Category: Senior Fitness

I write this post with a great deal of pride and love. My wife, Edie, turns 72 tomorrow and is as vibrant, beautiful and full of life as she was the night I met her. She has undergone some challenges in her life but she has come through it all with an energy and enthusiasm that still amazes those who know her.

Physically, she has made it through a challenge of breast cancer (after the death of a younger sister from the disease). She’s had an ongoing struggle with Polymyositis, an inflammatory and degenerative muscle disease caused by a problem with her immune system. Many people with Myositis allow themselves to wither away; Not her. Going to the gym and using the equipment has kept her muscles strong and healthy. She has had a knee replaced and was up and about almost as soon as she got home from the surgery, without relying for long on the usual cane and walker. Yes, she did all the exercises the doctor told her to do (with a little prodding from me).

Her friends of around the same age are also energetic and alive. Yesterday, she went to a reunion picnic of retired teachers at the school where she taught for much of her career. Most of them are active and filled with life. They had a ball.

We also get together annually with another group of retired teachers and their spouses from the school where she spent the first half of her 34 year active

teaching career. They are also active and energetic and filled with life. Neither group complains much, even though when older people get together it usually turns into an “organ recital”. You know: kidneys, liver, stomach, heart, shoulders, aches and pains and other organ problems. Sure, there’s a little of that but not a lot, and any complaints are usually accompanied by laughter.

She attributes some of her vitality and energy as being the result of teaching young and energetic children for 34 years as an active teacher, and for 15 more (so far) in the classroom three or four times a week as a substitute teacher. She doesn’t sit at a desk. She is constantly in motion in the classroom, moving among the children, bending over, twisting and turning, and getting up and down from the same tiny chairs that the children use as she interacts closely with them. She has told me that getting in and out of those “miniature” chairs is the most tiring part of it all. She loves the kids, and over the years, many have stayed in touch with her.

She also goes to the gym, including attending an exercise class twice a week. Even though the class is targeted for younger people, there are a lot of seventy year old men and women, who seem to do just fine with the strenuous exercises and stretches that they do.

Oh, and she also volunteers at the hospital one day a week where she makes beds, hauls too many overweight patients around in wheelchairs, and does a lot of the “heavy lifting” in the surgical recovery unit. She loves it.

Her secret to staying energetic and vital? Move your body. Hang out with energetic and enthusiastic people with a positive outlook on life. Being around, and participating in the energy of elementary school kids. Watching the light come on in the children’s eyes as they learn is a powerful stimulant for positive aging.

Edie and I have been together for nearly 41 years and we energize and vitalize each other. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And here’s a note at the bottom of an email sent today by her former Principal at the Elementary School where she spent the first half of her teaching career:

“Count your life by smiles, not tears, count your age by friends, not years, and remember we do not quit playing because we grow old…. we grow old because we quit playing”  — anon.

Happy birthday kid. May you have many, many more!

Thank you for reading this heartfelt message.

Have you ever wondered why some highly motivated people will stop an exercise program just as the benefits start occurring? Mostly it is because they have reached a plateau and they stop seeing an increase in those benefits. But there’s another reason why some people quit. It’s because of the phenomenon of Homeostasis.

Homeostasis is the tendency of the body to find equilibrium. When you think of Homeostasis, you normally think of things like body temperature, water balance and the other things that keep the human body functioning normally. The body regulates itself in much the same way as a thermostat regulates the temperature in a room. When the temperature starts to rise or fall, the thermostat activates to bring the room temperature to a predetermined norm.

But here’s another way of looking at it which may help explain why people stop exercising at the very time their bodies are beginning to adapt to the many benefits of a regular exercise routine or “practice”.

Homeostasis doesn’t like change. When change occurs, the body tries to revert back to where it was before the change, much like the thermostat I mentioned above. The body resists change. It doesn’t recognize whether the change is for the better or for worse. It just recognizes the change itself.

When you start an exercise program and your body starts to realize the positive changes being made, homeostasis causes it to resist those changes and sends up a series of alarm bells. You start to feel uncomfortable in ways that may discourage you, even though you know you are getting the benefits of those changes. In their book, The LIfe We are Given, the authors say, “After years without exercise, your body regards a sedentary style of life as ‘normal’, while the beginning of a change for the better is interpreted as a threat.” Resistance to the beneficial changes often results in a reluctance to continue, so you stop just as the benefits are kicking in. They add that “if you persist, you will soon find that it is easier to actually do the exercise program, than not to do it.”

Interesting. I had never thought of it that way, even though I had read those passages several times before and had even underlined them and commented in the margin. It just hadn’t sunk in until I started thinking more about the psychology of intrinsic motivation just recently.

So, to summarize, just as the body has a built in regulator to keep body functions at a specific level (such as body temperature), when your body begins to improve with exercise, it physically tries to revert to it’s previous level of fitness and doesn’t like change. It sends out signals that something “isn’t right” and sometimes the signals are unpleasant, causing you to rethink the beneficial changes that are happening to your body. You simply stop the new program and revert back to what seems “normal”. Keep that in mind if you are new to exercise. Understand it, and keep on moving your body.

Thank you for reading.

A few months ago, In September of 2016, I wrote an article (see it here) titled: The Faster You Walk, The Longer You Live. It’s true. Walking is a terrific longevity booster for Seniors because it gets the juices “jangling”, it strengthens your legs, improves your heart health, and helps you breathe better.

But sometimes walking too fast can backfire on you. Sometimes you need to slow down on your walks and look around. It can be like meditation, particularly when walking in the park like atmosphere of walking trails that are popping up everywhere in the cities and the suburbs (leave your phone in your pocket please). You may walk faster to live longer but, sometimes you need to walk slower to enjoy living.

My wife brought me into that reality with a comment she made last week. She said that I always walk ahead of her leaving her trailing behind me. That’s not exactly true of course. When we walk, she often takes up a position two to three steps behind me no matter whether we are walking for exercise, or are walking from the car in a parking lot to the store. If I slow down, she slows down. If I speed up, she speeds up. It’s just the way it is.

But she commented about me walking ahead of her all the time, and it made me realize a couple of things.

1. I always walk fast
2. I don’t slow down to “smell the roses” very often.
3. I am quite inconsiderate sometimes when I am walking normally with my wife and not just walking for the exercise.

The truth is that studies really have shown evidence that how fast you normally walk is an indication of your projected longevity. But that doesn’t mean I have to walk fast during normal walks from the car to a store when I am walking with my wife. Sometimes it can be a sign of being inconsiderate rather than living longer.

So for always leaving her trailing behind me, I sincerely apologize. I will be more considerate in the future. But when we are walking on the trails for exercise, either “lead, follow or get out of the way.” But I’d much rather have you walk beside me. By the way, that quote has been attributed to Thomas Paine, the Patriot from Revolutionary War times, as well as to General Patton, the World War II Patriot. I think I recall hearing Ted Turner of Cable movie and CNN fame say it too.

I promise to slow down from now on — in the parking lots at least.

Thank you for reading.