Index

If there is a secret to long, healthy life and virility...even if you did not choose the right parents, it is regular exercise: aerobic, graded, and integrated into one's life-style. 

But what is that concept?  Well, after getting medical clearance from your physician if you are over 50 or if you have long been a couch potatoe at any age, the important exercise is endurance-building rather than muscle-building: brisk walking, stair-climbing, bicycling, rowing, etc. For example, a 72 year old man, 6 ft. tall, 205 lbs, in fairly good condition and fairly active generally, does a 1 mile brisk walk at 4 miles per hour in fifteen minutes, with a two minute warmup and two mnute cool-down, during which time his pulse (monitored constantly by a Polar Pacer, very important) goes from 65/minute to 100 - 120, depending on the exercise, with a return below 90 within two minutes.  He then does 8 flights of stairs at 3 flights per minute.  He then rows (at maximum machine tension) 500 meters at 35 strokes per minute.  He does that two or three times per week.  It takes about 30-40 minutes...and it feels great.  

"Try it.  You'll like it".

GS

• Treadmill, with polar pacer monitoring pulse:  12 minutes at 4.0 miles per hour, heart rate 85-95 bpm.  Three minutes at 4.2 mph, heart rate 100-105 bpm.  warm-up, two minutes; cool-down, two minutes, with 20bpm drop in heart rate within that time.
• Stair-master, 8 flights at 2.9 flights per minute, heart rate 105-110bpm.
• Rowing machine, highest tension, 38-40 rows per minute, 500 meters, 90-100bpm.