Category: Senior Fitness

It all starts with the way you’re thinking. Repeat that: It all starts with the way your thinking. How do you think about your own health and fitness? Do you have the personal energy you want to get you through each day with vim and vigor? Do you have plenty of energy for more at the end of the day? Or are you just worn out from whatever? Do you feel the stress of the day as if it were a burden, or do you let the stress of the day flow over your back like water? Do you plop down in front of the TV and watch . . . , or are you doing something positive and productive (at least in your mind), even after the dishes are done, or the empty, processed dinner box has been tossed in the trash?

Are you a participant in life, or are you a watcher of life? Do you like to do things or watch things, or both. Do you enjoy exercise, do you enjoy the feeling you get when you exercise? Do you dislike exercise? If you don’t like exercise, why don’t you? In short, what is your attitude about health and fitness?

It’s really the attitude that counts. Do you like feeling really good as you age? Is it worth it to follow the principles of good health so you can feel really good, or is it too much of a hassle, and besides, you enjoy Dancing with the Stars too much to take the time to move yourself – you would rather watch someone else do it.

Different people like different things. Some like Yoga. Some like Pilates. Some like bodybuilding. Some like running. Some like calisthenics. Some like attending formal “boot camp” style programs. Some like classes at the gym. Some like to exercise in their living room. Some like to plop on the couch and watch TV. Some like to exercise with weights. Some like to exercise by lifting their forks and spoons. We are all different. We all have different preferences. One size does not fit all.

Except . . . that if we don’t move our bodies the way nature intended, we will deteriorate. Our muscles will soften and atrophy. Our blood will pool and stagnate. Our breathing will get shallow. Our joints and hinges will get rusty and creak and weaken, our bones will get brittle and break, and all sorts of other bad things will happen to our bodies. We will get old before our time.

Our insides won’t function well and our systems will clog up. If we don’t fuel our bodies with the high octane fuel that nature intended for our bodies, such as air, water, good food and sunshine, we will become more susceptible to chronic illness, long lingering disease, pain and lack of the material needed to regenerate our basic cellular structure, let alone our major body systems. If we don’t get the kind of rest and sleep that nature intended for our bodies, we will reduce our mental capacities and will not recover as well as we should from not only exercise, but from the normal stresses of daily life.

And if we don’t have a good mind-set or attitude about our own health and fitness, nothing on earth will move us to move.

Doctors don’t do these things for us. Insurance companies don’t do this for us. We have to exercise, eat right and get the rest we need for ourselves. It’s called “Self-Care” and it’s more important than health care and sick care combined.

Thank you for reading.

What are the greatest fears, concerns and wants of seniors as we age? Is it the fear of dying? I don’t think so. Here are the most common fears other than financial fears that most seniors seem to have.

#1: Dying with our song still in us: Perhaps we do fear dying “with our song still in us”. Someone once said that you don’t die regretting the things you did, you die regretting the things you didn’t do. That’s probably true for many of us. All too often, we simply never get to the things we say we want to do. We promise ourselves that we will do this thing, or these things before we die, but time marches on and we never do them.

Perhaps that’s where the concept of The Bucket List comes from. A Bucket List is a list of things that a person wants to do before they die – things like traveling around the world, or jumping out of an airplane, or learning to paint. These are dreams that we may have had as a youth that we let pass us by as we aged; things that we just never got around to doing. These things can be large or small, sensible or non-sensible. It doesn’t matter. They are simply things that we always wanted to do or be, that we simply never took the time to make happen. Now we use age as an excuse for not doing those things that we want to do but don’t think we can. A bucket list can give purpose to our lives and living with a purpose is a characteristic of longevity.

#2: Fear of Falling: This is one of the major fears for all seniors. Fear of falling as a senior is different than the fear of falling as a baby. We are told that fear of falling is one of the two basic fears that babies are born with. This is a different kind of falling. This is not the fear of falling from a great height, it is the fear of falling from a standing position or losing balance and falling DOWN on a floor or a street, or even down a flight of stairs. The fear is of hurting yourself, breaking a hip or other bone, or of not being able to get back up to your feet. This is a legitimate challenge because as we age, our bones tend to get brittle and break more easily than a younger persons.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: One-third of Americans aged 65+ falls each year. Every 14 seconds, an older adult is treated in the emergency room for a fall; every 29 minutes, an older adult dies following a fall. Falls are the leading cause of fatal injury and the most common cause of nonfatal trauma-related hospital admissions among older adults. Falls result in more than 2.4 million injuries treated in emergency departments annually, including over 772,000 hospitalizations and more than 21,700 deaths. In 2012, the total cost of fall injuries was over $36 billion. The financial toll for older adult falls is expected to increase as the population ages and may reach $59.6 billion by 2020. That’s scary.

Let’s face it, if you “slip or trip”, which is the reason for most falls, gravity is going to take over and you are going to go – DOWN. Yes, down. That’s toward the floor or street. It will probably hurt, even if you catch yourself. If you go down all the way without somehow catching yourself or doing something to protect yourself on the way down, you are likely to seriously injure yourself, or break a bone. But there are ways to protect yourself. One answer, of course, is to build your leg and core strength, do balance exercises, learn some techniques to catch yourself before you get too far down, and in the event you can’t stop yourself on the way down, at least learn ways to protect yourself and minimize the damage when you hit.

#3. Loss of Mobility/Functionality, and Loss of Independence: Functionality and mobility go hand in hand. As you age, you still want to be able to do the things you want to do and go the places you want to go. Seniors, in general, dread the idea of loss of mobility. Functionality means being able to do the things we need to be able to do. Mobility means being able to move from point A to point B, whether it is getting across the room, or driving to the store for groceries. The result is a loss of independence. The idea of needing help to perform basic tasks is terrifying to most seniors. The loss of the use of a car, not being able to go to the store, let along not being able to put the groceries away when you get home is an unnecessary tragedy. Dependence on someone else, particularly having to rely on your own kids, is terrifying.

#4. Long, Lingering Illness: Most seniors want to live right up until they die, and want to be able to do what they want to do until they die. But so many seniors are susceptible to chronic illnesses that incapacitate them and, like loss of mobility or functionality, increase reliance on others. No one wants this to happen. It’s scary.

One answer is to live in an assisted care facility where someone is there to look after you and your needs. That’s never a pleasant choice. A far better response is to take care of yourself in the early stages of aging. It’s never to late to improve your physical condition. But it’s best when you start early, as you begin to move into “seniorhood”, rather than having to catch up later. We all understand the importance of exercise and eating for energy, but too many of us just won’t do it for one reason or another. Is inertia on of those reasons? Is it laziness, or is it just a lack of motivation or not having a strong enough “reason why”.

Summary: We all have fears as we get older. We see others who bear the negative results of aging without taking care of themselves. There is a way to put off the aging process and even, in some cases, seem to reverse it. You can regain some of your mobility and functionality as well as stave off long, lingering, chronic illness. Is this true in every case? Of course not.

Aging the traditional way is no longer a given. We have the ability to do something about it, and we can start now. It’s never too late. The evidence is there to support the ability to reverse, or at least stop the debilitating effects of aging. Numbers 2, 3, and 4 above can be addressed with exercise and nutrition, good hydration, deep breathing, exposure to some direct sunlight and proper rest and sleep. Number 1 is a function of attitude and action.

You already know the solution. Go do it.

Thanks for reading.

Most of my readers are aware that I recently had open heart surgery to replace an aortic valve. That was five months and one day ago on June 2nd. Yesterday morning was the final session of a 12 week, 36 session cardiac-rehab program at INOVA Fairfax Hospital, in Fairfax, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC.  I will miss the “small band of professionals” who have done such a great job of watching over me and nagging me and cajoling me and having fun with me. They are truly a professional bunch who seem to genuinely like each other, like their jobs, work well together and have fun with their charges, as well as closely monitor those charges through a program of rehabilitation from the many different varieties of heart surgery. I am writing this blog post in praise of, and appreciation for, this professional and highly skilled group.

I would like to name each person individually, but they are truly a team, working together as one, to make sure that those of us who participated in the program progressed smoothly and safely.

I was fortunate that I went into the surgery in good physical condition. I exercised regularly and ate healthfully. When I was tested before the surgery, my arteries were clear, but my aortic valve was in the final stages of closing and the surgery was necessary. It was not a result of an unhealthy lifestyle, but the end effect of what started as a heart murmur as a child. Not everyone with a heart murmur will need surgery, but I was surprised at the number of people I met who had valve problems rather than arterial blockages.

There were ten people in each class meeting three times a week for 12 weeks. My 12 weeks were interrupted a few times by trips and visits to friends up and down the east coast, but I managed to complete all 36 sessions in a timely manner.

We were checked in each morning, one by one, and each of us picked up, and hooked up, a heart monitor which we attached to our bodies with wires and fasteners. These monitors were mini-transmitters that sent our heart rate data to a separate monitor which was always attended by a nurse.

We started the program with a series of cardio exercises using equipment including treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical machines, and Concept II Rowing Machines. Each patient worked up to 45 minutes of progressive cardio exercises, followed by an additional period of walking laps around the room and cool down stretches. Some of the patients did strength building exercises with weights later in their program. Since I did my weight exercises at home or at the gym on the other four days, I spent all my time on the cardio machines. The main point is that most of us were doing things we simply would not have done on their own without the Cardiac-Rehab program. That includes me. I would have exercised but I would not have done the cardio exercises which turned out to be the most important recovery exercises of all.

I won’t mention individual names other than to give a shout out to Diana B, who took the extra time and effort to help me prod my doctor, and got him to release me into the program when we were up against a time deadline. Thank you Diana.

And I can’t thank the entire group of professionals enough for the competence and compassion they all displayed, as well as the professional way they each handled their responsibilities. This was not a game to them although there were a lot of “one-liners” and bantering that made the entire experience fun. In fact, they won’t release a patient from their day’s session until their heart rate was down to a specific reading. We had to sit in “detention” until it did. I spent a lot of time in detention and the nurses and physical therapists made it fun to have to stay after school, bantering one-liners right back at me like tennis pros. I will miss them all.

I must mention, too, that they have an excellent intern program as part of the overall staffing. I truly enjoyed the bantering with the sassy young intern who spent time working with me and absorbing my one-liners and my general troublemaking. She’s a keeper, but unfortunately, she’ll be moving on after her internship.

If you are ever in a similar situation where you have major surgery, wherever you are located, I strongly recommend you take advantage of all the recovery services that are available to you. They are there for a reason, and speaking only for my personal experience at INOVA Fairfax Hospital, they do a magnificent service.

My thanks to all of you at the Cardiac Rehab Center. You are a major reason why I feel so good now and have recovered so quickly. As we used to say in the Marine Corps, “WELL DONE!”

Thank you for reading.