Regina Sellers swims towards gold in her Endless Pool
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People often describe the installation and use of
the Endless Pool in life-transforming terms. Regina
Sellers, a 68-year-old resident of Texas, is such a
person. Not only does she no longer require a wheelchair
or a walker, Regina has won four gold medals in Senior
Olympics swim competitions for athletes 55 years and
older. In the process, she has lost weight, gained energy,
and has better circulation, especially in her legs and
feet.
Also like many devotees, Regina took a serendipitous
route to Endless Pool ownership. Not a swimmer when
she was younger, she first took up the sport –
“in order not to go crazy” – at a
local pool, in San Antonio, while caring for her ailing
mother. Over and above renewed vigor and emotional well-being,
the effort produced the first of her gold medals. When
her mother’s health improved, she and Regina moved
back to Spring Branch, more than 80 miles to the north.
Without swimming, though, “I just felt lost,”
recalls Regina. “And I gained a lot of weight,
and my feet hurt, and I could hardly walk, and I decided
I had to do something. We saw the ad for the Endless
Pool in an in-flight magazine,” and the rest,
as they say, is history.
Her husband completed construction a year ago last
August of a room specifically for the pool, and Regina
has been using it virtually every day since. She keeps
the water temperature at about 90º, and her routine
consists of 45 minutes of aerobics with a friend, followed
by a 1,000-stroke swimming workout.
Not everyone develops Regina’s proficiency in
swimming, but her experience demonstrates convincingly
why it is a great medium for starting an exercise program
and how the Endless Pool helps. The water’s buoyancy
relieves stress on joints and connective tissues, even
as its 600-to-700-times-greater-than-air resistance
accelerates metabolism and boosts endurance. The combination
of variable resistance and easy access also promotes
optimal comfort levels and an incremental approach to
conditioning. Just ask Regina. She has now set her sights
on winning a national championship, though she feels
no sense of urgency. In fact, she says, “I think
I’ll wait until I’m 70. It’ll be more
fun that way.”
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