Revelations

Great truths have been revealed to me in the past few days. Great truths that I feel compelled to share.

Revelation #1: I am not Michael Phelps.

Seriously, guys--I'm not. Here's how I know for sure: Michael Phelps looks like this after breaking a world record time for swimming 8 laps

I look like this after swimming 2 laps in about 3 minutes (and they weren't even real laps--they were little weenie indoor-gym swimming pool laps).

Yes, sad but true, some misguided good intention inside my mind suggested that I begin working out again (after a year-long respite) and I decided to give swimming a try. It looked fun, easy to do, seemed less monotonous than step after step on a treadmill...looks can be deceiving, though. All in all I probably spent about 10 minutes actually swimming, 5 minutes rubbing my chlorine-irritated eyeballs, and 20 minutes "resting"/gasping for air. I call that one good 35 minute work out! I'm going to give myself a few days of rest before I submit myself to that torture again, but I know that I'll be back because I've already caught myself looking in the mirror to see if my arms have gained any definition yet. (They haven't...yet.)

Revelation #2: The cause of my neck pain is my head.

Dentists are notorious for having poor posture. In fact, most of them have to wear some sort of back brace, hand brace, wrist splint, or go to physical therapy at some point in their career to correct some problem caused by bad posture. It isn't always just the dentist's fault, though. I mean, let's face it--teeth are small, and cavities are smaller, and what do we do when we need to see something small? We lean over and get really really close to it--BAAAAD for the back, dentists. In an effort to combat this problem in the profession with a little proactive education, our professors brought in a physical therapist this morning to talk about posture. Since we all sit at a desk/computer most weekdays studying, the teacher asked those of us who have experienced back or neck pain since starting school to raise their hands. All hands raised. He went on to explain that the average human head weighs 13 to 16 pounds (basically, as much as a big bowling ball), and that any time we lean our head/neck forward, that weight so far in front of us is guaranteed to give us pain somewhere in the neck or back area. The rest of the time he was talking I tried to evaluate my "head position." I have determined that this is how I usually sit at my computer:

Why, you ask, am I sitting like the Hunchback of Notre Dame? I don't know. It seemed like a good idea at the time. And thus, I learned why my neck and shoulder feel so sad every day after class.