`Getting old' vs. Aging

The community in which I live has a `common house' that we jointly fund and use for many good purposes. When we moved here last year I brought all my indoor training equipment and set it up in a designated room in the `common house.' My motives were self-interest and communitarian. That is, I didn't want to take up space in my own house with this armamentarium of equipment but wanted it to be nearby and free to use.

The community neighbors were delighted to have the equipment: Concept2 indoor rower, Solex Elliptical, indoor bicycle on a wind-resistance trainer, a set of free weights, and a bunch of mats, etc.

They wanted assistance in learning how best to use the equipment.

We have a lot of kids and their working parents here. The kids don't use the stuff. Their parents use it irregularly when time permits. But the older, often semi- or fully retired folks have a real interest in the equipment.

None of the community users are athletes. They use the equipment for 30 minutes every other day or so. They asked me for an `orientation' to the equipment and if I'd be the community person available for instruction, etc....

As folks age their `parts' start to give them trouble. Unless there is deliberate and disciplined attention to working to stay fit we will all just seize up and become sedentary.

And that is the very definition of `getting old' to 99% of us: seizing up and becoming sedentary.

That is, an increasingly submissive giving-in to predictable physical impediments. 

 The `getting old' spiral cycle is as follows:

1. Ouch! that hurts!
2. I won't do THAT again.
3. Next time I have to get up to do something I won't do it because it hurts.
4. I sit more.
5. I move less.
6. I become known to myself as `not able.'
7. I eat more.
8. I drink more.
9. I shuffle around more.
10. I lose fitness (muscle mass, flexibility, cardiovascular capacity, stamina).
11. My body decides on it's own that I want to slowly `die' down.
12. I get sick.
13. I take `fake it' pills (that trick my organs into not dieing so fast).
14. I get fat.
15. Now that I'm fat it's even harder to move!

 

And so the descent into the spiraling cycle of decrepitude  continues.

It's a `psychology' of voluntary withdrawal from life. And the emotional anxiety it generates within us requires effort to deal with.

In otherwords, `getting old' and decrepit is hard work and we earn every debility we accomplish!   It is NOT a simple function of the passage of time.   We `choose' decrepitude. 
 
Aging is not for sissies. It requires clear-headed vigilance and a more mature commitment than just coasting along on the inertia that youth gives us. 

Aging isn't about getting weak and fragile. It's an opportunity! We can exploit this opportunity and gain enormous satisfaction in doing so.  Goals. Methods. Discipline. Consistency. The strength and resilience to persist through predictable setbacks.

You just can't ask for anything better.

And here is recent scientific support for the proposition that endurance activity makes for an ever-smarter brain.

So, when I orient and `coach' the older neighbors I tell them that they should get the hell out of the exercise room and use the immensely challenging terrain around us.  

BUT, when they do need to use the indoor equipment their focus should be on: building balance, cardiovascular capacity, muscle and stamina.

So ... indoor training on rollers is good for aging folks because it trains our balance and the vestibular system. 

Same with the elliptical. Get on the elliptical and don't use your hands or arms. Just use your legs. You'll find that you'll need all the micromuscles in your legs and core to stay balanced and upright while you're `ellipting' along.

The indoor rower adds upper body strength, `lubricates' and `flexibilizes' the feet, ankles, knees, hips, core, lower back, chest, hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, arms.