Category: Senior Fitness

My wife and I were at a dinner party Sunday night, and the conversations were mostly about our doctors and surgeries and so forth. It seems that most of what older people do at events like that are talk about doctors, surgeries, and all the things that are wrong with each of us. It seems like those things are all we have in common. Politics are off the table in most cases. The dinner party was a church group, so religion and spirituality came up a little bit but most of the conversation was about health and health related items.

We did talk a little bit about what we were all doing to try and maintain our health, but I was the only one who mentioned exercise. Much of the conversation was about what medications we are “taking” to “cure” us of our physical ailments. Fortunately the company was great and it was a pleasant evening.  But talking about our ailments seems to be the norm rather than the exception when older people get together socially.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we would talk about how we just learned how to surf, or the great things we participated in on our last trip to wherever. Yes, we do travel, and yes we do talk about it, but the conversation somehow seems to revert back to how we had to go to the emergency room, or how we ran out of our meds. I say that just a little bit tongue in cheek but our recent medical histories and concerns seem to pop up in just about any social setting with seniors.

I don’t mean to make all that sound so flippant, but I also want it to be a message that as we age, we can actually do something about the aches and pains and lifestyle illnesses and find something more positive to talk about at social events.

Oh yes, I’m guilty. It seems that when I meet up with any my friends, we seem to start right in on talking about the aches and pains of aging. Even when I go to the gym, we seem to talk about our shoulder or back pains and how they affect us during exercise. The most common complaint at the gym is shoulder operations, either past or upcoming.

My wife is much the same. When she gets together with the girls, they too talk about their aches and pains, what medications they are on and what their latest ailments are.

Aches and pains, illness and operations, all seem to be the common denominator of our social gatherings.

So what’s the point of all this? Well, first some of the aches and pains are caused by moving the wrong way, or an injury of the muscle or joints. But mostly the aches and pains are from not moving much at all.

Is exercise the answer? Partly yes, partly no. It certainly makes sense that there would be fewer injuries to muscles, tendons and joints if those parts were moved and exercised more. But even when we do exercise, we can move something the wrong way, or overdo a movement, or do something that causes pain instead of alleviate it. But exercise can help prevent the problem in the first place. Just be careful starting out and go slow. A good warm up with any exercise is important to help avoid injury. If you are starting a new program of exercise, listen closely to your body; it usually will tell you to slow down or stop. Just heed what your body tells you.

Wouldn’t it be nice that at the next dinner party, we could talk about how we are learning to do something really new, or how we just learned to surf, or that we reached some sort of interim goal that we set for ourselves. Maybe we can even talk about how we’ve started to exercise.

Thanks for reading.

Three weeks ago I wrote an article about what seniors fear. In today’s article, I’ll expand on that article as well as explore what seniors want.

So what do Active Adults over Sixty really want? I’ve written and said it before. They want to be free of long, lingering chronic illness. They want to be independent and free. They want to be “fit for living”. They want to be free of injury and they want to avoid falling and injuring themselves. They want to enjoy the rest of their life. Most want to be around pleasant and like-minded people. They want to be free from worrying about money. They want to free from worry about their health.

In fact, to find out what messages appeal to seniors about their wants, needs and fears, one only has to go to the AARP publications and look at the ads, and there they are in brilliant color for all seniors to see – fear mongering at it’s best!  AARP’s advertisers think in terms of Pills, Pharmaceuticals, and more pills. “Take this, take that” and you’ll feel better.

Seniors want to be Healthy, Happy, Fit and Independent. What does fit mean to an older adult? Maybe “functional” is a better term. Seniors simply want to be able to do what people normally do and not be limited by aging poorly.

What Active Adults over Sixty don’t want is another typical exercise program and having to give up their favorite foods. They want instant resolutions for their aches and pains. They don’t want to have to sweat, strain and diet.

So maybe what you need is a different kind of program. You need motivation. You need a way to translate that motivation into action. You need a “reason why”. The main reason most people don’t exercise, is that their “reasons why” isn’t strong enough to counteract their “reasons why not.” Maybe the exercises need to be really simple and geared to the beginning exerciser, rather than the typical “one size fits all” exercise books that fill the shelves at Barnes & Noble and the local libraries. Maybe a simple, practical and usable fitness and exercise manual is on the way. Maybe a simple manual that is directed at the Active Adult over Sixty who has never exercised or hasn’t exercised for years could be coming soon. Hmm!

I would think that a trip around any nursing home or long term assisted living facility would be enough to turn any older adult on to exercise. But apparently it’s not. That should be enough for you to say: “That’s what I don’t want, and here’s what I’m going to do about it.”

It’s easy to say that you want to be happy, healthy, active and independent, but it’s not as easy to visualize. There aren’t a lot of role models around. It’s not easy to picture the results that you want. Yes, some of the advertisements in the AARP Publications show healthy looking people, and since advertising is such a powerful tool, one would think you could identify with the models. But we don’t. And if we do, we usually equate it to illness and medications – the wrong things to be thinking about.

Probably the best role models for visualization can be found in some of the Travel Magazines. They often show healthy and happy older adult couples on cruises, in foreign ports, in restaurants, and otherwise enjoying the good life.

Try this. Picture how you want to look. Imagine how you want to feel. Then take the necessary steps to do something about it. You can follow the “system” used by Marc Allen, publisher of New World Publications and author of several books on goal setting. His system is to visualize where he wants to be at some particular point in the future.  Then he sets and writes out the goals that go with the vision.  He then turns his goals into positive affirmations.  Finally, he creates a one page plan of action and immediately takes the first steps toward getting there.

You already know what some of those steps are, don’t you. Move your body and fuel it with high octane fuel. Breathe deeply and correctly, get outside in the sunshine and get proper rest and sleep. And develop a Come Alive Attitude to go with it.

By the way, keep an eye out for that Fitness and Exercise Manual for Older Adults I mentioned earlier.  Maybe it’ll appear in late January.

Thanks for reading.

If I were to ask one hundred people what it means to feel good, I would probably get two hundred different answers. So this article is a series of questions, without many answers. It’s meant to get you to think about what it means to “feel good”. If you’ll take a few moments after reading this to answer the questions in your own mind and in your own words, the article will have served you well.

What does it feel like to feel good? I asked that question because when we talk about exercise we say it feels good or it makes you feel good. What do I mean by that?

Does feeling good mean free from discomfort? Does it mean being totally functional as opposed to being physically limited? Is there a difference between feeling good and feeling good about something? Is feeling good an emotional experience, or is it physical, or both? Is it a one time “experience”, or is it a long term overall general feeling? Is it a feeling of satisfaction or is it . . . what?

All these are great questions. How would someone answer them. That’s the purpose of the blog article – to get people thinking about what it is like to feel good. Is it a feeling of energy, or is it a feeling of contentment?

How do you feel about feeling good? Believe it or not, some people don’t like feeling good. They would rather have something to complain about and have people feel sorry for them.

I sometimes say, “If my gut feels good, I feel good.” What do I really mean by that? It’s a physical feeling that is most noticeable when my gut doesn’t feel good.  In my own case, because I do a lot of “floor and core” movements when I exercise, my gut usually feels pretty good.  Even when I lose my willpower and abuse my stomach with an occasional fast food “treat”, I recover from that fast food “hangover” in my stomach fairly quickly.

Sometimes feeling tired is a good feeling. Sometimes feeling tired is bad. It depends on the circumstances, doesn’t it?

What kind of feeling good does exercise and good eating habits bring to you? Will you improve your life and lifestyle? Will you improve your ability to move the way you want to move, or will you limit yourself through lack of exercise and poor eating habits? Does exercise sharpen your mind, or does it dull it? Does the kind of exercise make a difference in how you feel?

As I strive to answer the question for myself, I either will be closer to the meaning, or will be farther away. I will at least have explored the topic and given it some real thought. It’s a question that each person should ponder and answer for themselves and the answer you come up with may be totally different than what you originally thought.

In most cases there are no right answers. Some of the questions are purely rhetorical. Take some time and answer them for yourself. You may be surprised at your answers.

Thank you for reading.