Oh, there's a certain part of the population that just wants
to look better and spends their gym time looking in a mirror but the way I've
always looked at that is that I really don't see much benefit to being a good
looking corpse. Dead is dead and I want
to live a long life and be healthy toward the end. So my exercise program is more focused on
being healthy and fit.
As Kenny Chesney says, "I want to go to heaven, just
not today." I want to be like that
107 year old guy on the White House steps yesterday only I want to ride my bike
to get to DC for the ceremony.
It really all started when my dad had his first heart attack
when I was 5 years old. I decided then
that I wanted to be like my dad in many ways but that wasn't one of them. Because of that, I have never really been
"out of shape." Never.
Sometimes better shape than others but that was only when
life got in the way. A very long time
ago, I built exercise and fitness into my lifestyle and have barely waivered
since.
I've often talked about the "how to's." Today, I want to talk about the
"why's."
Exercise so that when you get out of bed in the morning, it
doesn't take half an hour to get to the bathroom. Exercise so that you are less likely to fall
as you get older. That one is huge. If you're old and you fall, you break stuff.
Exercise so that your weight stays in control. We know that there a lot of health problems
that result from obesity. Avoid
obesity, avoid lots of health problems.
Exercise so that you can enjoy play and tolerate work a
whole lot better. One of the concepts
that is extremely difficult to teach is that someone that does manual labor all
day still needs to exercise.
I would suggest that it is probably more important that the
person whose job is quite physical get regular exercise than it is for most
people. Their job has them do the same
thing so they end up strong in only those things that they do on the job. That creates muscle imbalances that result
in injuries. Trust me...my clinic is
full of those people.
If your job is sedentary, you need to exercise. That one should be more obvious.
I've often said that it is more important for the
40-something to exercise than it is for the 20-something to exercise. One of the things that comes with aging is a
loss of strength. Exercise helps combat
that.
All this becomes much like the oil commercial--pay me now or
pay me later. Either stay fit now or
pay the price later.
I've got one fellow who came to me at 89. His family was telling him that he needed to
slow down, that maybe it was time not to do all the things that he does (he
leads a VERY active life). I asked him
what he wanted to do and he didn't want to slow down, he wanted to do
more. And continue to do more.
I recommended CrossFit workouts to augment his regular
bicycle rides. Something else might get
him but I'm betting that in 10 years he's still doing what he wants to do.
I'm 60 and I understand my limits (most of the time) but I
see no reason to hit the easy chair.
There's too much fun stuff out there for that.
Like I said, I want to bike from here to Washington at
107. And if not, I'll die trying.
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