Realistic exercise for non sports fanatics

www.wiman.us	Fitness Section Topic Index A-Z Index	Practical Exercise
	Fitness Section Topic Index A-Z Index	Practical Exercise

I hated “Physical Education” class; it seemed like an exercise in sadism and all I ever learned from it was to hate exercise - a dangerous lesson. And while videotapes of buff 20-year-old aerobics instructors may be fun to watch, they’ll half kill you to keep up with.

Hey, we’re on a different starting-line here! We’re middle-aged or older, carrying 20 extra pounds and up, and we avoid stairs. What we need is exercises WE can do. Here’s what I’ve learned in this whole process:

This is really important: before you start an exercise program, even the ‘easy-does-it’ one outlined below, get checked out by a doctor. Tell you doctor exactly what you intend to do, and tell him/her about your family history of heart attacks/strokes if any, along with your other risk factors. Don’t assume everything is OK - find out! MAKE THE APPOINTMENT TODAY!

Drink lots of water before, during, and after exercise. And the rest of the time, too. How much? The color of your urine is a clue - it should be light yellow or nearly clear. If it is dark or honey-colored, you might be dehydrated. (Water consumption can be overdone but most of us don’t drink enough.)

You need fuel to exercise, but it has to be slow-burning fuel. Choose foods with low glycemic index an hour before your session. Some researchers have had good results for seniors with a combination of a whey protein supplement with a small amount of creatine added. Cottage cheese, whole grain bread (the heavy stuff), lean meat, eggs, etc. are best. Avoid high-glycemic-index foods like white flour, sugar, white rice, potato, and pasta.

Spend half as much time stretching as you do exercising. Slow, gentle stretches, not painful, bouncy stretches. Try sustaining a stretch for thirty seconds, then go on to another muscle group. Work your way back around. You might want to have a knowledgeable person coach you on your stretches. A Yoga class would be a good start.

There’s a weight-loss program in NYC that consists of nothing else but stretching! And they’ve had very good results. My hare-brained theory is that with increased flexibility comes increased willingness to take the stairs, walk instead of drive, bend over to pick up that quarter, etc. So the stretching probably doesn’t directly cause the weight-loss, but...

Your first goal is to develop the habit of exercising. Start very, very small. In two months or so, after you have formed a solid exercise habit, then you can begin to push the envelope a little. It could be a daily walk, a set of stairs, whatever, but it has to happen every day no matter what!

Push the envelope a little once you have formed the exercise habit. If you feel comfortable going up one flight of stairs, rest a moment and do another before you get on the elevator. If you can walk five blocks, walk seven. Just do a little more than you feel comfortable with but not enough to leave you exhausted and feeling drained!

A good rule of thumb is that you should be breathing harder than normal, but can still carry on a conversation. If you are huffing so hard you can’t talk, slow down just enough to get the right balance.

This might seem to be very ‘light’ exercise if you are out of shape but that’s where you need to begin. Eventually you will find it too easy and start ramping it up. You will measure success by the moments when you realize you can do things that were impossible a month ago.

Find exercises you can do. Not everyone can jog - I can’t for example. I get terrible shin-splints and nothing fixes the problem. Been that way all my life! So I ride a bike (or a stationary bike at the gym) and use a stairmaster. If an exercise hurts, don’t do it! Find some other exercise.

Typical duration for aerobic exercise is 20 or 30 sustained minutes a day, four times a week. This is another reason for keeping the pace manageable: you can’t keep that pace if you’re overdoing it.

When you walk, Don’t shuffle along; consciously lengthen your stride a little. If you’re on a stairmaster, do slower, longer steps using the whole range of the machine instead of quick, little huffy steps.

Just as aerobic exercise builds endurance and energy, resistance training builds strength. Senior citizens are lifting weights now. Ever hear an elderly person complain how hard it is ‘to get up out of these darn chairs?’ It isn’t the chair at fault. Get strong! As with anything else, work gradually.

If you go to a gym, try the different machines. (Get some direction on their correct use, but you choose the weight setting you’re comfortable with.) When you find a machine that’s really hard at even the ‘light’ setting, congratulations! You have found a weak muscle group. Gradually work your way up. I started a certain low-back machine able to do only 2 reps. Now, I can do 50 reps.

Vary your routine. Don’t neglect any muscle groups. A strong group against a weak group results in a misaligned joint. Ouch!

Exercise will start making you feel better long before you see a significant weight loss from it. But keep this in mind: muscle burns fat. Muscle tissue is metabolically active. If you add muscle mass (which will actually increase your weight a little) you have increased your available fat-burning tissue. Also realize active muscle tissue aids circulation.

Don’t give up. I have known many people who were dangerously weak who were able to turn their lives around - that’s what inspired me to try it. And I am succeeding, little by little! You can, too.