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Those of you in your 50s or 60s probably will not understand. But maybe you should. I know I didn't at that age. I had the idea which was true that I could exert some effort and be strong and healthy. At 72 that has idea is fading. For the past several months I have been traveling and hiking on a frequent basis. Finally I have legs of steel. It took a long time to reach that point.
After months of traveling I will soon be returning home to a more sedentary lifestyle. Those legs of steel will soon turn to mush.
Today I walked for several miles on the sand flats at Death Valley. Then I went out and walked for miles more. As I said great, but mush will soon follow when I stop the daily miles of hiking. My upper body is already mush. The past few days I finally woke up and realized my upper body has turned to mush. I grabbed some exercise bands and tried and tried to overcome months without exercise. I am pissed and tried and tried again to make a difference. Sadly I know it would take months and months and months to make much of a difference. That made me even more pissed.
A few days ago, I was at artists palette in Death Valley. The typical visitor gets out of the car, looks at the scenery and departs in less than 3 minutes. Meanwhile just a few minutes of walking is rewarded with fantastic, surreal scenes that are unique and special. In addition to walking all of the canyons and trails, I spent time watching the visitors. Most visitors arrive at the overlook, take a cellphone snap and then departs within 3 minutes. A few visitors spent longer and may actually walk a few hundred yards. Most of those are foreign visitors.
So I ranted for a while, but I think there is a message here. Research shows the advantages of exercise. We need to exercise all of our muscles on a regular basis and that becomes more and more important as we age. In addition to that there seems to be something drastically wrong with our culture. People from other cultures seem to be less obese, have fewer "joint" issues and exercise more.
Hate to break it to you but I don't think your newsflash that it sux getting old is really going to be earth shattering news to many people, especially those in the Retirement section.
Still, good advice to encourage continuing exercise.
I think anyone who has seen the generation ahead of them age understands what’s coming if you don’t take steps (sorry, no pun intended) to arrest the decline. I’m surprised you’re surprised this takes almost daily work, and that gains aren’t made overnight. One afternoon wrestling with an exercise band won’t do it. It took you a while to strengthen your legs, it’ll take a while to increase your upper body strength.
As for the tourists-maybe this was their fifth stop of the day, maybe they hiked 10 miles the day before, maybe they have mobility issues. You do you and funnel that outrage energy into a set of pushups
Marilyn and I have been gym rats for 18 years now . I was running 4 miles every other day but recently cut it to 3 . I weightlift the days I don’t run..
We take one day off a week and as much as we both hate going to the gym we push each other to go .
We have been in Florida all week and have done no gym and no running .
I have to say I feel great , nothing hurts or is sore. So there is some good that comes from doing nothing . From all this running and weightlifting over the years everything is always sore . It is rare I am not making noises like my parents did just getting up and down . Ha ha ha
Last edited by mathjak107; 11-13-2018 at 04:32 AM..
I have always walked, even did endurance training on a bike for a while but the benefits of that are past me now. For the first time in my life I am seriously weight training. Not to the extent of cracking muscles or body building, but for the advantage of burning more calories faster, and to firm up my flab pockets, and upper body.
I agree its important to continue, and we obviously need to work harder at it as well. I just want to be able to get up from a sitting position without aching so badly. I also want to feel better able to prevent myself from falling. My issue on that is not a balance issue - it is one of thigh strength, so I have added ankle weights to help with that as well. My ability to catch myself in a fall...has fallen dramatically in the past couple years.
I don’t recommend ankle weights at all . A lever is not your friend when it comes to your limbs ,stabilizer muscles and weights on the ends swinging.
I see people walking with ankle weights or walking holding weights and it is not a good thing to do .
Either walk longer or faster or do proper weight exercises but combining both is a poor idea.
swinging weights at the end of your arms or legs as you move multiplies forces on small stabilizer muscles and joints and that ends up not being a good thing ,especially as you age . It is the best way to either hurt yourself or develop chronic soreness
Marilyn and I have been gym rats for 18 years now . I was running 4 miles every other day but recently cut it to 3 . I weightlift the days I don’t run..
We take one day off a week and as much as we both hate going to the gym we push each other to go .
We have been in Florida all week and have done no gym and no running .
I have to say I feel great , nothing hurts or is sore. So there is some good that comes from doing nothing . From all this running and weightlifting over the years everything is always sore . It is rare I am not making noises like my parents did just getting up and down . Ha ha ha
lol
That's interesting Mathjack, because I'm the opposite. If I skip a week at the gym my joints definitely feel it. Now I have terrible osteoarthritis (and one knee replacement under my belt) so I think at this point gym time is no longer optional for me.
my replacement put the kabosh on running again for me so I'm an elliptical gal.
One nice caveat from living in the city is that I walk just about every where once I get home. I'm hoping that continues after I retire.
funny antidote story, my pop died quietly in his sleep at 89. Was watching the Yankees on tv, had a steak and Jack Daniels for dinner and then went to sleep, heart just stopped Had absolutely no other health issues. Anyhoo, a few weeks later we spoke with his primary care doctor who was a good friend and he swore that all those years pop was a "beat" cop in Brooklyn was the reason he was so healthy later on in life. Still feels the worse thing they did was put cops in cars 24/7. of course he himself is old as dirt,
After so many years of cardio ,running is the only cardio that works as cardio for me . The elliptical or bike all have my legs give out way before I get my heart rate up in to a cardio range that actually has improved my numbers .
I went years biking and using elliptical machines and rowing machines with little effect on my blood pressure which ran high .
It wasn’t until I started introducing the higher levels of stress by running that things improved . Over the years I ran longer and faster and my blood pressure went from needing meds to actually low now .
But I only run on a cushioned tread mill . I do 20 minutes of warm up on the elliptical or bike as a warm up ,then I run for 3 miles or so going from 6.50 to 8 mph. It is pretty grueling and I hate it , but it is what it is and I have to do it to stay off pressure meds
DH and I go to the gym about 4 days a week, and exercise hard, and I don't see that changing in our future.
Exercise is very high on our priority list.
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My buddy is one of the wealthiest people I know . He sits on the board for so many companies as well as running his own public corporation he started .
He had no time for a anything ,, that was until he had a heart attack ..
Now the days priorities are working out .. so the bottom line is we don’t find the time to work out , we make the time and it is at the expense of not doing other things
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so I'm an elliptical gal. 
