I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who has a love/hate relationship with exercise. You know—“the activity of exerting your muscles in various ways to keep fit.”

When I lost both legs above my knees at age twenty-nine, I was hell-bent on wanting to walk again. I spent hours every day in physical therapy working to be strong enough to use my new fake legs. Four months after the accident, I walked a mile and never looked back. Since it takes me four times more energy to walk than a normal person, I got plenty of exercise just being a mom and working full-time.

With the help of personal fitness trainers at the YMCA, I eventually developed work-out routines for upper body and core strength with floor exercises I could do at home and machine assisted exercises at the gym. Work-outs at the Y with my trainer always escalated into giggle sessions that could be heard throughout the gym.

After breaking my hip in a fall at work, I knew I needed to be more careful, so I started taking a manual wheelchair to work and used it like a walker, holding onto it with my hand while pushing it ahead of me as a stabilizer—still a good way to get my exercise and stay in shape. I felt like Moses parting the Red Sea as I walked through the congested halls, with my thump-thud heel-strike and toy soldier, wide-based gait.

About four years ago, walking became more difficult. I was so stiff and uncomfortable, that I increasingly chose to sit in my wheelchair for much of the day. It became time to adapt to this new stage. We installed a lift in the back of my van so I could have an electric wheelchair with me all the time.

I loved the new-found freedom of a motorized wheelchair that could take me several miles before needing to be recharged. With a top speed of five miles an hour, I zipped around slower walkers, (including my marathon-running-husband) usually leaving my two-legged friends in the dust. “Hey Linda, slow down,” became a common refrain. While waiting for them to catch up, I’d tease the slowpokes by spinning my wheelchair around in circles. It was nice to be able to Get Out and Go more places, but not nice because I wasn’t getting enough exercise.

And then, the shit really hit the fan as I listened to the words, “I think you have Parkinson’s Disease.” How dare she say that to me. I didn’t have a tremor. I didn’t shuffle my feet. (‘Cuz I don’t have any.)

Now—more than ever—exercise needs to be a crucial part of my life. Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that has no cure. I can’t make it go away. I can take carbidopa-levodopa every day to alleviate some of the symptoms, but the medication wears off, letting the symptoms roar back. There is, however, one thing that has been shown to improve mobility, quality of life, and possibly slow the rate of disease progression.

EXERCISE, EXERCISE, EXERCISE. Not namby-pamby exercise. I need the strenuous, sweaty, heart-rate-raising kind. Lots of everyday, bust-your-butt exercise. So, here’s the new challenge. How do I sweat and get a good cardio work-out when I can’t run or box or do jumping jacks or use the elliptical machine or a treadmill? Sure, there are arm ergometers but I can’t afford to trash my one extremity trying to get my heart racing. And yes, there are recumbent bikes, but most aren’t usable with my prostheses on.

It’s clearly time to get creative and find exercises that I can do seated with or without my legs on. Turning to the internet, I rediscovered my friend Caroline Jordan and the seated cardio work-outs she developed while recovering from a foot injury. After finding them on You Tube, I reconnected with her and we are now collaborating on more seated work-out programs. The sweaty, get-your-heart-rate-up kind that can help me as a triple amputee combat Parkinson’s Disease.

Follow my blog and Caroline’s You Tube channel for further developments. I’ve compiled a list of other seated chair work-outs that I like also. You can find them on the Resource page of my website. Please feel free to send me others you find, let’s make this a long list.

If I can do it, you can do it…So Let’s Get Out and Go Sweat!