The Come Alive Project

Tag: Senior exercise

  • Energy Bite 336 — Beyond Fitness: Fitness and Flow

    This week’s article is the first in a series on Beyond Fitness — Fitness & Flow. I will write it on a practical level and try and stay away from most of the esoteric aspects of FLOW — although some discussion of them may be necessary.

    The goal is to understand how Seniors can use aspects of the FLOW state to improve mental and physical performance in your daily lives. During this series of articles, you will learn:

    • Definitions and meanings of FLOW
    • Various elements and attributes of FLOW
    • How Fitness and Flow work together
    • What it means to you as a Senior
    • And more.

    By the end of this series, you may look at your Health and Fitness from a different and more positive perspective and apply some of the concepts you will learn. Most of you probably already have in some respects.

    What does flow mean? The definition given by Stephen Kotler, co-founder of The Flow Genome Project, an organization consisting of the top neuroscientists, performance psychologists, artists and athletes, to study, define and spread the message of FLOW around the globe, is: “An optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.”

    Another definition is: “An altered state of consciousness whereby an individual performing an activity is immersed in a feeling of energized hyperfocus, full involvement, and enjoyment of the activity.”

    Jamie Wheal, the other co-founder of The Flow Genome Project, says Flow “takes people beyond the limits of their experiences, and within the limits of their abilities.” I like that statement. It works well for Seniors.

    Flow is not a new experience. It goes back thousands of years. But it was rarely recognized nor applied practically until Mihaly Csikscentmihaly (pronounced: Mehi Chick sent me hi) wrote the definitive book on the subject, Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience where he coined the term “Flow” to describe the phenomenon in 1975.

    This series is limited mostly to the physical realm and how flow expands the field of fitness. It explains the exploits of people like Alex Honnald, who decided to climb the rock climber’s nightmare, the 3000 foot high vertical face of El Capitan — without the use of ropes or any other safety equipment. The exploit was filmed by some very adventurous people and was made into an Oscar winning documentary called Free Solo.

    It was Honnald’s abilty to reach “beyond fitness” into the Flow state that made that climb possible.

    With the State of FLOW added to the fitness equation, it becomes less “just exercise” and more a complete “Coming Alive” of your mind and body that can propel seniors into a longer, more fulfilling, and more independent life.

    Note: I’ll stay away from the technical and scientific aspects of FLOW other than when it may be revealing. I’ll leave that to the Neuro-chemists and the Scientists.

    I hope you enjoy the series. Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 335 – Back to the Ritual

    The gym reopened yesterday and I was first in line at 6 AM.  Once exercise is in your system it becomes a habit. When the means is interrupted, then the habit can disappear.

    I didn’t let it disappear. Yes, I made sure I continued some sort of exercise at home but it was not the same. No people. No equipment, even though I don’t use much equipment. Mostly no FLOW of energy at home.

    The problem was that I had changed my ritual. When the gym was open, I disciplined myself to  follow a specific morning ritual. That meant getting up early, writing for an hour, and then getting to the gym early.  I made sure I didn’t let the “Snooze Button” grab me and I got out of bed before I had a chance to say NO to myself. Once my feet were on the floor, it was easy to get up.

    And once I was in the car, the short drive to the gym was a given. Sometimes getting started could be a challenge, but the ritual demanded it.

    I had discovered the importance of a morning ritual a decade ago when I went on my “back to health” kick. It was simple once I got used to it. Like I said above, get up, fix coffee, write a thousand words of journaling and brainstorming . . . then straight to the gym. I had specific plans for after the gym too so that the morning had become an easy flow of activities.

    Once at the gym yesterday, I immediately got back into that flow state that only the energy from the gym provides. Yes, a good walk in nature can produce a flow state, but floor and core exercises and weights at home just aren’t the same. The gym had it’s rules for social distancing and wiping down the equipment and mats after use became its own ritual. There was a pretty good turnout for opening day.

    I find that the gym energizes me, particularly in the morning, in ways that are beyond just the fitness benefits. It sets up the day.

    I found it easy to get back into the flow of a morning ritual yesterday, even though it felt new again. That was day one. I’ll do the same thing tomorrow and for at least three or four days a week. The other days will be for that brisk walk in nature, or for rest and recovery.

    If you don’t belong to a gym or a health club, there are a lot of options. Take a look at a some of them and try a few of the free trials that they often offer. You might just find it fun. There are a lot of widely ranging choices of gyms at all price ranges and programs. Look around and give one a try. You might just find it energizes you for your day too.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 333 – Crawling

    Some people run. Some walk. But one of the best overall movement practices for seniors is crawling.

    Babies start off by rolling, then crawling. Adults forget how. Yet crawling is one of the most fundamental of human movements. Not only are there a lot of different levels of crawling [progressions] that lead to more difficult moves, the crawling movements themselves have a number of benefits on their own.

    There are the benefits of quadruped and cross-body moments that crawling provides. Plus crawling is an easy starting point for some good arm, shoulder and full body movements that benefit the entire body.

    Let’s begin with the basic crawl. You simply get on your hands and knees and move from point A to point B. Most of your weight is on your knees, hands and wrists. You are using your entire body to move, and the weight pressure on your arms and shoulders are a great benefit for the beginning exerciser. It’s the way babies begin to increase the strength in their tiny bodies. The hard part? Getting down to and up from the crawling position. If you use your bedroom to exercise while in our current “quarantine”, the bed makes a great support to help you get up and down — if you really need it.

    Other animals crawl too. Bears, big cats, and lizards, are a few. While I’m not sure you can really call them “crawls”, in fitness lingo, “bear crawls”, “cat crawls”, and “lizard crawls” represent the high, medium and low levels of crawling and represent the various degrees of difficulty. You can do a quick search using those terms online and see what those crawls actually look like. You will see that they are essentially crawling with your knees off the ground and your torso at a different height off the ground. Lizard crawls are very low to the ground and are the most difficult. Bear crawls and cat crawls are variations of the basic crawl and are relatively easy to do for most seniors.

    If you have been diagnosed with severe osteoporosis, you must be very careful when doing anything more than normal crawling on all fours because of the pressure on your wrists, arms and shoulders. So if bone density is a factor, start with ordinary crawling like a 4 month old.

    An added benefit to crawling is the “cross body” movement involved. While you are not really crossing your arms or legs, scientists who have actually studied the benefits of crawling have shown that crawling provides right and left brain stimulation in the same manner as true cross body movement.

    So, give crawling a try as an exercise. While it seems simple, it can be a great exercise for your entire body. If your spouse or significant other asks what you are doing crawling around on the floor, just tell them you dropped your hearing aid battery and are looking for it somewhere on the floor. That’s what my mother-in-law used to do.

    Thank you for reading.