How I learned to swim

As I entered my fifties, my body and my confidence started to falter and fail me. I was told swimming would help keep me fit and strong-minded. But first I had to navigate the aggravation of the slow lane

- Diane Mehta

I ENDED UP AT THE YMCA AS A LAST RESORT. Years of chronic neck and back spasms had stolen all the variety and fun I used to find in working out, especially that amped-up endorphin high. By my early 50s, I had spent thousands of dollars trying to mitigate this pain with alternative treatments, after burning through one routine after another: running, kickboxing, spinning, kung fu, weight training, aerobics, Zumba, walking, children's karate, even alternative therapy such as the Feldenkrais Method. And yet knots clung to my spine like barnacles and flared up after such innocuous activities as doing the dishes or just sitting funny.

Once strong enough to propel me through the air in handsprings, sprint down a track and dodge oncoming players in rugby, my muscles had begun to atrophy by the age of 30. A physiotherapist told me then that it is not uncommon for dancers or gymnasts to remain hyperflexible as they age, but the brain thinks something is amiss when there's too much rubbery movement, so it orders everything into lockdown. It's the brain's way of keeping you safe, even though you feel horribly unsafe because you're in a spasm. I haven't been able to do a sit-up for decades.