The Come Alive Project

Author: Bob McMillan

  • Energy Bite 240 – Exercise: Back to Basics

    One of the main goals of exercise for Seniors is to keep yourself active, independent and healthy until it’s time to go. Keep in mind that exercise is only a part of an overall health and fitness program for seniors. You should invest part of every day in doing some form of physical movement.

    Here are the main benefits that you should look for when you start or continue exercising as you get older:

    • Prevent or recover from a fall
    • The strength to push, pull, lift and carry things.
    • The flexibility to bend, twist and reach; the mobility to move your joints through their full range of motion.
    • Comfortably move from point A to point B at whatever pace you choose.
    • Get up and down from the floor.
    • Stand up straight while preventing “forward head posture” and a shuffling gait.
    • Reduce aches and pain
    • Prevent or recover from an injury
    • Look good and Feel good
    • Hold to an acceptable weight for your body type.

    While your body shape and your weight (body compositions) are mostly determined by what you eat as opposed to how much you move, exercise still plays a role.

    There are four modes of exercise that we all should be doing in one form or another to accomplish the items on the above list. These are:

    1. Aerobic exercise. Exercises that increase your heart rate and make you increase your oxygen intake. These include:

    • Walking at a brisk pace
    • Running or jogging
    • Swimming
    • Intervals of high intensity exercise and less intense exercise (HIIT)

    2. Resistance exercise. Exercises that pit your muscles against some sort of resistance to build strength and sometimes size. These include:

    • Free weights. These can be done with dumbbells or barbells at a gym or at home.
    • Exercise bands or tubes usually at home or at a gym.
    • Machines. Found mostly at gyms, they are also available for the home.
    • Bodyweight exercise. These are calisthenics like push ups and pull ups and other movements where your own body provides the resistance. This can include isometric exercises where you pit one muscle against another or against a hard surface like the floor when you do a plank exercise.

    3. Floor, Core & Balance. These can include programs like Yoga, Tai Chi, Mat Pilates and just basic twisting and bending, rolling, and core exercises like leg raises and crunches. These include:

    • Stretching for flexibility
    • Range of motion exercises where you move your joints through their full range of motion
    • Crawling and rolling around on the floor like an infant
    • Bending and twisting exercises
    • Abdominal exercises like leg raises and crunches.
    • Practice getting up and down
    • Off center balance and recovery exercises. Don’t try and just stand on one foot; allow yourself to get off balance and then do what you need to recover.

     Posture. Posture is a critical component of offsetting the effects of aging. Good posture can help you mentally as well as physically. Posture exercises include:

    • Various neck strengthening and stretching exercises, particularly for “forward head posture” prevention and correction
    • Scapular retraction and pulling exercises strengthen particularly the upper and middle back so your shoulders do not pull forward.

    You should include a few of each in each exercise period or do alternate days between strength and the other exercises. I believe you should do the floor, core and balance exercises every day.

    It goes without saying that you should start slowly and ease into any exercise program. You should check with a medical professional before starting any exercise program.

    Those are the basics. There aren’t a lot of books or manuals on exercise for older Seniors but there are plenty for those in their 40’s and 50’s. Check them out online. And I hope to remedy that absence of a good manual for 55 and up in the near future.

    As I said at the beginning, these are simply the basics for exercises for Seniors. You can make it as simple or as complex as you choose. There are a lot of very technical discussions of the mechanics of exercise online. My goal is to Keep it Simple. I’ll be elaborating on much of the above in future articles.

    Thank you for reading.

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  • Energy Bite 239 – A Little Help with Motivation, Please.

    This is a question for you. I am writing a short booklet or “manifesto” on Exercise and Fitness for Seniors, and I am including a section on Motivation. I would appreciate your help.

    We all know that we should exercise, eat right and get plenty of rest and sleep. Some do and some don’t. Why or why not?

    Here are my questions:

    If you exercise, what drives you to do it? What motivates you to exercise? What kind of exercise do you do? What are your exercise goals? What benefits do you actually get from exercising? Tell me briefly about what you do and why.

    If you don’t exercise, what stops you?  What prevents you from doing it? Why don’t you exercise?

    I am interested in REAL reasons why or why not. I will not reveal names. I may include real answers in the manifesto and in a future blog post. It’s important to me that you give me real reasons — even if the reason is that “I don’t want to”. But if that’s your answer, would you please elaborate a bit.

    How about sending aa brief one or two paragraph answer to bob@thecomealiveproject.com and put “MOTIVATION” in the subject line.

    I’m thanking you in advance for you help. Thank you for participating.

  • Energy Bite 238 – How to Lose Personal Energy, Fast

    I write and speak a lot about Positive Energy and it’s importance in aging healthfully. I’ve stressed the benefits of Physical Movement, Sound Nutrition, Deep Breathing, Good Posture and Lots of Rest and Sleep. I’ve also stressed the importance of a Positive and forward thinking Mindset in promoting healthy aging as part of the Fountain of Youth that is inherent within you.

    But how about the other side of the coin. What are some of the things that drain energy from you and contribute to an unhealthy body and a pro-aging mindset? In this article, I’ll explore three of the most common Energy Vampires. Are any of them holding you back from activating your Fountain of Youth?

    People, Places and Things

    Have you spent much time around negative people; people who are always complaining or finding fault with everything, or proclaiming their victimhood? These people can sap the energy right out of you. They can drain any semblance of a positive attitude you may have just by opening their mouths. Of course there are real victims and people who have unexpected tragedies or illnesses, who need a friend to hear them out. But the true energy drainers seem to have a never ending stream of life’s problems and they never want to stop telling you about them.

    And how about your own personal environment?. Do you live with clutter and messy surroundings? Studies have demonstrated that living in a cluttered or “disarranged” environment can be depressing and can even cause susceptibility to illness. Clutter can certainly be an energy suppressant.

    It’s important to be aware of just how draining being around chronically negative people and clutter can be, and to have a Plan B to at least avoid it when you can.

    Self-Talk

    What do you say to yourself when you have a challenge or when things are not going right for you? Again, recent studies have demonstrated that putting yourself down when things are not going the way you want, or because of disappointment, could cause an immune response that may result in physical illness or mental depression. Philosophical writings going back to the Ancient Greeks show that people have understood the physical challenges that come from negative self-talk. And expectations which have not been met often result in resentments, which are the king or queen of the negative attitude scale.

    Physical Deterioration & Injury

    Your Personal Energy can be sapped over time when you don’t take care of yourself and you start to deteriorate physically. When you lose strength, flexibility and mobility, your ability to function on a normal level is lost; your body loses its ability to handle the stresses and necessities of normal life. You drain energy slowly, but steadily, even with plenty of rest and sleep.

    That’s when you notice the gradual downhill slide that comes from inactivity and poor self-care. And that’s when you need to take action to start recovery. Do I need to suggest exercise?

    Injuries speak for themselves. Occasional physical injuries can pull your energy level down temporarily, but you get it back when you start a program of recovery.  But all too often, the bone degeneration that occurs when you allow your body to deteriorate results in a broken limb or hip. The statistics are not kind to those Seniors who enter emergency rooms because of a fall and a broken hip.

    All of the above are just a few of the things that drain energy from you. The most important things you can do are to keep your body moving, eat real food, get plenty of rest and sleep, and to surround yourself with positive people in positive places. Be kind to yourself with your words and thoughts, and look at the bright side of life.

    Thank you for reading.