I walk! Revisitied
Happy Valentine's day!! May you all have big healthy hearts :).
I posted this post a while back, and I think it is all very valid, and holds a lot of water. That being said, I have been forced to throttle back a little since reading this paper. Essentially, it suggests, simply the more exercise minutes a week we get the better, regardless of the exercise type. Now I still think it is imperative to use resistance training in anyone's life and programing, but, at the end of the day, simply the more exercise you get (of any type) the less likely you are to have obesity or CAD (coronary artery disease). See the link below for the paper reference and abstract.
My original post:
I’ve been doing this over 25 years and not once has a patient told me “I’m really looking forward to being 90 years old and in a wheelchair”. Nope, if people are going to be around that long they want mobility and independence. They want to be living, not just alive.
When I ask what they are doing to NOT be that 90 year old in the WC common answers are: “I walk everyday”, or “I do yardwork”, “clean the house”, or “I’m always moving”. Let’s be honest here, those are better than sitting on your duff, but is it enough? I don’t think it is.
You are going to physically decline as you age, no doubt, but you can slow it. If your middle age fitness zenith and/or routine is “walking”…..well, that doesn’t leave you in a very good place if you decline a little. You have no buffer. Now, if you tell me “I go to the gym and lift heavyweights for 30 mins 4-6 times a week (including squats with weight on top of your body weight) – well, now we have some latitude! We can decline in performance as we age (maybe we lift lighter weights) without an actual loss of function. If you regularly move your bodyweight plus extra loads, moving just your body shouldn’t ever be an issue.
You need to push yourself a little (or maybe a lot). You will be hard pressed to find information about aging that doesn’t underscore the importance of maintain muscle mass and physical strength. Walking isn’t enough, it’s not. Maybe, if you were walking up a mountain every day with a heavy pack on, but that’s not what most people mean when they say “I walk” for exercise. Simply put, you need to do resistance training. If you’re not going to join a gym, start doing bodyweight lunges, squats, push ups, pull ups, and lifting heavy bags off the floor(multiple times, not just once up to the wheelbarrow) 😊.There is always a modification or two if you let yourself get so weak you can’t do those things. There are ample resources as well if you don’t know where to start. Get moving at whatever level you can and make it more strenuous than going for a walk.
Get fit, be active, stay healthy. Put a little effort into it and I promise that you will be glad you did down the road.