I’m neither a fitness expert or a person who has studied aging, but I came across some articles and thought I’d share them. This is my take on what I read.
“You can ward age off; you can prolong your life. I’ve outlived the age of maturity. I have showed my system works.” - Jack Lalanne
Did you know that fitness guru, Jack Lalanne did 1033 pushups? I want you to think about that for a second; one thousand and thirty-three pushups. That by itself is a great feat. But wait, did you also know he did it when he was 42 years old? It gets better, he did it in less then 24 minutes. That’s about 43 pushups a minute. The United States Army’s minimum requirement for some who is 41 is only 24. Mr. Lalanne is now in his 90’s and still gives interviews and has more energy and mental capacity then someone 30 years younger then him. Some argue that it is attributed to good genes, but considering his dad died in his 50’s, I’m going to lay my money on lifestyle and not genes.
As a child I watched Jack Lalanne, not sure when or how old I was at the time, it had to be late 1960’s or early 1970’s. Although I was probably only 5 or 6 at the time he impressed me. Here was an adult that seemed to have boundless energy, just like me a child, he kept moving and talking the whole time he was on the screen. But, like all people as I grew up my lifestyle changed and with it my energy level decreased. Instead of running around the yard, playing catch, and bicycling to the neighbors, I found myself on the couch watching absolutely nothing on TV and eating snacks from a bag.
At age 37 I started running, I took up running for two reasons; one, I was tired of being tired and two; I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. Now almost 7 years later I’ve noticed that I’ve changed. I look different, but some may disagree, but I’d say I look better, and I know I feel healthier. Sure sometimes I get sick, but not like I used to. In the past, it seemed like I was always fighting a cold or the flu or something. There is one other thing that seems to have changed; my mind seems a bit sharper. Satchel Paige said, “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind it doesn’t matter.” That is good philosophy but only if you also live as if it does not matter. Get outside and play and eat the things that are good for you.
Over time, our bodies slowly degenerate. Muscles become smaller and bones become brittle. This is unpreventable and will happen to everyone. But, you have the power to slow the process and even change the amount of degeneration. Since aging happens to everyone, the more you do now will lessen the affect of it and the better off you will be later in life.
Don’t rely on a scale to determine your health, scale tells you only one thing, how much weight is resting on it. You may weigh the exact same as you did in your 20’s, but what puzzles you is that you pants size have grown. On the other hand, you may proudly announce that you still weigh the same and is the same size was 20 years ago. What you doesn’t know is that you have become “skinny fat” which means you weigh the same and still looks skinny, but the muscle that used to make up your body weight has been replaced with fat. This loss of muscle in this manner is called sarcopenia.
Studies have shown that after the age of 30 a person loses about 1% of muscle a year. There are several factors that can increase this loss; inactivity, smoking, poor diet and disease are just a few. So the opposite is true, individuals that stays active have a tendency not lose their muscle mass as quickly as those in a sedentary lifestyle. In fact just being activity can help prevent this curse of old age. If you aren’t prone to exercising, you can start with hobby type activities like gardening. These activities tend to help retain muscles in the upper body but you can take it up a notch by participating in a sport. Sports that require full body activity keeps over-all muscle retention which if you think about it just about all sports work our full body. But to really address the degeneration of muscles you should hit the weights. Resistance training is perfect, studies have shown that it retards and may even prevent sarcopenia. (Vella, C. and Kravitz, L. University of New Mexico, 2002).
The theory behind exercise and retaining muscles is a common one, if you don’t use something you lose it. Like all things you won’t realize you lost it till you go to use it.
Remember when you were a kid? You spent your summers playing outside all day and quite possibly playing a youth sport in the evening. You were doing this everyday and it didn’t seem to slow you down one bit. Jump up 20 years, you are now in your mid-30s and the friends you once trusted have convinced you to join an adult co-ed soccer league. It will be fun they keep saying, you will enjoy it, and then the final blow; they tell you that you will get exercise while having fun. You look in the mirror at the once firm body bulging in places that you know it shouldn’t and you take their challenge. You dig out your running shoes, pair of shorts and put on the custom tie-dyed tee shirt that the team provided. The game goes well; you work up a good sweat, kick the ball a lot and you can proudly say you almost scored a goal. Then those years of inactivity rare its ugly head. Your legs stiffen on the drive home and the next morning you swear that instead of playing soccer last night you got hit by truck, you eye the phone seriously consider taking the day off from work. Your body has alerted you to a problem that you had better begin addressing. That problem is that you have neglected your body for too long and it is time to begin nursing it back to usefulness. This is important, because 30 or 40 years from now you will need strong muscles to stay independent and healthy.
Before I tell you what you need to do to get that spring back in your step, I want to address something else that you may not realize that you are losing and that is your mind.
At times I can’t remember where I might have put something. When this happens I joke that I have “old timers” disease. We often note that as we age we seem to forget things, like where we left the car keys or that we have a dentist appointment. Depending on how old you are, chances are you forgot because other things took priority at the time that you performed the activity in question. Think about the other day when you got home from work, the weather had been nice all day but now it is starting to change for the worse. You want to get a good run in so you burst through the door, throw your keys on the table, quickly change clothes and head out for your run. The next morning you frantically search for your keys; check pockets, couch cushions, all the places you have found them in the past but you have no idea where you put them last night. It isn’t that you forgot, you just weren’t paying attention at the time you sat them down. That explains why you couldn’t find your keys this morning, but what about that date 40 years from now? You may put your keys in the same spot every day but for some reason you just can’t seem to remember where that spot is.
Memory loss is a natural occurrence but just like muscle loss, it too can be delayed and the amount of loss reduced.
Studies have shown that an elevation of plasma homocysteine level increases the chances of dementia in older adults. Homocysteine is an amino acid that when found in the blood is referred to as plasma homocysteine. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism shows that there is a link between high plasma homocysteine and being over-weight. Not only does high plasma homocysteine suspected of bringing on dementia in older adults but it also is causes cardio vascular disease. The best way to combat this elevation is to start exercising now, a good cardio workout 3 times a week will keep the levels down while at the same time feeding your brain with much needed oxygen.
Here are two thoughts to prevent old age from getting the best of you; the first, live life as if you are still youthful, play games, treat yourself to an apple every day, and eat your veggies. Remember when you were a kid and how special it was when you at a fresh apple. It was juicy and seemed to explode with flavor in your mouth and when you sat down at the dinner table load your plate with veggies, remember as a kid your mom MADE you eat these. If you are going to live life like you are still in your youth then mom is still there making you eat what is good for you. The second way is to panic. Yes that is right, panic! You are getting older. There is no way around that and you better start doing something about it now. So the morning you wake up and you feel all achy from yesterday’s workout and all you want to do is roll over and forget about your morning run. That is when you picture yourself 80 years old and lying in a nursing home wondering when the nurse is going to come and attend to you. When you enter the fancy restaurant, you better be scared, the food they are about to serve you will not keep you out of the nursing home but more then likely speed up your arrival to the front door.
A lean body mass today can help avoid the frailty and poor health of tomorrow. (Marcell 2003) You know how to get the lean body mass, you need to exercise and you need to eat right. Now is the time to start especially if you are not in the best of shape to begin with. First set some tangible goals, goals that you can achieve. If your goals are too far reaching then chances are you will fail. Record your goal, you have to have it some place where you will see it, that is why I recommend a bodyspace account, every time you go to your space you will be reminded what your goal is. Once you have your goals set you need to determine how to get there, this is done by plotting a course. Check out your locally gym ask them if they will set you up with a program when you join. If they want your business they should be accommodating.
Another thing to do is eat what your mother told you to eat. Green leafy vegetables are packed with nutrients. Get creative with your salads, try putting nuts in them and then drizzle with oil and vinegar. You can’t go wrong with a healthy diet, lean meats and vegetables coupled with a targeted exercise routine will get you feeling good now and also keep you moving and independent into the twilight of your years.
Reference:
(ND) Jack Lalanne Quotes, Quotes and Poems.com retrieve February 9, 2009 from http://www.quotesandpoem.com/quotes/showquotes/author/jack-lalanne/27966
Kravitz, L and Vella, C. (2002) Sarcopenia: The Mystery of MuscleLoss, University of New Mexico, Retrieved February 9, 2009 from http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/sarcopenia.html
Knighton, A (April 2006) Sarcopenia: Muscle Loss in Aging Adults, Hope College retrieved on February 11, 2009 from http://www.hope.edu/academic/psychology/335/webrep2/sarcopenia.htm
(2002)Exercise Decreases Plasma Total Homocysteine in Overweight Young Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome ,The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Vol. 87, No. 10 4496-4501 retrieve February 19, 2009 from http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/87/10/4496
Sadvosky, R (2000) Homocysteine Levels and Cardiovascular Disease, American Family Physicians Retrieved February 17, 2009 from http://www.aafp.org/afp/20000215/tips/28.html
Marcell TJ. (2003) Sarcopenia: causes, consequences, and preventions. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 58: M911-M916, 2003.
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