure to perform well, they did me a whole lot of good. These exercises severely churn the abdomen giving tremendous massage to the intestines and all abdominal organs. In the abdomen there is a digestive fire which yogis call the jatthar agni, these exercises whip up this jatthar agni and if one practices these exercises digestion remains perfect. As all organs and glands in the abdomen are massaged they remain toned and function efficiently. Yogis say that one who has perfected these exercises never gets old and ultimately defeats death. I shall be discussing these and many other exercises in greater detail in some subsequent post. All the above exercises are good for reducing abdominal fat and help in maintaining a lean waist. Thanks to these exercises I hardly ever suffered from constipation, indigestion, loss of appetite, acidity etc.
I had suffered injuries in my legs what did I do for them. Not much. Both legs were first under traction for three months and then in plaster for the next seven. The left leg was lying limp, as a major muscle and a nerve had been severed and the bones were crushed. I would however follow a drill, take a deep breath, pull up the quadriceps and also the toes, count ten and release. Do one hundred of these in one set and have three to four sets in a day.
Once the plaster was removed I had to learn to walk once again. I would walk down to the gymnasium with the help of two crutches and work-out on the static cycle till I had worked up a heavy sweat. The rowing machine was good to tone up the whole body. I really did not go in for weights as I used to get adequate exercise from my own program. After my bones had joined I had to remain in hospital for a major skin graft.
We are breathing each moment of our lives. Unfortunately we are not conscious of the breath we take in or out of the system. If breathing is done with awareness it turns into a tremendous exercise system. In yoga breathing is a science, it is called pranayam or the control of life, if properly done it grants the practitioner good health and peace of mind. When I had met with the accident I did not know pranayam, never-the-less I regularly practiced deep breathing and surely it gave me great peace of mind, kept me healthy and contented.
What did I gain from the very dedicated exercise schedule which I followed with such diligence in the hospital?
- Just as patients look for good doctors, doctors too desire good patients. Doctors are doing a difficult job; patients can greatly assist them by their attitude towards the line of treatment. An ideal patient is a treat for the medical staff; the Commandant of our hospital would make it a point to bring every dignitary to my bed and brief him on the extent of my injuries and the way I had taken them up as a challenge.
- The busy exercise schedule kept me free of small problems and I remained very happy, and happiness spreads. A happy patient lends his happiness to co-patients, the medical staff and the visitors to the ward. My surgeon would often say ‘Ravi because you are happy, your bones are happy, your muscles and sinews are happy. There is happiness around your bed you are recovering well and so are your fellow patients.’
- As I was a centre of activity I was never lonely. Patients especially youngsters would flock around my bed for a small workout and some tom-foolery.
The exercise program helped me go through two years of hospitalization and seven surgeries in what I recall as a very pleasant phase of my life. It would be wrong to say that I was never bored or depressed in these two years, so many times I cried to myself but the truth is that I have come out a winner. I was able to make phenomenal recovery from my injuries, recover my career and have a happy married life. It is a fact that I went on to teach physical fitness after having been declared a physical wreck by the Army.
The workout system I followed were an improvisation, probably I could have done better. The circumstances for each person are unique and each one has to devise his own programs. The program one follows will finally depend on one’s nature, but it is important to analyze the requirement, see one’s limitations and then face the devil.
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Tags: bodyweight exercises, convalescence, courage, determination, faith, hospitalization, inspirational story, patience, perseverance, recovering from injuries, Sai Baba, will, yoga
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