My wife and I were walking with a few friends the other day. A long walk. One couple came down from New Hampshire to visit their grandkids and the other couple recently moved to a 55 and Over Retirement Community.
It was a beautiful day. Sunshine. Chilly, but not cold. We expected to see a bunch of people from this 55 and over community out walking, too. I mean it was truly a beautiful day for walking.
How many people do you think we saw on the walking path? We saw two people over roughly an hour and a half. Now this is a community of over 1700 homes. It is adjacent to and surrounded by other similar Retirement Communities. Yet we saw only two people out walking.
I am in my early 80s. My wife and everyone else in our group are in their seventies. We are active. We were outdoors. It was beautiful. As a group, we have walked together and socialized together many times. Often the conversation is about staying active and enjoying life.
I commented in a recent post that so many Senior men and women retire, have a couple of years of fun, and then settle into a life spent mostly indoors watching reruns or shows on one of the Movie channels. They seem to run out of physical and mental energy, begin to isolate, and slowly start down that road to physical decline.
The couple who live in that over 55 community agreed and said that is pretty much what they see most of the time. Rarely do they see people on the walking paths. They commented on how little they see of their neighbors, even when the weather is perfect.
They said the community has an outstanding fitness center but that is lightly used. Why not? Enough articles have been written in Magazines, Health Sections of major newspapers, and many other outlets that every Senior should be totally aware that walking and other forms of exercise and physical movement are key factors in living a long, healthy, and INDEPENDENT life.
My friends who live in this community say there is an active “Pickleball” environment there and the turnout of numbers of players is around 40 or so people. Pickleball is a sport that has huge popularity for Seniors, and is gaining popularity exponentially. I have yet to try Pickleball, but I plan to give it a shot this coming Spring. Expect an article soon on this rapidly expanding sport.
Eleven years ago, when I started “The Come Alive Project”, the goal was to deliver useful messages of health, fitness and personal energy for Active Seniors, to help them avoid the stagnation and deterioration that comes with the way most people age, and to insert themselves into the continuous flow of an active senior lifestyle.
At that time, I had several conversations with another friend who was one of the original members of the President’s Council On Physical Fitness. We were talking about how best to get the message of health, fitness and personal energy out to Seniors. He is a devotee of doing it as a local government/municipal effort, while I believe in approaching it on the basis of individual responsibility.
People like Dan Buettner, author of the book Blue Zones, have done a wonderful job of getting city and local municipalities to become serious about providing outdoor facilities and public relations campaigns to encourage people to walk, run and ride bikes on community provided paths and trails. But it is mostly the younger members of those communities who are getting the message, taking action, and using the facilities to stay fit. The older generations seem to rebel against that sort of activity, or are simply complacent about their own health and fitness.
My project is not about telling Seniors how to exercise. It’s about inspiring Seniors and showing them how to get, keep, and use their Personal Energy to live a long and active life, to remain independent, and to engage with other like-minded Seniors to help stay on track.
So, I’ll keep the blog going, continue to speak to groups, and do occasional workshops on aging and longevity, and do whatever else I can to get the message out there. You can help by showing these articles to other Seniors and get them to join in the effort like you have.
Fitness facilities may be available, but it is up to the individual to use them. Paths may be provided for you, but it is up to you to walk them. Keep on moving!
Thank you for reading.