Regular exercise helps your heart, lowers your blood pressure and serum triglycerides and brings about a better ratio of high-density to low-density lipoproteins. It increases coronary circulation and promotes weight loss. All these things promote longevity.
FOUR KINDS OF EXERCISE
There are four kinds of exercise:
* Isotonics and isometrics, which involve muscles. Isotonics exercise your body through movement, as in calisthenics and weight lifting.
Isometrics involve no movement of your joints, only your muscles. You can do valuable isometric exercise standing still, simply by contracting and releasing a set of muscles, such as your pectorals.
* Anaerobics and Aerobics, which bring oxygen to your body and exercise your heart and lungs by causing you to breathe deeply. Anaerobics do this on a short term basis. Walking, running, or bicycling for brief distances provide anaerobic exercise. Aerobics do this on a short term basis. Walking, running, or bicycling for brief distances provide anaerobic exercise. Aerobics cause you to breathe deeply over a sustained period of time. This includes running, jogging, swimming, tennis and handball. It affects your entire system. Of the four kinds of exercise, only aerobics affect your entire system.
This kind of exercise is important for three reasons:
* It brings oxygen to all your body’s cells
* It combines with glucose to provide greater energy
* It helps to alkalinize your system.
It’s essential to have plentiful oxygen, no matter what your age, if you’re going to look and feel terrific. A sluggish, sedentary life leads to early aging. So, to keep yourself vital, keep moving! Run – jump rope – play tennis – swim – dance. Start now, no matter what your age. My aunt Ruth did fast walking every day for many years, which helped her to stay healthy and well until the age of 93 – vital til the end!
MY EXERCISE ROUTINE
I start each day with isometric exercises. Here’s a sampling of some of them:
* I stand with my legs straight, feet flat, about two feet from the object I’m facing – hands flat against a wall, or gripping the edge of or against a wall – or the edge of my bathroom vanity, or bedroom dresser. I lean forward, legs and body straight, one leg at a time, until I feel the stretching in my lower legs and calves. I do repetitions of this, at least a dozen times.
* I clasp the fingers of both hands together in front of my chest and push and pull – tense and let go, tense and let go – feeling the muscles in my upper arms until they hurt but feel good at the same time. I can feel the stretch across the back of my shoulders. I do repetitions of this at least a dozen times.
* With my feet together, knees straight, I stretch til my hands are flat on the floor in front of me. After several vigorous stretches, I move my feet wider apart and first one side, then the other, stretch, stretch, stretch, til it hurts. It’s a good hurt!
Through out the session, I continue to do deep breathing. In, deep, through the nostrils, pushing slowly out through the mouth, forcing it through pursed lips. I do this one at odd times throughout the day: while driving, walking, or at the computer.
ANNA MAE
A friend of mine, Anna Mae Swenson, and I went to dinner a few years ago at one of my favorite restaurants in Rhinebeck, Le Petit Bistro. Anna Mae was then 101 years young. She’d been driving her own car til the year before, when her eyesight became a problem, prompting her to move from her lovely condo into a retirement home – which looks and feels like a five star hotel, with its swimming pool, her own outdoor plant-filled deck, and other attractive surroundings. In her cheerful bedroom sits her bicycle machine.
“A nephew gave it to me for my 80th birthday!” she told me. “It has an odometer. In another two months I will have accumulated enough mileage to have biked around the world three times!” she exclaimed.
SOME FAMOUS GUESTS
Anna Mae has had two happy marriages and a career which started her off as a singer. She’s proud of the fact that when she was 22 years old, she was invited to sing at St. James Church in Hyde Park, where Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were members. On this occasion the Roosevelts were there, accompanied by the King and Queen of England, as well as the Astors, the Canadian Prime Minister, and the Ambassador of England.
Anna Mae had – and still has – a fabulous life. She attributes that to her obviously healthy diathesis (genetic predisposition) her physically active lifestyle, and a positive mental attitude. “Attitude’s half the battle,” she says. “It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you accept it. And, “Self pity is a waste of time. No matter how bad things are there’s always somebody who’s worse off.” Her proudest achievement is the mileage on her bicycle machine. Now, six years later, though she doesn’t drive anymore, she continues to enjoy an active lifestyle and is still an enthusiastic participant in her bridge group.
BURGER HILL
A short drive from where I live is beautiful BURGER HILL PARK. From its 550 foot high peak there’s a panoramic view of the Hudson River Valley, the Catskill mountains to the west, and the Berkshires to the right. Hiking to the top gets you breathing deeply. What a wonderful aerobic exercise! What a reward at the end of the hike!
AN OPTION FOR YOU
If purposeful exercise isn’t your thing, you might consider joining a gym, or a yoga class. Most towns and all large cities have them. Sign up! Get going! If Anna Mae did it, you can too. You’ll feel better, look better and live younger longer!
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