Getting ready to get ready.
One important caveat before starting your new health habit is to have a quick discussion with your primary care professional. If, after talking to them, you get their blessing then get going.
Now is the time to get moving. Not the day after next, or this weekend. Now. Not tomorrow but now.
Just by moving around you are starting to build a healthy habit and you can do that right now. Start fidgeting, move your toes, and wiggle them up and down. Move your ankles and write the alphabet in the air with them. Lift one foot off the floor (hold onto the countertop if your balance is poor), stand for a moment then lift the other one up and hold again.
If you are unable to do any of these standing up, then sit down and move whatever you can move.
Making a habit of moving your body every day will ease you into one of the easiest modes of exercise, aerobics. Note that I did not say aerobics was easy because it is not at the recommended intensity levels of those who are physically in shape. But for those who are just starting out, bear this in mind every single person who is now at a highly advanced level started out on one foot at a time.
There is an old saying that goes something like this, everything is hard at the beginning. Maybe are old as the hills, like I am now, but when I first started exercising at 12 years old it was dammed hard to keep going in the hot humid Michigan summers.
I would come up from the basement, hit the hot sweat causing summer weather, and think I was never going to get back to normal. But I always did, so I kept on going. This habit of exercise has been my constant companion for well into my old man stage of life.
I am at the part of my life where a female waitress now calls me “honey”. Or better yet “young man”. And to make this entire experience complete they say “love you” when my wife of forty-two years and I are leaving the restaurant.
How the heck I got off on that tangent is beyond me. So let me get back on track if I can remember what track that I was on.
Make a habit of moving, just keep moving.
As you may well surmise, if your heart and lungs are not functioning at a normal or above level then your quality of life suffers. Personally, I do want to be able to walk in the woods with our grandkids or go to the fair, park, or any place we may want to go to.
Several years ago, when I started backing off of my heavy weightlifting programs and first got on the bike I hated every second and every minute on the dam thing. But then I noticed that when I went out for the morning paper it got easier and easier. So, I started walking faster.
Here is my absolute favorite stationary bike, the Tunturi.
In order to do this, I ride my stationary Tunturi bike every single day for a minimum of twenty minutes a day. In fact, it is the very first thing I do after hitting the bathroom. I know what some of you are thinking..what an old bike. There are no cup holders, and no place to plug in my phone.
I carry my phone all over even in the bathroom because if I don’t answer it I will never get that all important FaceBook message that could save the world.
NOT!!! Exercise is best done by itself; exercise.
Nothing pissses me off more than to have a trainee looking at their dam phone every other minute. In fact, if they persist I ask them to leave because I am not going to stand around while they take up my time trying to train them.
I have my magazines, books, and whatever I may be studying at the time on the table near the bike. I set my timer and start pedaling.
You will be astounded at how much information you can devour on the bike for twenty minutes every single day.
This, in a nutshell, will be the beginning of your quest for a healthier life for you and for the sake of your loved ones.
Next up I will discuss more precisely what constitutes aerobic conditioning.
Physically Fit Seniors 