Senior vs Treadmill

Even if you are 60 or 70ish, there is the moment of truth when you contemplate the New Jersey beach season. Your favorite suit is only three years old, hardly used, but your physique fills it out in ways its designer could not have imagined.

Remember your last trip to the mall, when shopping was more like musical chairs, judging your afternoon stroll one bench to another? It's more than reminding the doctor's assistant to use the larger blue cuff when taking your blood pressure, ('cause that tastefully tiny grey one can be guaranteed to register many many points higher); it's more than avoiding the movies because you feel crunched in the seat...it's about feeling good about yourself in the mirror.

A couple of months ago, I was fortunate to have a friend of mine donate a slightly used treadmill to us here at Pellettieri. It came with a companion "Gazelle" glider and some instructions. Residents were overjoyed and their enthusiasm, citing TV shows like "The Biggest Loser", concerned me because I didn't recall anyone of our age group being a contestant on the show. Some of those morbidly obese participants did have stress fractures, respiratory problems, and medical issues that the show glossed over for the sake of the story line.

Our exercise machines did not come with the medical information that would give us a direction for sensible senior parameters. Like any computer nerd in my situation, I googled. (I guess by now that is considered a legit verb, lol.)

I found that according to the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association, there are definite guidelines to help you improve your cardiac health without killing yourself.

This is from the AHA publication:

"If your goal is to improve the fitness of your heart and lungs, you should bring your heart rate to a range called the "target heart rate zone." When you stop exercising, quickly take your pulse to find out your heartbeats per minute, bpm (beats per minute). Figure your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. Your target heart rate zone should be 50 to 85% of your maximum heart rate. So, if your're 50 years old, your maximum heart rate is 170 and your target heart rate zone is 85 to 127." (This last number is a typo, it should be 144 for someone 50 years old and I am trying to get the AHA website to correct it.)

This is important because the heart performance range for a person twenty years younger than you is vastly more demanding and attempting to those numbers could result in a heart attack. So much for the reality show examples. As with any program where there is going to be a life style change, there must be commitment.

Things to consider:

1. Set specific but realistic goals. You can broaden them when you are successful
2. Anticipate potential roadblocks. By now you know what doesn't work.
3. Figure out how you might deal with problems. Share with your fellow gym rats.
4. Don't let yourself get discouraged by setbacks; Be flexible.

They also suggest keeping an activity log listing the date, type of physical activity, the total minutes, how you felt. Keep it for 4 to 8 weeks and then tally the results. One activity could be walking 30 minutes five times a week. Another could be taking the stairs, parking away from your store when shopping, doing flex exercises while doing house hold chores, etc.

If combined with an "eating plan",(no one uses "diet" anymore), you can enhance your physical goals and dramatically accelerate progress. My daughter just started work with a bio-med company that is trying to get a diet drug combo on the market and that brought back such frustrating memories of Slim Fast, Nutri System, Jenny.. et al. that I am not even going to comment. You know what you eat! You know who you are! Like that Pennsylvania commercial to convince tax delinquents to pay up...you will be forgiven if you face the truth. You won't gain weight if you don't put it into your mouth.

Looking at the above, it reminds me of a term I once heard applied to the astronauts. To survive "You have to be conditioned to crisis." Now those are words to live by.

Have a nice day.

Seniors rock!