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

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Benefits...

January 4, 2007

More benefits from exercise.  A study just published in the JAMA (Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2006) finds that the regular use of a variety of mental exercises, especially in those over 60 years of age, substantially delays the gradual - and sometimes substantial - loss of mental acuity for many years.  And the benefit is not restricted to the particular exercises, but transfers to all kinds of mental activities and activities of daily living.  So, beware the TV and other passive work.  Read books, learn a new language or a musical instrument.  The brain you save will be your own.

GS


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